BT CEO Gavin Patterson is gearing up for a massive job cut of 4,000 employees to improve financials of the telecom giant in the UK.

“Accelerating cost transformation with restructuring programs across Global Services, Functions and Technology, Services & Operations (TSO) saving £300 million over two years, removing 4,000 jobs with a restructuring charge of £300 million – cost savings to offset market and regulatory pressures and support investment,” said BT.

“We’re accelerating and expanding our cost transformation programs, significantly in central Group Functions, in Technology, Service and Operations, as well as in several other lines of business. This will help offset market and regulatory pressures and create the capacity for future investment,” said Gavin Patterson.

Capital expenditure

BT aspires to become the UK’s digital champion. Gavin Patterson said the telecom operator is ready to make investment in the UK’s digital infrastructure, in continued improvements in its customer service, and in new technologies to further enhance customer experience.

BT’s Capex (capital expenditure) was £1,022 million in Q4 2016-17 against £760 million in Q4 2015-16.

BT has increased consumer Capex by 36 percent in Q4 and 14 percent in fiscal 2017. Capex of EE rose 24 percent to £164 million in the quarter, while it grew 22 percent for the year. Openreach Capex was £470 million (+25 percent), reflecting the deferral of grant funding.

BT added 29,000 retail broadband customers this quarter, representing 35 percent of the DSL and fibre broadband market net additions. Superfast fibre broadband added 211,000 retail users, taking customer base to 4.9 million. 53 percent of BT’s broadband customers are on fibre.

BT added 11,000 TV customers, growing total TV base to 1.7 million.

BT added around 1,100 new UK and Ireland customer service roles in the quarter — answering 86 percent of customers’ calls in the UK and Ireland against 55 percent at the start of 2017. 4,000 agents are now using new customer service system Consumer.com, providing a more seamless customer experience, saving over 10,000 calls per week.

BT has 30.0 million mobile users after adding 192,000 postpaid mobile customers, taking postpaid base to 16.9 million. Mobile ARPU was £26.3 for postpaid customers and £4.4 for prepaid customers across the BT group.

EE aims to expand 4G LTE geographic coverage to 92 percent of the UK by September 2017 and 95 percent by the end of December 2020. EE’s 4G coverage reaches 80 percent of the UK’s landmass or 99 percent 4G population coverage, the largest of any UK operator.

EE is achieving its highest ever levels of customer satisfaction after answering 100 percent of contact centre calls in the UK and Ireland last quarter.