BT claims strong fibre broadband figures in the first quarter

BT Retail has clear dominance of Openreach network with market share of more than one-third

BT has posted strong fibre figures in the first quarter to 30 June 2013, with 1.7 million homes and businesses now connected to its fibre network.

Sixteen million premises have access to the network, which is predominantly fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC), but also includes BT's fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) product.

BT's infrastructure arm Openreach, which provides its network to ISPs such as Sky and TalkTalk, added 265,000 customers to its base in the quarter (up 56 per cent year on year).

BT Retail, which also trades under the Plusnet brand name, added 197,000 of these customers (74 per cent), and it also has 1.5 million of Openreach's 1.7 million fibre customer base (88 per cent), showing a clear dominance of its own network.

Taking into account both copper and fibre broadband services, BT Retail's broadband base now stands at 6.8 million premises, while BT Openreach claims a broadband base of 17.8 million premises.

BT's broadband customer boost came as the company offered its BT Sport channel for free to new or existing customers that sign up for its broadband package for a minimum of 12 months.

BT's outgoing chief executive Ian Livingston said that the company is pleased with what he called a strong start with BT Sport, claiming that more than 500,000 households - mostly existing customers - have ordered the product even before the channel has gone on air.

The company spent big on sport, committing more than £730m for its share of Premier League football rights. This led to a 16 per cent drop in first quarter profits year on year to £449m, which also took into account its broadband network upgrade. Revenues were down one per cent to £4.45bn.

"BT continues to make good progress, delivering another quarter of solid growth in underlying profit before tax. This is despite the impact of regulation and the significant investments we are making for the future," Livingston said.

Livingston, though, is to leave the telecoms giant in September to take up a role in government as minister of state for trade and investment. He will be replaced by BT Retail boss Gavin Patterson.

"I am immensely proud to have led BT over the last five years," he said. "The foundations are in place for an exciting future and I'm confident that BT will make even more progress under Gavin's leadership and our talented team."