BT on Thursday announced it has signed up more than 50,000 mobile customers within just six weeks of releasing a SIM-only 4G offering.
The UK mobile operator marked its re-entry into the consumer mobile sector with the March launch of own 4G service dubbed ‘BT Mobile’ which runs on EE’s network.
BT’s latest financial quarter results revealed that its annual profits rose by 14 per cent to £2.6 billion, but revenues dipped two per cent to £17.8 billion for the year. The mobile operator said it signed up 455,000 new broadband customers to its fibre network in the quarter ending in March.
The firm can now claim more than half of new connections to its Openreach service, which it shares with Sky and TalkTalk, and that over 4.2 million customers are now signed up to the fibre network, an increase of 1.5 million year over year.
It said it had lowered operating costs by £591 million to £11.8 billion for the year, spurred by an 8 per cent reduction in net labour costs and fees paid to rival telecoms operators.
The results also confirmed that shareholders had approved its £12.5 billion takeover of EE. BT now awaits clearance from the Competition and Markets Authority.
BT CEO Gavin Patterson said in a statement “It’s been a ground-breaking year for BT, in which we’ve made some key decisions and announced some major investments to underpin the future growth of the business.
“Profit before tax and free cash flow have both grown strongly and we have delivered or beaten the outlook we set at the start of the year.
“Our performance during the year is reflected in our full year dividend, which is up 14%. Our results and the investments we are making position us well for the future and enable us to increase our free cash flow outlook for the coming year.”
