{"id":35231,"date":"2024-02-01T07:40:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T07:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=35231"},"modified":"2024-02-01T09:43:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T09:43:34","slug":"bt-group-add-950k-premises-to-fttp-broadband-cover-in-q4-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/02\/bt-group-add-950k-premises-to-fttp-broadband-cover-in-q4-2023.html","title":{"rendered":"BT Group Add 950k Premises to FTTP Broadband Cover in Q4 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Broadband and telecoms giant BT<\/a> Group has today posted a short trading update for the last quarter to December 2023, which reveals that Openreach<\/a> expanded the UK coverage of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP<\/a>) based broadband ISP network by another 950,000 premises (up from 860k last quarter) to total 13 million passed.<\/p>\n

Take note that the BT<\/a> Group now only publishes a short trading update in calendar Q1 and Q3 (roughly in-line with most FTSE 100 companies), thus we only get a very limited summary this time around and the full details come in Q2 and Q4. As such, we’ve opted to do a similarly brief update on the key details below.<\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> BT<\/a> are investing up to \u00a315bn to bring FTTP<\/a> to 25 million premises by December 2026 (80%+ of the UK) and they aspire to potentially reach up to 30 million by 2030 (c. 25-30m).<\/div>\n

In terms of the headline changes. Openreach<\/a> expanded their FTTP<\/a> coverage by 950,000 premises in the last quarter of 2023, which is in keeping with their targets (here<\/a>) and gives them a build rate of 73,000 premises passed per week. The operator also added 432,000 full fibre customers in the same period, which pushes their take-up rate to 34% or a total of 4.4 million (achieving this during a high rate of build is particularly impressive).<\/p>\n

In addition, it’s worth contrasting these results against BT’s current targets, which among other things have predicted that their total labour force would shrink to between 75,000 and 90,000 by 2030 (e.g. many of the engineers they have today won’t be needed post-2030) and FTTP coverage would grow to between 25-30 million premises, while delivering take-up of around 40-55% by this same date.<\/p>\n

BT also holds a target of 13.0-14.5 million retail 5G<\/a> mobile connections via EE<\/a> for 2030.<\/p>\n

BT’s New CEO, Allison Kirkby, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“BT Group has delivered another quarter of revenue and EBITDA growth, while rapidly building and upgrading customers to our full-fibre broadband and 5G<\/a> networks, and we continue to be on track to achieve our financial outlook for the year.<\/p>\n

We are providing great digital connectivity and services, while laying the foundations for future growth that will benefit our customers, investors and the UK. As I assume the role of Chief Executive, we remain committed to our purpose and our strategic focus, and I am looking forward to leading BT Group into its next phase of development.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BT Group’s Q3 FY24 Performance Summary<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n