A facelift for BT as it awaits Ofcom probe

BT saw profits increase by almost a quarter and revamped its business to include its newly acquired mobile business EE as it awaited the results of an Ofcom probe.

The telecoms company said pretax profits rose by 24pc in the third quarter to December 31 to £862m, up from £695m.

It took on 97,000 television customers boosting its subscriber base to 1.4m, and added 130,000 broadband customers, which amounted to 71pc of sign-ups for broadband across the market.

Revenues grew 4.7pc to £4.6bn in what the company said was its best set of results in seven years.

It also outlined a new structure yesterday. This splits its businesses into six divisions and keeps Openreach, which provides the UK’s broadband network, as a distinct entity.

It will have two customer units, one of which will be EE; two units serving businesses and the public sector; and two wholesale arms, one of which is Openreach.

BT is awaiting the outcome of an Ofcom probe, which will consider whether Openreach should be split off from the telecoms firm.

Chief executive Gavin Patterson said: ‘This is a strong set of results with good numbers across the board. Customers like what we’re offering, whether that’s superfast broadband, Champions League football or mobile data bundles.’

Sharon White, chief executive of Ofcom, has already warned that some changes will be made – although it is not yet clear whether these will alter the obligations on Openreach as part of BT, or require its separation from BT (up 9.35p to 494.2p) entirely.

Patterson said yesterday that splitting up the business could hit the pension fund at Openreach, which employs 32,000. Without the backing of BT the scheme could find its corporate backing weakened.

Meanwhile, Ofcom has urged the European Commission to block a merger between mobile phone companies O2 and Three. A proposed deal worth £10.5bn would see the number of phone networks in the UK reduced from four down to three. The two firms would become the largest in the market.