BT Group confirmed that its ultrafast broadband (FTTP and Gfast) roll-out has passed 4.2 million premises to date (2.4 million Gfast, 1.8 million FTTP), with FTTP roll-out at around 23,000 premises passed per week. Reported revenue for the six months to 30 September was down 1 percent to GBP 11.47 billion, mainly reflecting the impact of regulation, legacy product declines, and a strategic reduction of low-margin businesses.
Reported profit before tax for the first-half was broadly flat year-on-year at GBP 1.33 billion, with adjusted EBITDA down 3 percent to GBP 3.92 billion on lower revenues, higher spectrum fees, content costs and investment. Net cash inflow from operating activities was GBP 2.17 billion for the six months, with capital expenditure up GBP 225 million to GBP 1.88 billion, driven by increased network investment. BT declared an interim dividend of 4.62p per share, 30 percent of the previous year's full-year dividend of 15.4p per share. The overall financial outlook for the year has been maintained.
Consumer fixed ARPC was flat for the six months at GBP 38.50, with post-paid mobile ARPC down 5.5 percent year-on-year to GBP 20.80 due to the impact of regulation and continued trend towards SIM-only. RGUs per address were up to 2.38, with post-paid mobile churn at 1.2 percent for the second quarter. Fixed churn for Q2 was 1.3 percent, down from 1.6 percent a year earlier.
A total of 1.1 million fibre-enabled broadband connections were completed in the 1st-half, with over 13.3 million customers now connected to fibre-enabled products. Superfast broadband is now available to almost 28 million premises.
The Consumer division reported adjusted revenue for the half-year down 1 percent to GBP 5.19 billion, from GBP 5.22 billion a year earlier; and flat in the second quarter at GBP 2.64 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was down 5 percent to GBP 1.18 billion for the six months, and down 4 percent to GBP 592 million for the quarter.
The Global services division saw revenue drop 6 percent to GBP 2.20 billion for the six months, and fall 6 percent to GBP 1.11 billion for Q2; with adjusted EBITDA up 19 percent to GBP 304 million for the six months, and up 21 percent to GBP 164 million for the quarter.
Openreach generated revenue of GBP 2.54 billion for the six months (flat year-on-year) and GBP 1.27 billion for second quarter, down 2 percent from GBP 1.29 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was down 4 percent to GBP 1.42 billion for the half-year, and down 8 percent to GBP 700 million for Q2.
BT said that around one quarter of BT Broadband customers were now using BT Plus, with My BT registrations up 37 percent to 3.8 million and MyEE registrations up 8 percent to 12.3 million from a year earlier. BT Business app registrations have doubled from the year-earlier quarter to 85,000, and almost 3.7 million customers are now using the BT Call Protect product.
