Thursday, May 18, 2023

BT says FTTP fiber build is now 40% completed

BT reported full year FY23 revenue of £20.7bn, down 1% with the growth in Openreach more than offset by decline in the other units. Adjusted EBITDA was £7.9bn, up 5% due to growth in Openreach and Consumer offset by a decline in Enterprise.

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said: “We have delivered our outlook for FY23: this year we’ve grown both pro forma revenue and EBITDA for the first time in six years while navigating an extraordinary macro-economic backdrop. Over the last four years we have stuck firmly to our strategy and it’s working.

“Openreach is competing strongly and it’s clear that customers love full fibre. The Openreach Board has reaffirmed its target to reach 25 million premises with FTTP by the end of 2026 and plans to further accelerate take-up on the network. In Consumer we’re delivering for customers with strong growth in FTTP and 5G, and we’re also seeing green shoots in B2B with a return to revenue growth in the final quarter in Global and the creation of our newly integrated Business unit.

“By continuing to build and connect like fury, digitise the way we work and simplify our structure, by the end of the 2020s BT Group will rely on a much smaller workforce and a significantly reduced cost base. New BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future.”

Some additional highlights:

  • FTTP build of 702k premises passed in the quarter at an average build rate of 54k per week, with 41% of our 25m build completed; FTTP footprint of 10.3m, up 43%, with a further 6m where initial build is underway
  • Customer demand in Openreach for FTTP extremely strong with FY23 orders up 70% year on year; take up rate grew to 30.4% with record net adds of 395k in the quarter; base now c.3.1m
  • Record quarter of Consumer FTTP connections up 50% year-on-year with the base now over 1.7m
  • We have 8.6m 5G connections, up 62% on last year; our 5G network now covers 68% of the population
  • Cost transformation on track with gross annualised cost savings of £2.1bn since April 2020 against the £3bn target, with a cost to achieve of £1.1bn against a target of £1.6bn
  • Created Business through the merger of Enterprise and Global to enhance value for all B2B customers, strengthen our competitive position and deliver material synergies
  • BT expects to reduce its total labour resource from 130,000 employess currently to 75-90,000 by FY28-FY30.

https://newsroom.bt.com/results-for-the-full-year-to-31-march-2023/