BT head Gavin Patterson said that mobility is a “key area for us” in the company’s latest results release, but gave little further guidance on progress of its proposed acquisition of UK mobile market leader EE.

“We are making good progress on our due diligence in relation to a possible acquisition of EE and will make further announcements in due course. In the meantime, our consumer mobile launch plans remain on track,” he said in a statement.

Speaking in a conference call today, Patterson said that BT is “very happy with the choice it made” with regard to its EE discussions, noting the company’s leadership in LTE, its spectrum assets, and the company’s existing MVNO relationship.

“Everything we have seen to date in the dual diligence process has supported that,” he noted.

He also played-down criticism that the process has lost some momentum, noting that the Christmas holiday sales period had an impact: “We’re not late.”

With the EE deal still to be inked, and regulatory probes potentially to follow, BT said it is “progressing our own plans for providing enhanced fixed-mobile converged services for businesses and customers”, and that it “remains confident on delivering on these plans should a transaction not take place”.

BT said the EE deal would “enable us to accelerate our existing mobility strategy whereby customers will benefit from innovative, seamless services that combine the power of fibre broadband, Wi-Fi and 4G”.

It would also own “the UK’s most advanced 4G network”.

BT’s ambitious move back into the UK mobile market has sparked a frenzy of activity, with Hutchison Whampoa, owner of the 3 network, looking to acquire Telefonica’s O2 – which at one point also came under BT’s gaze.

And media company Sky this week confirmed a long-anticipated rumour that it is looking at the mobile space, inking a deal with O2 that will enable it to offer the full portfolio of quadplay services.

Indeed, it is the ability to offer a full set of fixed, mobile and media services that is central to BT’s courtship of EE.

But Patterson said today that “it’s more than quadplay. For us it’s about the convergence of networks, and quadplay is just one element of that”. The company is looking to be able to provide customers with voice and data services wherever they are, both in homes and offices and when on the move.

The CEO also indicated that he believes the 3/O2 deal is the one most likely to come under regulatory scrutiny, because it will see the number of competitors cut from four to three, rather than representing a change of ownership. “From my judgement, I think that will be a more challenging one to justify”.

For the quarter to 31 December (BT’s fiscal Q3), it reported a pre-tax profit of £694 million, up 12 per cent year-on-year, on revenue of £4.48 billion, down 3 per cent.

Consumer revenue increased 7 per cent, “primarily driven by growth in broadband and TV”, while its business revenue slid due to lower call and line volumes as customers shifted to data and VoIP services.

With regard to its business mobile efforts, in a conference call the company said that it had seen “encouraging signs, but it’s still quite early”.