Telecom network operator BT Group has made an investment of £629 million or $960 million in the second quarter ended 30 September 2015.

The Capex (capital spending) of BT Group rose 18 percent.

BT Group invested in fiber broadband network that now passes 24 million premises, over 80 percent of the UK. It plans to offer ultrafast broadband to ten million premises in 2020.

BT achieved 415,000 fiber broadband net connections, an increase of 21 percent. The number of homes and businesses connected is 5 million. BT has 3.4 million retail fiber broadband customers, having added 212,000 this quarter. The UK broadband market grew by 160,000, of which BT share was 82,000 or 51 percent.

“Demand for fiber remains strong with fiber net additions up 21 percent as we hit the five million milestone for homes and businesses connected,” said Gavin Patterson, chief executive, BT Group.

Recently, BT announced trials of ultrafast fibre broadband, with homes and businesses participating in the trial getting speeds of up to 330Mbps using G.fast technology. XG-FAST achieved a speed of 5.6Gbps over a typical 35 metre copper cable in tests carried out at its research campus in Suffolk.

BT Openreach hired 3,000 engineers in the last 18 months to fix faults faster and provide new services sooner. BT created more than 1,000 new contact centre jobs in the UK. It aims to handle more than 80 percent of consumer customer calls in the UK.

BT Group said its revenue growth was flat at £4,381 million or $6.7 billion.

BT Group generated £1,559 million (-5 percent) from global services, £781 million (-1 percent) from BT business, £1,127 million (+7 percent) from BT Consumer, £520 million (-2 percent) from BT Wholesale and £1,267 million (+2 percent) from Outreach.

Baburajan K
[email protected]