Posted: 09th Nov, 2006 By: MarkJ
BT has also revealed its latest statistics, pushing it ahead of ntl:
Telewest by accumulating a broadband subscriber total of 3m. Including its wholesale division, BT now delivers 9,300,000 broadband lines to the UK market:
BT had 9.3 million wholesale broadband connections at September 30, 2006, including 838,000 local loop unbundled lines, an increase of 2.8 million connections year on year and 626,000 connections in the quarter. Over 46 per cent of all UK homes now subscribe to broadband services, comprising both DSL and cable services (Source: Informa, Telecoms Market, September 2006).
Broadband revenue grew by 28 per cent to £229 million with BT Retail connections at September 30, 2006 growing to 2,980,000 an increase of 5 per cent in the quarter, and in October we exceeded 3 million connections. BT Retails share of broadband net additions (DSL and
LLU) was 25 per cent in the quarter and BT Retails share of the installed base was 32 per cent at September 30, 2006.
21st Century NetworkBTs 21st Century Network programme made significant progress during the quarter. The construction of 10 per cent of the UKs core communications infrastructure is in place and fully operational. Site planning and preparation has been completed in all core and metro nodes in South Wales, and at a further 100 sites across the country. Nine new fibre rings, totalling 2,100 kilometres, have been installed in South Wales and 1,500 man years of IT systems development work has been carried out. All of this preparatory work is required to support the migration of the first end user customers to 21CN. This is scheduled to take place near Cardiff at the end of November.
Readiness testing of the network, systems, services and customer premises equipment (CPE) is well advanced. A test facility in Swansea, where other communications providers can test their services, was opened on October 25, 2006. Live voice calls have already been carried over the new 21CN network, built using 21CN hardware and software, in South Wales.
BT and representatives from across industry have agreed a single end user communications programme to help consumers and single site small and medium enterprises understand better what next generation networks are and to provide a single source of detail and further information. The programme, which launched in October, operates under a single independent brand
Switched-On.
There's also some information about the operators 'Openreach' division, although it's nothing we haven't already covered in the usual monthly updates. When it comes to broadband subscribers, BT Retail and ntl:
Telewest (Virgin Media) remain within a hairs length of one another.
Well be interested to see how this line shifts next year, although many expect BT to continue pulling ahead.