BT Group has kept pace with its fiber rollout target, adding more than 1 million premises during the first quarter of this year.

The company, which is building out its fiber network through its network infrastructure business, Openreach, has now passed more than 19 million premises.

BT is aiming to reach 25 million premises by the end of next year.

Despite the rollout progress, BT reported total group revenue of £4.9 billion ($6.58bn) for the first quarter, down three percent year-on-year.

BT blamed the decline on weaker consumer handset sales, plus challenging international trading.

The company also reported Adjusted EBITDA of £2.1bn ($2.8bn) for the quarter.

“BT has had a solid start to the year, with our full fiber broadband now reaching more than 19 million homes and businesses and our 5G network available to over 87 percent of the UK population,” said Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, BT.

“We’re seeing strong customer demand for our next-generation broadband and mobile connectivity across all our brands, with record Openreach fiber take-up again this quarter.”

BT noted that its 5G subscriber base has increased to 13.5 million, the same week that EE said its 5G Standalone (5G SA) service is available to more than half of the UK’s population.

On the same day, BT announced its earnings, the carrier experienced an outage that impacted thousands of its customers across the country.

Vodafone revenue up, while German market offers hope

Another UK telco also announced its financials on the same day, with Vodafone reporting signs of improvement in Germany.

Germany has proven to be a tough market for Vodafone for a number of years, but Margherita Della Valle, group chief executive, is positive the market is showing signs of a turnaround, reiterating her comments in May.

On the face of it, service revenue in Germany declined by 3.2 percent for the quarter, though this has been attributed to the impact of the TV law change in the country.

Total group service revenue jumped by 5.3 percent in Q1 to €7.9 billion ($9.26bn)

The company reported increased service revenue in its other markets, including the UK, where it recently completed its merger with Three. Vodafone reported growth across other Europe and Turkey, Africa, and its Business division.

For the quarter, total group revenue increased by 3.9 percent to €9.4bn ($11bn) during the quarter.

“We have had a good start to the year with strong revenue and EBITDAaL growth. Germany has started its improvement trajectory, and our emerging markets are delivering strong broad-based growth. In the UK, we have completed the merger with Three and are moving quickly to combine our networks to benefit customers,” said Della Valle.

Since Della Valle took over at the telco two years ago, she’s overseen sales in Spain and Italy as part of the telco’s strategy to consolidate its business.