TalkTalk posts jolly six months

Carphone Warehouse spin-off TalkTalk is reporting a profitable six months, with more unbundled exchanges in preparation for its planned assault on TV next year.

The company increased revenue by more than 10 per cent compared to last year, with a pre-tax income of £887m in the last six months, resulting in an EBITDA of £121m which is up 17.5 per cent on last year.

More interestingly the company has managed to unbundle a smidgen over 2,000 exchanges, serving 81 per cent of its customers.

Those customers are generating an average of £24.70 per month for TalkTalk, up from last year thanks to more unbundled exchanges which allow TalkTalk to avoid paying BT for carriage. There are 18,000 more customers too.

The plan is to unbundle another 700 exchanges, which should bring 92 per cent of customers into the fold, but avoiding BT isn't the only reason to unbundle.

Where TalkTalk has its own kit in the exchange it can control the quality of service, ideal for providing access to video-on-demand service YouView (formally known as Canvas). TalkTalk is spending heavily on video-distribution infrastructure with the intention of launching its YouView service in the middle of next year. ®