BT's year-end profits jump 71 per cent

The telecoms company also adds over 1 million homes to its broadband network

BT has reported a massive 71 per cent increase in annual net profits to £1.7bn.

The company said that this increase is partly the result of high costs experienced in 2010, relating to restructuring in its Global Services division and pensions.

"We have delivered profits and free cash flow ahead of expectations for the year, while making significant investment in the business for the future," said Ian Livingstone, BT's chief executive.

"We have consolidated our position as the leading provider of broadband in the UK with our highest quarterly share of DSL broadband net additions for eight years. BT Global Services order intake was up 10 per cent at £7.3bn and it has turned cash flow positive a year ahead of plan."

Despite the strong results, Livingston also said that there "remains a lot still to do".

BT will be relieved that its Global Services division reported a positive cash flow of £119m for the year. The division experienced difficulties between 2008 and 2010 with cash flow at the end of March 2010 down £482m.

The results also highlight the importance of broadband to BT, as it added 1.1 million homes to the network over the past year.

BT has secured 64 per cent of all new broadband customers, 162,000 out of 252,000, and also hopes to double the download speeds of its fibre-to-the-cabinet service next year to 80Mbit/s.

"Our rollout of super-fast broadband is one of the most rapid in the world, passing an average of 80,000 additional premises each week and we have plans to roughly double the speed of our fibre-to-the-cabinet based service in 2012," said Livingstone.

The company's final dividend is up seven per cent compared with 2010.