BT suffered a 5 per cent drop in revenue in its fiscal Q3 as its consumer business felt the effects of Covid-19 (coronavirus) restrictions, results which CEO Philip Jansen said were in-line with expectations and prompted no change to its outlook.

In a trading update for the three months ending 31 December 2020, BT reported revenue of £5.4 billion, a 5 per cent decline year-on-year, with its consumer business 3 per cent lower at £2.7 billion.

BT said its mobile division suffered from partial closure of retail stores and low roaming, resulting in a 3 per cent decline, while its fixed and other segment dropped 7.1 per cent from the closure of venues such as pubs and clubs showing its BT Sport offering.

Revenue for its enterprise business of £1.4 billion was down 6 per cent, again due to Covid-19 along with ongoing declines in legacy products.

There was also a 16 per cent revenue decline in its Global business to £907 million, in part due to foreign exchange movements, and it warned fiscal Q4 and subsequent periods will be impacted by reduced spending and more caution from multinational customers.

Its Openreach unit was the one sweet spot, with revenue up 2 per cent to £1.3 billion, driven by higher fibre and ethernet volumes.

Jansen remained bullish, stating the company remained on track to deliver its fiscal 2020/21 outlook “despite even greater Covid-19 restrictions than previously forecast”.

It expects core earnings for the year to end-March at £7.3 billion to £7.5 billion, as Jansen added it expected “no material impact” from the UK’s Brexit deal with the European Union.

During the quarter, he added the company made progress on strategic objectives, with 5G live in 125 towns and cities, 4.1 million Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) passed and 790,000 FTTP Openreach customers.