Britain's top fixed-line phone company BT Group today posted slightly better-than-expected first quarter revenues, helped by strong performance in new business areas, but said the environment remained tough.
The firm said revenues for the first quarter ended June 30 fell 0.4% to £4.567 billion sterling, above a market consensus of £4.55 billion.
The former UK monopoly, whose revenues have been under pressure because of stiff competition and falling tariffs, surprised investors in May when it reported that it had managed to stem a persistent revenue decline in last fiscal's fourth quarter. That raised hopes among some investors that BT's attempts to stop its business shrinking may finally be paying off.
BT said the first-quarter revenue fall included the impact of mobile termination rate cuts. Without those, revenues rose 0.8%.
BT has been attempting to counter the fixed-line decline by trying to boost so-called new wave revenues from broadband Internet, mobility and business computing.
That strategy continued to pay off, with first-quarter new wave revenues rising 32% to £936m. Earnings per share before goodwill and amortisation fell 10% to 3.7 pence from 4.1 pence a year earlier. Underlying pre-tax profit fell 13% to £434m.
Underlying pre-tax profit fell 13% to £434m, dragged down by costs of £102m which reflected money paid out to employees opting for redundancies.
