BT revenue down four per cent, but profits rise

Operating costs slashed by £291m

BT Retail shows seven per cent revenue fall

UK telco BT has announced revenue fell four per cent to £5bn in the first quarter of 2010.

However, adjusted profits before tax increased 17 per cent from £382m to £446m, with a £291m reduction in operating costs.

BT's Global Services has underperformed in the past but its recent performance is better than that of other divisions – it suffered a three per cent drop in revenue compared with a seven per cent fall in the retail arm.

BT chief executive Ian Livingston said: "We've made an acceptable start to the year, and despite the challenging environment, these [solid] financial results underpin our outlook for the full year."

Livingston gave an update on BT's optical fibre rollout which is critical to the government's plans to roll out "superfast broadband" to 90 per cent of the population by 2017.

"We hit the first major milestone in our fibre rollout which was to pass more than 1.5 million premises, and we are now running at an average rate of about 100,000 premises every week," said Livingston.

BT's pension fund trustee's valuation of the funding deficit was at £6.6bn as of 31 March 2010. The deficit was £9bn on 31 December 2008.