BT to invest extra £1bn in fibre rollout

BT to add another 25 per cent of the UK to its fibre rollout plans

UK communications giant BT has said it will extend its optical fibre rollout to 66 per cent of UK premises, as opposed to the 40 per cent originally promised.

The giant will spend an extra £1bn on laying the infrastructure.

BT chief executive Ian Livingstone said: "Assuming an acceptable environment for investment, we see the potential to roll out fibre to around two thirds of the UK by 2015."

The extra optical fibre investment could be the result of profits announced by BT today as it released its 2009-10 financial results. The company announced pre-tax profit of £1bn, compared with 2009's £244m loss.

Revenue was down two per cent to £20.9bn.

BT has already committed £1.5bn to its optical fibre rollout, primarily using fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology to reach 40 per cent of the UK population by 2012. BT said four million homes will have access to fibre broadband by the end of 2010.

Independent Network Cooperative Association CTO Adrian Wooster said it was good news that BT has been able to invest further in improving Britain's broadband.

"This announcement to deliver up to 40 Mbit/s [using FTTC] to much of the UK population means we've left base camp and are making good progress, but we mustn't lose sight of the summit," said Wooster.

He argued that the next step [a fibre-to-the-home rollout] would be an order of magnitude higher, and one which we need to be planning for. He said: "The need for industry, government and communities to work together to reach the summit remains."

The return to profitability was helped by BT axing 20,000 jobs last year, 5,000 more than was expected. The company has cut 35,000 jobs over the past two years.