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ABOVE: Carphone Warehouse has exceeded expectations

9th October 2009

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SPONSORING The X Factor helped Carphone Warehouse beat City forecasts by signing up 77,000 new broadband subscribers during the quarter to September.

The company said yesterday that growing brand awareness and good “word of mouth” between customers had boosted growth in its fixed-line and broadband arm TalkTalk.

Interest in mobile smart phones, driven by a faster version of the Apple iPhone, had boosted connections in its European-wide retail arm, Best Buy Europe, by 2%.

The company felt “quietly confident” about the prospects for Christmas.

It said plans to demerge TalkTalk and Best Buy, a joint venture between Carphone’s High Street shops and the European arm of the US retail giant, should be completed by March.

Carphone chief executive Charles Dunstone said he expected TalkTalk to have up to 4.2 million customers by the end of the year and praised the performance of Best Buy despite a “subdued” phone market.

Carphone has agreed to buy the UK business of Italian group Tiscali in a deal worth £236million.

However, the company is now looking to knock £20m to £30m off the price under the terms of the deal in the expectation Tiscali will lose 160,000 customers in the UK.

Despite the upbeat tone of the statement, finance director Roger Taylor warned a swift recovery in consumer spending was unlikely.

“We see this current consumer environment potentially sustained for another 12 to 18 months,” he said.

“The worst seems to be over, but there’s not much ground for there to be a huge upturn in the econ-omy either.”

He believed rising unemployment and tax rises would dampen recovery.

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