BT announced earnings today for first quarter:

• Revenue for the period was £5 billion 
• Increase of 3%
• Profit before taxes was £658 million
• Increase of 3%
• Growth from BT Global Services was key contributor

For additional perspective check out this article by ComputerWorld UK and this one by IT Pro Magazine.

BT is clealry benefiting from its ambitious effort to reposition BT Wholesale as an IT and software-orientated company that offers managed services contracts, bundling IT and software, to its enterprise customers.

Ben Verwaayen, BT Chairman stated again that BT "was keeping ahead of the game by delivering software driven services that will offer faster, more resilient and cost effective service to our customers."

Industry analysts are also paying attention to the new BT.  Mike Cansfield, telecoms practice leader at analyst Ovum said "BT is clealry no longer a traditional telephony-only business".  He also said, "we've been critical of telcos in the past, including BT, for being far too technology-led.  Telco innovation is often seen in terms of technology rather than services provided to customers." Cansfield credited BT for launching a series of "service-led initiatives", such as BT Tradespace a social networking portal for SMEs, that demonstrate BT "now sees innovation as not just a new piece of technology".