BT SOUGHT yesterday to play down the threat of new competitors such as BSkyB despite its share of new broadband customers slipping to the lowest level in nearly a year.

BT’s retail business, which is relying on “new wave” services such as broadband to offset the decline in traditional calls, won just 27 per cent of new broadband connections in the quarter to September 30. The figure represents a one percentage point drop on the previous quarter and a five percentage point drop compared with the fourth quarter of last year.

Despite a 39 per cent rise in BT’s overall new wave services, the drop in its market share of broadband connections left many analysts concerned about the company’s ability to reposition itself in a new telecoms environment. BT is under pressure in other areas, such as fixed-line calls, while it is also suffering because it lacks a mobile phone network.

During the quarter the group also lost 20,000 mobile subscribers while its share of the traditional fixed-line market fell below 60 per cent.

Ben Verwaayen, chief executive, played down the slide in market share of new broadband customers, saying that, while it had been one of the toughest quarters, BT would unveil new broadband offerings aimed at drawing new customers.

It recently launched a new “converged mobile and fixed-line phone”, called Fusion, which requires a BT broadband connection.

It also plans to start selling an “on-demand” television service that will also need a BT broadband connection, while it is looking to increase its broadband speeds to 8 megabits per second.

However, analysts said that the drop in its share of new broadband customers was cause for concern. One analyst said the decline topped off a set of figures that “left him cold”.

With broadband growing in popularity, service providers are scrambling to claim their slice of the pie.

BSkyB, in which News Corporation, parent company of The Times, holds a 37.2 per cent stake, recently acquired Easynet as it sought to enter the broadband market. Analysts say that BSkyB, which has eight million customers, will become a “formidable competitor” to BT.

Price cuts in local loop unbundling have also encouraged other key players, such as Carphone Warehouse, to boost their broadband offerings, which enables them to avoid buying BT’s wholesale broadband product.

Mr Verwaayen denied that BSkyB was a major threat. He said the media group was more likely to seize customers from the cable companies than from BT. That, he said, would create more revenue for BT, which would receive new wholesale customers. He said: “If Sky takes customers it will be good for us . . . This is against cable.”

Dresdener Kleinwort Wasserstein said that “all (BT’s) key performance indicators have deteriorated”.

Stuart Gordon, of ABN Amro, said: “I think they have a very tough road ahead of them. I think that’s being increasingly reflected in the share price.”

Shares in the group fell 3 per cent to 208p as it posted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £1.3 billion for the quarter, a year-on-year decline of 4 per cent.

However, group revenues rose 5 per cent to £4.8 billion — the seventh consecutive quarter of growth.