BT’s revenues continued to decline during its most recent financial quarter but the company managed to push profits up by nearly 50%.

Group sales fell by 5% down to £4.8 billion during the three months ending December 31st 2011. This made it the tenth consecutive financial quarter of sales decline for the company.

However, profit before tax shot up 48% to £652 million. The company attributed this to reduced operating costs and ‘lower finance expense’.

Much of the company’s revenue decline was attributed to a drop in ‘transit revenue’,  the money its get from other telecommunications operators that use its infrastructure. Excluding transit revenue, the year-on-year revenue drop was just 3%, the company said.

BT’s network infrastructure management division OpenReach was once again the best performer. OpenReach revenues rose 5% to £1.3 billion, and its operating profit shot up 26% to £355 million.

The company’s services arm, BT Global Services, saw a 4% revenue decline to £1.9 billion, and the division made an operating loss of £25 million. The division signed deals with retailer Sainsbury’s and insurer Standard Life, and two ‘major’  contracts with the European Parliament during the quarter, BT revealed.