British Telecom has revealed an extra 19,000 people signed up to its broadband packages between April and June 2017
This took its overall number of broadband subscribers up to 9.2 million and was fuelled partly by growing demand for fibre-based products.
An extra 170,000 people signed up for fibre-to-the-cabinet or fibre-to-the-premises products during the quarter, meaning 5.1 million BT broadband subscribers are now using fibre-based connections.
BT continued to extend the reach of fibre broadband between April and June through both the Broadband Delivery UK programme and its commercial investments.
The company confirmed its superfast fibre broadband network now passes 26.8 million properties, while its ambition now is to make ultrafast broadband available to 12 million homes and businesses by the end of 2020.
Furthermore, it pointed out that Openreach is currently consulting with communication providers to identify the level of demand for a major full-fibre deployment.
BT also said it is continuing to invest in 4G, with its geographic coverage now reaching 83 per cent of the UK.
In addition, Q1 saw the company secure the rights to the European Rugby Champions Cup and the European Rugby Challenge Cup in the UK and Republic of Ireland from 2018-19 for at least three years.
Since BT Sport also has the rights to show Aviva Premiership Rugby action, BT believes it is now "the home of elite English club rugby".
Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive of BT, commented: "BT has delivered an encouraging performance in the first quarter of the year.
"We’ve made good progress in our key areas of strategic focus: deliver great customer experience, invest for growth and transform our costs."
Patterson added that BT and Openreach are "well-placed" to support the rollout of fibre-to-the-premises technology across the UK and are consulting with industry stakeholders to "build the investment case" to make this happen.
Source: https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/news/2017/07/bt_added_19k_broadband_customers_in_q1/
