BT Group Capex (capital expenditure) decreased 4 percent to £596 million in the first quarter of 2013 against £622 million in the same period last year.
Out of this, Capital expenditure of BT Global Services decreased 13 percent to £111 million. Capital expenditure decreased due to the phasing of expenditure in the prior year. This contributed to EBITDA less capital expenditure increasing by £28 million to £71 million.
BT Retail’s Capex reduced 11 percent to £92 million. Capital expenditure decreased, despite its investment in BT Sport, reflecting the additional broadband-related investment in the prior year.
BT Wholesale’s Capex decreased 11 percent £64 million. Capital expenditure decreased due to lower spend on Wholesale Broadband Connect as its footprint expansion nears completion.
Openreach’s Capex dipped 2 percent £280 million.
Meanwhile, BT Group’s revenue in the first quarter decreased 1 percent to £4.44 billion.
Profit before tax declined 16 percent to £449 million.
BT CEO Ian Livingston said: “Our consumer line loss is at its lowest level in five years and we took a 50 percent share of the broadband4 market net additions. Our SME business grew revenues by 1 percent, the best performance in more than four years, and our BT Global Services order intake was up almost 50 percent.”
“Fiber remains at the heart of our plans and take-up is strong. Our fiber network now passes more than 16 million premises with more than 1.7 million connected,” Livingston added.
BT has now passed more than 16 million premises with our fiber broadband network. There are now more than 1.7 million homes and businesses using our fiber-based services with 265,000 net connections in the quarter.
BT added 197,000 retail fiber broadband customers, up around 30 percent, and the customer base currently stands at around 1.5 million.
The broadband market grew by 189,000 in the quarter, around 20 percent more than in the first quarter last year, of which our retail share was 50 percent.
