BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) reported revenue growth for the first time in five years as it hiked prices above inflation and more customers signed up for fibre-optic packages.
Sales in the three months to June end increased 1% to £5.13bn, a touch ahead of analysts’ forecasts.
The London-listed telecommunications group also posted adjusted EBITDA of £1.9bn – up 2% - in line with expectations.
"BT Group has made a good start to the year; we're accelerating our network investments and performing well operationally," Philip Jansen, chief executive, said.
“Despite ongoing challenges in our enterprise businesses, we returned to revenue and EBITDA growth in the quarter.”
BT ended fiscal Q1 with normalised free cash flow of £0.2bn, down £162mln on higher cash capital expenditure, but its expectation of £1.3bn to £1.5bn at the end of the full fiscal year 2023 remained unchanged.
It also expects to see revenue growth, a minimum of £7.9bn EBITDA and roughly £4.8bn of capital expenditure.
The blue-chip company insisted it has plans in place for strikes from its largest union due Friday and Monday as employees demand a bigger wage rise to keep up with surging prices.
Its shares sunk 4.9% to 167.5p.