BT boosts broadband numbers
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BT’s fortunes have been bolstered by increased demand for its high-speed broadband services.
The telecoms company registered 114,000 net broadband additions in the second quarter, giving the company a 45% market share.
The company says the roll out of high-speed fibre-based broadband service BT Infinity has passed 4,000 per week. It now has 1.6 million customers on 20Mbps or BT Infinity broadband services, a six-fold increase on last year.
The telecoms company has marketed its broadband and television services heavily this year.
BT Vision rolled out a £30m marketing campaign in July following an agreement earlier this year to allow Sky Sports content to be shown on the platform.
Despite the investment, BT added just 24,000 net additions in the quarter with the customer base now about half a million.
The company says over 50,000 customers have taken the Sky Sports service since it launched in August.
BT Vision plans to launch a 3D service, with the BBC iPlayer also to be added during the second half of the year.
Global Services, BT’s IT consultancy arm, saw orders rise 50% to £2.1bn over the quarter. Its future has been assured by renewed contracts with the likes of the Ministry of Defence and rail infrastructure operator Network Rail.
BT had been marred by profit warnings but showed an adjusted earnings rise of £2.85bn in the half year to 30 September, a 4% increase on last year.
Overall BT adjusted second quarter revenues dropped 3% to £4.98bn, with adjusted earnings up 3% to £1.45bn.
Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | Thu, 18 Nov 2010 1:56 pm
Very impressive Broadband numbers but the Sky Sports episode has been poorly thought out. BT VIsion's existing customer base were never sports enthusiasts so not sure why they thought adding Sky Sports would give them a significant step change. Most keen sports viewers want all the Sky Sports channels - not just 1 and 2......and they want it in HD. As well as the £30m marketing spend - BT must have also paid a fortune to get the linear services up there plus the fees to Sky for the channels themselves.
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Neil Elphinstone | Sun, 23 Jan 2011 2:28 pm
I am an IT professional and I firmly believe that iptv is the way ahead for television distribution. However, the current model for watching broadcast television, that of a continuous offering of sequential programming, is so entrenched in the viewers' psyche that they find the idea of on-demand, truly interactive access, difficult to comprehend.
As a result I am frequently asked by my customers, "what is BT Vision?". BT's rather esoteric advertising does little or nothing to explain the new technology and what it can mean to the viewer; immediate access to on-demand content as opposed to 'streaming' needs to be addressed in simple and easily comprehensible terms.
This can be achieved by harnessing viewers' conventional view of watching television (and also answering the ubiquitous "how many more channels will I get?" question) by incorporating an element of streaming, albeit temporarily, into the BT Vision channel offerings to include channels normally accessible to satellite/cable subscribers only, in order to make the new technology more comprehensible and thus encourage migration to the new service.
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