Technology

Posted on May 9, 2019 by staff

BT increases fibre target to 4 million premises by 2021

Technology

BT has increased its targeted fibre coverage from 3 to 4 million premises by March 2021.

The group set the new targets as part of its full year results, adding that its ambition is now to have fibre technology in 15 million premises by mid-2020s.

The new targets have been set with the condition that they are subject to “conditions being right”.

The news comes as the group posts its full year results, with a revenue loss of 1 per cent on 2018.

It reports capital expenditure was by up £441m, some of which was used to increase its investment in ‘fibre to the premises’ FTTP technology.

Chief executive Philip Jansen described the group’s results as ‘solid’, with growth in consumer and global services offset by a decline in enterprise services and telephone division Openreach.

“Since joining the company three months ago, it has become clear to me just how fundamental BT’s role is in connecting our society,” he said.

“While we are really well positioned in a very challenging and competitive UK market, we have a lot of work to do to ensure we remain successful and deliver long term sustainable value to our shareholders.”

“We need to invest to improve our customer propositions and competitiveness. We need to invest to stay ahead in our fixed, mobile and core networks, and we need to invest to overhaul our business to ensure that we are using the latest systems and technology to improve our efficiency and become more agile.”

The group’s outlook for 2019/20 sees adjusted revenue down circa 2 per cent.