LONDON (Reuters) – BT, Britain’s biggest broadband provider, said it was ready to play its part in achieving new Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ambition to roll out full-fiber across the country as it beat market expectations for first-quarter trading on Friday.
“On network investment, we welcome the government’s ambition for full-fiber broadband across the country and we are confident we will see further steps to stimulate investment,” Chief Executive Philip Jansen said.
“We are ready to play our part to accelerate the pace of roll-out, in a manner that will benefit both the country and our shareholders, and we are engaging with the government and (regulator) Ofcom on this.”
Johnson said Britain had to accelerate the roll-out of full-fiber broadband to homes and businesses in both his campaign to become prime minister and after taking office last month.
He said a government target for complete full-fiber coverage by 2033 was “laughably unambitious”.
BT plans to roll out fiber to 4 million premises by March 2021, and has said it could connect 15 million by the mid-2020s if the government and regulator makes it worth its while.
The company, which owns Britain’s biggest mobile operator EE, reported a 1% fall in both first-quarter adjusted revenue to 5.63 billion pounds ($6.82 billion) and adjusted core earnings to 1.96 billion pounds.
Both were ahead of analysts’ forecasts of 5.59 billion pounds and 1.89 billion pounds, according to a company-compiled consensus.
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