BT has announced the appointment of a CEO for its new º£½ÇÊÓƵ-focused BT Business, coinciding with a reported decrease in revenue due to challenging trading conditions outside the º£½ÇÊÓƵ.
The telecoms giant's share price dropped by just over four per cent in early trades, as reported by .
Jon James will assume the role of CEO of BT Business in March, allowing Bas Burger to concentrate on optimising the international business segment, which is progressing as planned, according to Allison Kirby, chief executive of BT Group.
Kirby further stated that BT aims to be "fully focused" on the º£½ÇÊÓƵ, with the sale of its data arm in Ireland finalised during the quarter.
Bas Burger heads BT’s business unit, established last spring, which consolidated the telecoms giant’s global and enterprise divisions into a single organisation, emphasising B2B relations. BT's business revenue dipped by five per cent in the third quarter of the year, amounting to £1.9m.
Total revenue at BT fell by three per cent year on year in the three months leading up to December 31, dropping from £5.3bn to £5.1bn.
BT attributed this decline to weaker handset trading and challenging trading conditions outside the º£½ÇÊÓƵ, which were not counterbalanced by higher prices and growth in its ultra-fast broadband network.
The company reported that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose four per cent to £2.1bn, while profit before tax increased one per cent to £427m. BT reaffirmed its 2025 financial outlook and its mid-term guidance.
The FTSE-100 company has announced that it is rapidly progressing towards its goal of delivering ultrafast broadband to 25 million premises in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ, achieving its highest ever build rate during this period. The number of º£½ÇÊÓƵ premises with access to ultrafast broadband, or FTTP, reached 17 million during this time.
Openreach, a subsidiary of BT Group and manager of the º£½ÇÊÓƵ's largest broadband network, is responsible for the construction of these cables. BT reported a year-on-year decrease of 1.2 per cent in average revenue per broadband user to £40.6, although postpaid mobile user revenue increased by 5.7 per cent.
Matt Dorset, an equity research analyst at Quilter Cheviot, described BT's results as a "mixed bag", highlighting its ongoing cost transformation as "noteworthy".
BT reported a three per cent reduction in energy consumption on its networks, a three per cent cut in total labour resources and an 11 per cent drop in Openreach repair volumes.
"These efforts are clearly paying off," said Dorset. He added: "On the bright side, BT’s fibre rollout is progressing rapidly [and] net fibre additions accelerated to 472,000... On the downside, broadband line losses remained high."
Chief executive Allison Kirkby stated: "Our ongoing modernisation continues at pace, delivering a further step-up in fibre build and take-up, customer satisfaction and EBITDA. Benefits from our cost transformation more than offset lower revenue outside the º£½ÇÊÓƵ and weak handset sales."
"Openreach again performed strongly with the highest ever full fibre build, passing more than 1 million premises for the fourth consecutive quarter, and connecting a new record of nearly half a million customers."
"Consumer returned to service revenue growth and continued to expand its full fibre and 5G customer bases. In Business, our core º£½ÇÊÓƵ channels were stable. Cost transformation remains firmly on track, with excellent progress on both energy costs and productivity in the quarter."
