A massive leap in broadband subscriptions has seen BT's end of year results rise six per cent to £19.5bn.
Pre-tax profit was £2.1bn, up five per cent, and the telco giant now has 7.9 million broadband users, up 58 per cent from last year.
Turnover for the fourth quarter of 2006 was £5.1bn, up seven per cent year-on-year and up five per cent excluding acquisitions.
Sir Christopher Bland, chairman of BT, said: “This is an excellent set of full year results delivered in a competitive and fast-changing environment. Revenues for the full year have grown by six per cent; new wave revenues, which grew by 38 per cent to £6.3bn, now represent around one third of the group’s business. We have continued to transform the business at a fast pace whilst growing our earnings per share before specific items by eight per cent to 19.5 pence.
“I am pleased to announce a full year dividend of 11.9 pence per share, 14 per cent higher than last year. We are confident in our ability to improve shareholder returns and accelerate the strategic transformation of the business,” added Bland.
Ben Verwaayen, chief executive of BT, said: “This quarter’s results are a terrific set of numbers. They show BT firing on all cylinders. These results provide further evidence that our strategy of embracing change is working. We have now delivered sixteen consecutive quarters of growth in earnings per share. "
“BT is now a truly global company, delivering services to more than 170 countries with more than 20 per cent of our networked IT services contract wins outside the UK. BT lines now carry eight million broadband connections and we have started rolling out speeds of up to 8 Mbit/s. BT has changed very significantly from four years ago, and the transformation is accelerating.”
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