Talk Talk tells of earningsincrease

Jul 27 2007 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post

FIXED-line telephone and broadband provider Talk Talk yesterday reported a 49.5% increase in earnings for the second quarter of 2007.

The Warrington-based division of mobile phone retailer the Carphone Warehouse, said the gain was actually 7.1% when excluding the impact of last year’s £380m acquisition of AOL UK.

Talk Talk is now the third largest broadband provider in the UK, behind BT and Virgin Mobile, after last year’s offer of free high-speed internet to those customers paying £20 a month for a landline phone.

It is hoping for a further boost after offering a free Dell laptop with any two-year AOL broadband subscription.

Talk Talk, which employs more than 1,000 people at the Warrington centre, has 2.4m broadband customers after 126,000 net additions during the quarter.

The Carphone Warehouse group reported a positive start to its financial year after quarterly revenues increased 22% to just over £1bn.

The company said its retail arm continued to take market share with total connections up 20% to 2.3m.