BT has reported record fibre demand from households and businesses connecting to its expanding network, helping stabilise overall customer losses across its operations. The company said stronger take-up of faster full fibre services is offsetting pressure from competition on its Openreach network, supporting improved profitability.
The UK’s largest telecoms group added 571,000 net fibre connections during the third quarter, a 21% increase year on year. This growth underlines record fibre demand as more customers migrate to full fibre rather than legacy services. At the same time, line losses on the Openreach network fell to 210,000, an improvement on the previous quarter.
Chief Executive Allison Kirkby said BT’s continued network build was key to the improving trend.
“The reason line-losses are starting to abate is the fact that we are still building and others are not,” she said.
BT’s fibre network now reaches more than 21 million properties, while rivals such as Virgin Media and CityFibre are increasingly focusing capital on consolidation rather than new rollout.
The company also said the impact of Sky expanding its use of the CityFibre network alongside Openreach had been limited, with no year-on-year deterioration in line losses for two consecutive quarters. Record fibre demand has helped reduce BT’s forecast annual customer losses to around 850,000, down from a previous estimate of 900,000.
For the three months to the end of December, BT reported a 4% decline in revenue, driven by weaker service income and handset sales. Adjusted core earnings fell 1% to £2.1 billion, in line with expectations. The group reaffirmed its guidance, including a target for cash flow to reach £2 billion next year and £3 billion by the end of the decade.