BT pledges to build high speed internet “like fury” with strikes now in the past

BT today claimed it is winning the broadband race, building “like fury” to give Britain an ultra high-speed internet network that should rival any in the world. It is doing 62k premises a week and is 38% into its 25 million target for the fastest internet connections.

The company was hit by eight days of strikes recently, but has reached a settlement with unions that ought to hold firm for the near future at least.

Various so-called “altnets” – small telecom players – are competing with BT in some areas, though it is far from clear they will have enough scale to truly make a difference.

CEO Philip Jansen welcomes the competition, especially in hard to reach parts of the country. But said: “We are really ramping it up now, despite the economic challenges. We are going to put our foot down.”

In the nine months to December 31, revenue slipped 1% to £13.6 billion. Profits fell 15% to £1.3 billion.

The City is likely to be pleased with progress. BT shares open today at 124p.

Jansen is in the fifth year of a five year contract but insists he isn’t planning to move on immediately

He said: “Despite a challenging economic backdrop…we’re transforming BT Group for the benefit of our customers. We continue to accelerate our investments in the UK’s leading next generation networks; we’re combining our Enterprise and Global operations to create BT Business, a single, strengthened B2B unit; and we’re going further on cutting costs to deliver £3 billion in annualised savings by the end of FY25.

"On full fibre, we’re building - and now connecting - like fury: 9.6 million premises reached to date, with 29% already connected, and our 5G mobile network now reaches 60% of the UK population.”