BT Group's share of fixed line and access revenue in the UK fell below 60% for the first time, but the telco maintained its share of the broadband market in the first quarter, a Dow Jones report said.
The Dow Jones report quoted UK regulator Ofcom citing market data for the three months to March 2008 shows that BT's network access and call revenues fell to £1.39 billion (€1.775 billion) in the first quarter from €1.45 billion (€1.852 billion) in the fourth quarter 2007, representing a 59.7% share of the market, down from 61.8% in the fourth quarter.
While total fixed and access revenue has been declining for the last three quarters, Virgin Media and others have increased their revenues in the first quarter, stealing market share from BT, the Dow Jones report said.
BT managed to maintain its retail broadband market share at 26.5% as total retail and small business broadband connections grew by almost 600,000 in the first quarter to 16.2 million, the report said.
The data also found that total mobile revenue in the UK fell 1.6% in the period, reflecting a fall in call revenue and other charges.