Home phone News

Mixed fortunes for home phone providers in second quarter

Monday 1 August, 2011

By Kelvin Goodson

BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media face landline market challenges.

The home phone market was tough going for the UK’s major home phone providers over the last quarter.

BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media had mixed fortunes over the last three months regarding landline sales, according to their financial results.

BT saw revenue decrease by 4% over April, May and June, which its results said reflected “the ongoing decline in calls and lines revenue”.

The company saw consumer revenue decrease by 6%, but said further growth in income from broadband helped compensate for the lower calls and line revenue.

TalkTalk reported that its home phone only packages had also continued to decline “in-line with annual trends over the last few years”.

The provider said that the growth in broadband revenue it had seen was “more than offset” by a £20 million decline in non-broadband revenue, which is mostly made up from home phone services.

Virgin Media recorded a drop in cable and non-cable telephone customers of almost 28,000 between the first and the second quarter.

However, the company also saw penetration of its quad-play packages - which incorporate broadband, home phone, mobile and TV - increase to 12.6%, up 1.3% on a year earlier.

It also found that its landline customers were driving mobile growth, adding 45,000 mobile contract customers through a scheme which offers home phone subscribers discounts off a monthly mobile contract.