BT has announced that its fibre wholesale service has passed the ten million properties milestone – with the landmark coinciding with the communications giant's latest financial results.
BT is playing catch-up on fibre, but is making significant progress, and its 10 million landmark has come ahead of the scheduled time of the end of the year.
Livingstone:
"Our roll-out is one of the fastest in the world and our engineers deserve lots of credit."
Rival Virgin Media announced last month that it had also passed a 10 million homes landmark in its fibre rollout – but for its flagship 100Mbps service.
The two networks are largely separate, so the total fibre coverage for the UK is not one plus the other, with major metropoles like London and many other populus areas covered by both.
Tirelessly
The company is competing for the Broadband Delivery UK funds and stated that it will continue to apply for the grants in every UK region.
BT chief executive Ian Livingston added: "Our engineers have worked tirelessly this past year and BT has made a real commitment to the UK's infrastructure.
"Rolling out fibre is no easy task and so to have passed ten million premises in such a short time is fantastic.
"Our roll-out is one of the fastest in the world and our engineers deserve lots of credit."
Flush
Speaking of credit, BT also announced that despite a tough economy, it has managed a 16 per cent increase in profit over its last financial year, with revenue declining by 1.9 per cent.
"In what remains a challenging environment we have delivered another year of growth in profits and free cash flow," added Livingstone.
"Our financial strength has allowed us to invest in the business, make a £2bn payment into the pension fund, reward employees and deliver double digit growth in shareholder returns."
