In the three months to the end of September, BT made net profit of 339m pounds ($713.6m), down from 475m pounds ($999.9m) in the same period of the previous year, on revenue that grew 3.1% to 5.1bn pounds ($10.7bn). The fall in earnings was due to quarterly restructuring costs of 167m pounds ($351.5m) related to recent job cuts among middle management and the setting up of two new units, BT Design and BT Operate.
BT’s global services operation, which provides network and IT services, increased revenue by 5.7% to 2.3bn pounds ($4.8bn) and booked new orders worth 1.6bn pounds ($3.4bn). However, the division’s operating profit before leaver costs fell to 65m pounds ($136.8m) from 72m pounds ($151.6m) in the previous year, largely due to depreciation and amortization charges of 175m ($368.4m), up 11.5%.
BT Global Services also gave an update on its progress with the UK National Health Services National Programme for IT. It said it had delivered significant capability to 75% of NHS trusts in London and added that the N3 broadband network, which underpins the entire project, had been upgraded to enable voice calls to be carried using VoIP.
The quarter also saw BT add 178,000 new broadband customers, making it the first supplier in the UK with a base of over 4 million. BT Retail, the division which incorporates the broadband business, increased operating profit before leaver costs to 217m pounds ($456.8m) from 196m pounds ($412.6m) 12 months ago, on revenue that grew 2.8% to 2.1bn pounds ($4.5bn).
In all, there were approximately 479,000 broadband connections in the UK over the three-month period, meaning that BT accounted for 37% of all additions. In comparison, rival Carphone Warehouse added 89,000 net new broadband customers in its second quarter, taking its total to about two and a half million.
