Carphone Warehouse now operates across Europe

Pre-tax profit for the 12 months to 27 March came in at �44.5m ($81.4m), compared with �34.5m last year.

The firm said its new landline service TalkTalk now had 385,000 users in Britain and it expected to reach 900,000 customers by March 2005.

Carphone Warehouse operates about 1,200 stores across 10 European markets.

It is planning to open a further 200 stores this year.

Connected

Chief executive Charles Dunstone said the outlet for the firm's core mobile phone business was "promising".

"We are once again operating in a handset market demonstrating strong growth," he said, noting an acceleration in demand for 3G connections.

"At the same time the rate of innovation and renewal from the handset manufacturers continues to stimulate consumer demand," he added.

Carphone's TalkTalk service has also been launched in France, Switzerland and Portugal, and is due to be introduced in Spain and Germany.

Finance director Roger Taylor told the Reuters news agency that the firm hoped to have 200,000 TalkTalk customers in continental Europe by March 2005.