Member Article

BT accelerates fibre broadband rollout

Telecoms company BT will accelerate its fibre broadband roll out after a successful second quarter.

The firm posted 7% increases in pre-tax profits, while Chief Executive Ian Livingston said that by raising the dividend by 15%, BT wanted to show its confidence for the coming year.

Plans to provide two thirds of UK homes with high speed fibre broadband have been brought forward, and the company announced the scheme was currently 18 months ahead of schedule.

This announcement was welcomed by the Government, as the improvements BT has made to infrastructure has enabled the UK to become a fierce international competitor in broadband league tables.

The Secretary for State and Culture, Maria Miller commented: “Fibre technology is a major driver of economic growth and I am delighted to see BT make such good progress in helping to get the UK connected.

“I now look forward to seeing rapid progress in the Government backed projects to connect hard to reach areas.”

BT said over 950,000 premises were now connected to fibre broadband, and more than 70 communications providers currently use the network.

BT’s chief was cheered by the firm’s successes during London’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the company predicted growth in underlying revenue and profits before tax and exceptional items for the next financial year.

Mr Livingston commented: “We have delivered another solid quarter of growth in profit before tax despite the economic conditions and regulatory impacts.

“We continue to make significant investments in the future of our business and we are againaccelerating our fibre roll-out.

“We now expect fibre to be available to two-thirds of UK premises during spring 2014, … and we are recruiting more than 1,000 engineers in 2012 to help deliver this.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .