Carphone Warehouse, the FTSE 100 mobile phone retailer and network operator, has fallen short of third-quarter new business and revenue forecasts but has reassured that its outlook for the full-year remains unchanged.

The company reported an 11 per cent rise in retail connections in the 13 weeks to December 29, against consensus estimates of a 15 per cent increase. Total revenues were up 14 per cent to £1,233 million, 4 per cent below expectations.

However, Carphone Warehouse , which has seen its shares fall12 per cent so far this year, defied fears that its retail sales would drop on a like-for-like basis, reporting a 1 per cent rise for the quarter and a 3.6 per cent increase in December.

The shares fell 13.25p to 291p, or more than 4 per cent, in early trading.

Carphone added 118,000 broadband customers during the quarter to give it a total of 2.6 million and unbundled, or moved onto its own network, 221,000 customers. The company said: “We now expect total net adds in the second half to be towards the upper end of the 200-250,000 range indicated in October 2007.”

It added: “Despite significant numbers of TalkTalk customers coming out of their initial 18 month contract period, we saw no increase in churn levels”.

Philip Dorgan, retail analyst at Panmure Gordon, said: “Whilst the market was anticipating a higher rate of connections growth in Q3, the achieved result is a good one against strong comparatives. The broadband net additions have accelerated and unbundling continues apace”.

“We believe we are well positioned as a Group, despite the more uncertain consumer environment”, said Charles Dunstone, chief executive.

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