Preliminary FY17 Results

• TalkTalk Business has once again seen impressive growth, with a 30.8 per cent increase in data revenue
• Across the year, revenue growth accelerated in H2 to +6.1 per cent, up from +2.3 per cent in H1
• The number of new Ethernet and EFM lines increased by 8,000 during the year as demand for high speed data services grew strongly

TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC's preliminary financial results for the 12 months to 31 March 2017 have today revealed another year of strong growth for TalkTalk Business. Overall revenues have strongly contributed to Group performance, growing by over 4 per cent year on year. TalkTalk Business continues to be a significant, profitable and fast growing part of the business, and the division has ambitions to double its size over the medium term, driven by continuing growth in high bandwidth data products and next generation voice services ahead of the 2025 ISDN switch-off.

TalkTalk Business is one of the fastest growing B2B telecoms providers in the UK, serving the needs of some of the UK's biggest businesses, as well as SMEs, partners, systems integrators and carriers around the country. TalkTalk Business recently announced its intention to take advantage of the opening up of the Ethernet market with the introduction of Dark Fibre access later this year.

TalkTalk Business has seen data revenues grow strongly up 30.8 per cent over the year, with over 8,000 new high speed Ethernet and EFM (Ethernet for the first mile) data lines connected. Business demand for high speed data is growing rapidly, and following Ofcom's proposed separation of Openreach from BT, TalkTalk Business anticipates it will be able to increase delivery of high speed, value for money, Ethernet connections in the short and medium term.

Whilst legacy voice revenues declined by 17.9 per cent in line with the established market trend, there was a strong take-up of TalkTalk Business's new next generation IP voice product, with revenue growth during the year of 20 per cent. The launch of new IP Voice products followed TalkTalk Business' acquisition of tIPicall in April 2015, with momentum growing in the run-up to the 2025 ISDN switch-off. 116 Partners have now signed up to sell this new service and the total base of SIP channels on the platform, including acquired base, increased by 7,340 channels (+65 per cent) during the year. The acquisition has continued our diversification into next generation telephony services, further demonstrated by our hosted telephony platform which saw the user base grow by 43 per cent.

Kristine Olson-Chapman, Managing Director at TalkTalk Business, comments: "We're incredibly pleased to see TalkTalk Business continue to be one of the highest growth parts of the TalkTalk Group. Even more encouraging is the increase in demand for next generation voice and data services. We're committed to investing in our networks and innovating in the products and services that we offer, to ensure that the UK's businesses have the tools they need to be world leaders, today and into the future."

For a detailed Group financial and business review, as well as insights into specific product areas such as Broadband, Mobile, Fibre, TV, Network, please visit https://www.talktalkgroup.com/articles/talktalkgroup/2017/TalkTalk-shows-strong-data-revenue-growth--up-30.8--in-latest-results--.

Media Enquiries
Gary O'Sullivan/Andrew Rogers, Diffusion
talktalkbusiness@diffusionpr.com
0207 291 0235