Carphone Warehouse halve broadband target
Carphone Warehouse has revealed a slow growth in the broadband market after they halved its target for new broadband customers this year.
The group forecast in April that it would get 400,000 new customers by next March. However, they have cut this number to between 200,000 and 250,000. They have said the consumer slowdown and less people moving house are to blame.
Carphone Warehouse, who are also a giant in mobile phone retailing said that its share in new customers had only grown to 41,000 in the three months to the end of June, compared to a staggering 126,000 in the same period last year.
The chief executive of Carphone Warehouse Charles Dunstone said that he remained “understandably cautious about the consumer environment.”
Mr Dunstone highlighted the popularity of mobile broadband “dongles”, which gives customers broadband speeds for laptops, as another factor which is putting pressure customer additions.
“As we indicated in June, growth in broadband customer numbers slowed during the quarter. One of the benefits of the current environment is that churn is low and falling, making our relationship with customers increasingly valuable. While the second quarter has started well, with a sharp pick-up in subscription connections on the back of the iPhone 3G launch, we remain understandably cautious about the consumer environment.” Mr Dunstone added.
Carphone has had to reduce its forecasts for fixed line revenue from around 4 to 5% to broadly flat revenue growth. The retailer still remains the third biggest broadband provider, behind BT and Virgin Media.
Visit www.carphonewarehouse.com for more information on the company.