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BT adds 266,000 fibre customers in March quarter
2015-05-07 09:13:00| Telecompaper Headlines
(Telecompaper) BT reported group revenue down 2 percent to GBP 4.64 billion in its fourth quarter to the end of March, with EBITDA up 7 percent to GBP 1.82 billion and earnings per share up 11 percent to GBP 0.10. EBITDA growth was partly helped by the settlement of ladder pricing arrangements. The company proposes to pay a dividend of GBP 0.124 for the full fiscal year, 14 percent more than in fiscal 2014. The Openreach infrastructure subsidiary added a record 455,000 premises to its fibre network in the fourth quarter, 31 percent more than a year earlier, while the BT retail business signed up a record 266,000 of newly passed premises, said CEO Gavin Patterson. BT's fibre broadband network now passes over three-quarters of the UK and the planned upgrade to ultrafast will see another multi-year investment by Openreach. BT Sport TV channels are now viewed in over 5.2 million homes and last year the group bought rights to the FA Premiere League to 2018/19 and Aviva Premiership Rugby to 2020/21. The company added 2,500 new engineers and over 500 new agents at UK contact centres this year, as well as hosting over 500 new apprentices. BT awaits regulatory approval for its GBP 12.5 billion proposed acquisition of mobile operator EE. BT's guidance for this year, excluding EE, is for underlying revenue growth, modest growth in EBITDA, around GBP 2.8 billion of normalised free cash flow and a dividend up by 10-15 percent on last year.
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Category:Telecommunications