BT Group CEO Philip Jansen (pictured) noted the UK operator made a good start to the current financial year, returning to revenue growth in fiscal Q1 (to end-June) despite continued challenges in its enterprise business.

Jansen stated BT was maintaining its outlook for the year to end-March 2023 despite current economic uncertainty after modest revenue growth in the opening three months.

“We’re accelerating our network investments and performing well operationally”, Jansen observed.

Revenue grew 1 per cent year-on-year to £5.1 billion. Net profit of £422 million was up from £2 million.

Enterprise continued to prove a drag on overall group development with a 7 per cent drop in adjusted revenue to £1.2 billion, attributed by BT to the ongoing “challenging market conditions” for large corporates.

BT Consumer and Openreach each grew 5 per cent, with revenue of £2.5 billion and £1.4 billion respectively.

In consumer, BT hailed the recent regulatory approval of plans to merge its sports broadcasting offering with those of Warner Bros. Discovery.

In terms of network development, BT indicated EE’s 5G network now covers more than 55 per cent of the UK population.

The mobile operator is maintaining its pledge to “make 5G available anywhere in the UK by 2028”. The number of customers described as “5G ready” stood at 7.7 million by the end of the quarter.

Jansen also praised development of the operator’s fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network.

Openreach’s full fibre network now passes more than 8 million homes and businesses, “and we anticipate increasing our annual build from 2.6 million premises last year to around 3.5 million this year”, Jansen stated.