Carphone Warehouse made a £4.6 million loss in the past six months, with the company struggling to cope with the demand for its free broadband service.
The company incurred a £45 million loss in relation to the launch of the service in the six months to the end of September, although excluding this and other one-off costs, profits rose 60% to £59.3 million.
Carphone Warehouse said that the TalkTalk free broadband launch has been highly successful, with customer take-up well ahead of its expectations.
It has received 625,000 applications for free broadband, but 200,000 broadband customers have yet to be connected.
Charles Dunstone, CEO, said: “This has been a busy six months, during which Carphone Warehouse has delivered another very strong set of results and invested significantly in building its platform for future growth.
“Our distribution business has maintained its momentum, opening 143 new stores and benefiting from the dynamism of the mobile market and customer demand. With the launch of free broadband and the subsequent acquisition of AOL, TalkTalk has reached critical mass as the number 3 provider of voice calls and broadband in the UK. Crucial to our future success in this area, the evolution of Opal into an all-IP, next generation network is well on track.”
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