BT fibre broadband coverage reaches 80% of UK

“The government was clear from the start that, as levels of people taking up superfast broadband went beyond our expectations in areas where we invested public money, BT would reimburse the taxpayer for reinvesting into further coverage across the UK”, he said. In a trading update published today, the company reported that its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) had risen one percent to £1.45 billion in the first quarter.

“This further validates BT’s cross-selling strategy, its move back into mobile, and with its acquisition of EE, BT will have an extensive retail footprint to showcase a wider range of services”, he said.

BT’s broadband business also performed strongly, with additional 217,000 customers signing up to its superfast fibre broadband service.

Gavin Patterson, BT’s chief executive, said: “BT’s fibre network is accessible to more than 23 million premises”. This brings the total number of Openreach fibre broadband customers to around 4.6 million, around 20 percent of total premises passed.

BT is now finalising the launch of its European and ultra-high-definition sports channels in time for the new football season, to serve up its exclusive rights to the Champions League.

According to the company, it has increased its base-case assumption to 28% fibre penetration, with 30% in Broadband Delivery UK areas, although BT is keen to point out it will be “many years” before it recovers its investment.

“And we are engaging with Ofcom as part of its Strategic Review of Digital Communications which offers scope for deregulation and the potential to create a more level playing field in pay-TV”.

“And our financial results show we’re on track to achieve our outlook for the full year”.

The funding will be made available to local authorities to reinvest the money in providing further superfast broadband coverage to even more homes and businesses and much earlier than originally planned.

The service status page of the BT Broadband website now shows a number of logged issues across the telecoms company’s network, with multiple areas around the country, ranging from Newquay to Manchester, affected by outages.

BT said it will work with councils to identify where the claw-back funds can be invested to increase fibre-based coverage sooner than would previously have been the case. “And the UK broadband market grew by 149,000, of which our share was 85,000, or 57%”, the provider added.