Carphone celebrates bumper Christmas

Carphone Warehouse said it had a fat festive period, adding 7.3 per cent in like-for-like retail revenues for the third quarter

According to a trading update issued Friday the outfit now has 2.2m residential broadband punters following the purchase of the AOL customer base in October for £370m. Only 413,000 are on unbundled lines however.

Chairman Charles Dunstone said: "The completion of the AOL deal makes us the clear number three player...giving us the scale we need to deliver significant profitable growth in the medium term."

The profitability of the TalkTalk "free" broadband offer is contingent on local loop unbundling, which is making encouraging progress according to the statement. The firm said it had improved its broadband service and was ready to begin another recruitment push.

The Register is still receiving complaints about repeated delays to TalkTalk orders. ®