British telecommunications company BT Group plc reported its highest share of DSL broadband net additions for eight years and said reported pretax profit for the third quarter more than doubled from last year.

For the quarter ended December 2010, reported pretax profit was 441 million pounds, up from 209 million pounds in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted pretax profit increased 30 percent to 531 million pounds.

BT said it had a good third quarter in broadband with net additions of 188,000, representing a 53 percent market share. In the second quarter, BT said its share of DSL broadband net additions was 45 percent.

These results show that we are making progress on a number of fronts. There is always more to do but our performance underpins our outlook for this year and the period to 2012/13, said chief executive Ian Livingston.

Revenue fell 3 percent to 5.04 billion pounds ($8.2 billion) as revenue at its Global Services and Retail businesses fell 7 percent and 3 percent respectively. Revenue at BT's Wholesale and Openreach businesses remained flat.

BT said total group operating costs reduced 5 percent to 4.4 billion pounds.

Payments to telecommunications operators fell 12 percent to 937 million pounds reflecting lower mobile termination rates and transit and wholesale call volumes, BT said.

As at December 31, net debt was 8.67 billion pounds, down 1.44 billion from December 2009 levels.

Looking ahead, BT said it expects Global Services to be cash flow positive a year earlier than targeted, generating operating cash flow of around 100 million pounds in 2010/11 and 200 million pounds for 2011/12.

Shares of BT ended Wednesday's trading at 178.50 pence on the London Stock Exchange.

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