BT's EE acquisition has a positive impact on results

Man drawing on glass indicating growth

BT has announced strong revenue gains following its acquisition of mobile provider EE earlier this year.

In the last quarter (ending June 2016), BT posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBIDTA) increase by 25 per cent year-on-year to 1.8 billion.

"EE performed strongly, both financially and commercially, and our customers are seeing the initial benefits of our acquisition with BT Sport now available to EE pay monthly customers," Gavin Patterson, BT's chief executive said. "We remain focused on improving customer experience and 100% of EE pay monthly calls are now handled in UK and Ireland contact centres."

BT bought EE for 12.5 billion in January, allowing BT to take on an additional 244,000 mobile pay monthly customers, which gave its mobile revenues a welcome leg-up.

However, Patterson said the company's broadband business has also helped it make additional gains, despite the current controversies surrounding Openreach.

"We've reduced engineer missed appointments by more than a third since last quarter and Openreach is again ahead on all 60 minimum service levels set by Ofcom. Fibre broadband is available to well over 25m premises and take-up remains strong," Patterson continued. "At a retail level, we performed well achieving a 79% share of broadband net adds in the quarter."

However, BT said it will continue to innovate and aims to push forward on innovation, hoping to keep the momentum going.

"Our investment plans remain central to our future and so we will be rolling out further fibre in the coming months, as well as 4G through the Emergency Services Network contract," Patterson finished.

"Our aim is to make these services as universally available as we can, whilst also deploying a new generation of ultrafast broadband. Such investment requires regulatory clarity, particularly in these uncertain times.

Clare Hopping
Freelance writer

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.