Trading Statement

Carphone Warehouse Group PLC
12 October 2005


Wednesday 12 October 2005

Embargoed until 0700 hours


                        The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC

                         Second Quarter Trading Update

                            Continued strong growth


The Carphone Warehouse announces its second quarter trading update.  Figures
relate to the 13 weeks to 1 October 2005.


Second quarter highlights


  • Subscription connections up 20.6% to 0.83m
  • Total connections up 15.1% to 1.78m
  • 50 new stores opened, taking the total to 1,586

  • TalkTalk UK base up 63.4% to 1.06m
  • Mobile customer base up 25.1% to 2.60m
  • Interim headline pre-tax profits expected to rise 35% year-on-year on an
    IFRS basis



Charles Dunstone, Chief Executive Officer, said:



'We have enjoyed another excellent quarter of growth.  Mobile market conditions
continue to favour the Carphone Warehouse model, and our on-going efforts to
differentiate our offer are being rewarded.  Our customer bases all made good
progress, underpinning the quality of our earnings.  Overall, performance in the
first half has been ahead of our expectations and we expect interim headline
pre-tax profits to be up 35% year-on-year.'



Distribution

Total connections grew by 15.1% to 1.78m year-on-year in the 13 weeks to 1
October 2005.  Subscription connections grew by 20.6% to 0.83m, driven by the
strong handset pipeline and high levels of activity across all channels.
Pre-pay connections were up 13.1% to 0.81m.  End demand in this segment was
still good, but the rate of growth slowed from the first quarter because of the
very strong performance this time last year.  SIM-free sales were down 2.0% to
0.14m.



Our store opening programme made further good progress, with a total of 50 net
new stores opened in the period, taking the total to 1,586.



Our Insurance base continued to benefit from strong subscription growth, with
the base growing by 21.4% to 1.77m year-on-year.



Telecoms Services

Traffic over the Opal network grew 40.4% to 3.1 billion minutes in the quarter.
Excluding TalkTalk traffic, minutes grew 26.3% to 1.7 billion.  Opal continues
to operate in a very competitive environment in parts of its market, and at this
stage we expect full year profits from Opal to be flat year-on-year.  However,
we continue to invest in new services to businesses, such as line rental, mobile
and broadband, and are confident in returning Opal to growth in subsequent
years.



TalkTalk UK added a further 69,000 customers during the quarter as we continued
to refine our channel strategy.  We launched our line rental product to new
customers in August and have begun to use our membership of Nectar as an
acquisition and retention tool.  We expect similar quarterly rates of customer
net additions through the rest of the current financial year, before the
benefits of line rental and other retention strategies are reflected in higher
base growth in subsequent years.



Our broadband base grew to 68,000.  We are now in the process of finalising our
long term strategy in relation to the provision of broadband and bundled
telecoms services, and expect to update the market on our plans at the time of
our interim results on 3 November 2005.



Our mobile businesses all performed strongly during the period.  Overall we have
recruited a further 179,000 customers to our services in the UK, France and
Germany in the last three months, with The Phone House Telecom base breaking
through the 1 million customer mark and our MVNOs all growing well.



Board appointment

We are pleased to announce that Baroness Morgan of Huyton is to join the Board
as a Non-Executive Director with effect from 1 November 2005.  From November
2001 until May 2005, Baroness Morgan was Director of Government Relations at 10
Downing Street.  Prior to this she was Political Secretary to the Prime Minister
from 1997-2001, and was appointed Minister for Women and Equalities in 2001.



Conference call and audio webcast

There will be a conference call for investors and analysts at 9.00 am this
morning.  The dial-in numbers are 0845 301 4094 from the UK and [phone]
from overseas.  A replay will be available for one week on [phone],
account number 897311, recording number 569816.  The call will also be
accessible via our website, www.cpwplc.com.



Next trading update

The group will publish its interim results on 3 November 2005.



For Further Information



For analyst and institutional enquiries
Roger Taylor                                    07715 170 090
Peregrine Riviere                               07909 907 193


For media enquiries

Vanessa Tipple                                  07947 000 021
Anthony Carlisle (Citigate Dewe Rogerson)       07973 611 888
                                                020 7638 9571


Operating Statistics

•  Connections and store numbers

                                               13 weeks to 1 October 2005

                                                2005                2004        % change
Connections
Subscription                                 829,482             687,875           20.6%
Pre-pay                                      808,734             714,804           13.1%
SIM-free                                     139,752             142,660          (2.0%)
Group                                      1,777,968           1,545,339           15.1%



                                               26 weeks to 1 October 2005

                                                2005                2004        % change
Connections
Subscription                               1,553,698           1,289,472           20.5%
Pre-pay                                    1,429,319           1,232,719           15.9%
SIM-free                                     247,229             243,460            1.5%
Group                                      3,230,246           2,765,651           16.8%

Own stores                                     1,483               1,283
Franchises                                       103                  46     
Total stores                                   1,586               1,329



•  Customer bases

                                                       As at 1 October 2005

(000s)                                               2005            2004        % change
Insurance                                           1,770           1,458           21.4%
Telecoms Services - Mobile                          2,600           2,079           25.1%
TalkTalk UK                                         1,059             648           63.4%
Broadband UK                                           68               -               -
TalkTalk non-UK                                       249              70               -



•  Switched minutes
                                               13 weeks to 1 October 2005

(m)                                             2005                2004        % change
Opal                                           1,651               1,307           26.3%
TalkTalk                                       1,453                 904           60.7%
Total                                          3,104               2,211           40.4%


                                               26 weeks to 1 October 2005


(m)                                             2005                2004        % change
Opal                                           3,343               2,527           32.3%
TalkTalk                                       2,811               1,611           74.4%
Total                                          6,154               4,138           48.7%






                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange