BT Reaches Fibre Rollout Target Ahead Of Schedule

BT has reached its target of providing access to fibre broadband to ten million premises four months ahead of schedule.

The telecommunications provider has also released its fourth quarter results which revealed it had added more than one million customers to its broadband network.

Solid results

“Our engineers have worked tirelessly this past year and BT has made a real commitment to the UK’s infrastructure,” said BT chief executive Ian Livingston. “Rolling out fibre is no easy task and so to have passed ten million premises in such a short time is fantastic. Our roll-out is one of the fastest in the world and our engineers deserve lots of credit.”

Last October, BT brought forward its target of making fibre broadband available to two thirds of UK premises to the end of 2014. It has said it hired hundreds of extra engineers to assist with the rollout.

More than one million new homes and businesses were added to BT’s network over the course of last year through BT Retail, Sky and TalkTalk. In addition, BT Retail subscriptions increased by 10 percent year on year, with its customer base growing to 6.3 million. It said that results were pretty much as they expected, with profits increasing but revenues decreasing.

“BT have presented solid results both financially and operationally in terms of subscribers. Despite its lack of content in comparison to Sky and Virgin, net broadband additions continued strongly in 4Q, signalling consumers’ preference for a strong bundle of services, and how much BT’s fiber offering is proving to be a differentiator,” commented Ovum analyst Mark Giles.

“However, increasing pricing pressure from rivals saw an accelerated decline in fixed voice subscribers in 4Q. Although, BT is sticking to its guns and not looking to follow suit, which makes sense given that it has tended to differentiate more on quality rather than on price.”

Economic gains

BT reiterated its belief that there are significant economic gains to be made through the rollout of superfast broadband to the UK, citing the example of the rollout of fibre to 89 percent of homes and businesses in Northern Ireland through its partnership with the Department of Trade, Enterprise and Investment.

It says this is possible through BDUK and has bid for funding in a number of regions. It has been named as the preferred bidder for Rutland and has won the bid for Lancashire, pledging to invest more funds in areas it is successful.

“The UK is making great progress with fibre broadband. There are more than half a million customers already using the service and more than 60 ISPs trialling or offering services,” added Livingston. “This is a significant achievement given we only began selling services a couple of years ago. Momentum is building in the market and that can only be good for Broadband Britain. We already compare very well to other major European economies and given our plans, the UK can sprint ahead in the future.”

BT seems optimistic, but last week a report from the London School of Economics (LSE) warned that the government was in danger of missing out on its target of having the “best superfast broadband network” in Europe by 2015, due a £1.1 billion shortfall in public funding.

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