BT broadband base reach 4.9 million connections

Internet provider BT continues to increase its broadband base in UK. The recent financial results for the company’s second quarter that ended on 30th September 2009 show that the largest fixed line broadband provider in UK has made over 72,000 net additions in the quarter to reach a total 4.9 million broadband connections in all.

BT Retail broadband figures include the customer base of its main subsidiary BT Total and other ISPs like Plusnet.

BT Vision, the on-demand IPTV service from BT Total broadband has increased its connections by 18,000 in the quarter to reach 436,000 now. However, the worrying factor for BT being the net additions to BT Vision have declined by more than 50% in this quarter, compared to the Q2 last year.

Ian Livingston, CEO of BT Group said:

“We have had another quarter of progress but there remains a lot more to do. With total cost reductions of over £900m in the first half, we have made significant headway towards our previous target of well over £1bn for the full year. We now expect to generate at least £1.6bn of free cash flow this year, compared with our previous target of over £1bn.

We are investing in the future of the business with an enhanced and accelerated programme of fibre deployment and wider roll out of faster broadband speeds, all within our capital expenditure plans.”

BT Total broadband options now offer superfast 20Mbps speeds in areas where BT telephone exchanges are upgraded to ADSL 2+ broadband. BT claims that over 40% of its lines can now offer the upgraded, ADSL 2+ speeds to its customers.