BT announces profits

BT has announced that fourth-quarter profit rose 16 percent, with net income rising to £454 million. BT has also overtaken Virgin Media as the UK’s largest broadband provider – BT now has 3.66 million subscribers.

Karen Darby, founder of SimplySwitch.com, the price comparison and switching service, comments:

BT vs. Virgin Media

“BT isn’t the cheapest broadband supplier, so to sign 245,000 subscribers in the last quarter is quite an achievement. This takes BT’s total broadband customers to 3.66 million, 240,000 more than nearest rival Virgin Media, a company that is still suffering from its ongoing dispute with Sky.

“As well as beating Virgin on the broadband front, BT recently launched a high-profile marketing campaign for BT Vision, its ‘TV-on-demand’ service. With no set monthly fees, BT Vision offers a real alternative to Virgin Media, especially at a time when Virgin has lost access to exclusive Sky programmes such as ‘Lost’.”

Technology / broadband price war

“Over the past few years, broadband has become an important battleground for suppliers. Consumers increasingly see broadband as an essential service, and suppliers have been forced into a price war to attract their business. Because of this, broadband customers now receive almost six times better value for money than they did in April 2006, a great result for the consumer.

“Like other suppliers, BT has brought its prices down but it still remains one of the UK’s most expensive providers. Instead of responding to rivals’ price changes, we would like to see BT lead the way in UK telecoms in terms of both pricing and innovation.

“One step in the right direction is BT’s reported interest in developing Wi-Max technology, the wide-reaching version of ‘wi-fi’, which could revolutionise the way we use the Internet. We would also like to see BT take a pioneering role in developing the next generation of super high-speed broadband, a task highlighted in the recent Broadband Stakeholder Group report.”