The Carphone Warehouse expects Q2 profits to rise by 35 per cent compared to last year as demand for telecoms services continues to grow.

The independent mobile comms retailer, which also operates its own phone business, reported that total mobile phone connections grew by 15.1 per cent to 1.78m year-on-year in the 13 weeks to the end of September.

At the same time Carphone's TalkTalk UK fixed-line phone business added a further 69,000 customers during the quarter pushing the total number of punters to more than a million.

The retailer-cum-telco also reported that it now had 68,000 broadband punters with further plans about bundled products due to be announced next month.

Said Carphone boss Charles Dunstone: "Overall, performance in the first half has been ahead of our expectations and we expect interim headline pre-tax profits to be up 35 per cent year-on-year."

At lunch shares in Carphone were down 3.28p (1.68 per cent) at 191.72p. ®

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