Talktalk Telecom Group plc (LON:TALK) reported a 3.2% decline in first quarter revenue as growth in corporate and wholesale broadband was offset by a slowdown in its consumer division.
The company said it added 20,000 broadband customers on its network in the first quarter while churn fell to 1.2%, supported by the take-up of fixed-low price plans.
TalkTalk now has 1.3mln people on its fixed broadband price plan.
READ: TalkTalk replaces CFO Iain Torrens with Dixons Carphone executive in reshaping of top team
Full year revenue is expected to grow as the telecoms firm sees its broadband customer base expanding on the back of a take-up of fibre and TV deals. The firm left unchanged guidance for annual underlying earnings (EBITDA) of between £270mln to £300mln after previously warning that earnings would be lower.
The group has been working to restore its reputation in the UK broadband market since a 2015 cyber attack, which led to lose 230,000 customers.
It replaced chief executive Dido Harding with Tristia Harrison earlier this year and has launched a series of new fixed price offers to entice customers away from rivals such Sky plc (LON:SKY), BT Group plc (LON:BT.A) and Virgin Media (LON:VMED).
The market gave the thumbs down to the update, with the shares sliding 1.8% to 180.80p, but Russ Mould, the investment director at AJ Bell said it was a strong first quarter.
"Importantly, the group is also improving its ability to keep customers with ‘churn’ rates falling to 1.2% in the period from 1.4% a year ago. The group continues to expect full year revenues to grow and its guidance remains unchanged," Mould noted.
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