BT: Fibre fundamental to TV launch
September 24, 2014
By Colin Mann
Clive Selley, Chief Executive Officer BT Technology, Service and Operations, has admitted that the telco’s “bold bet” on investing in a large-scale fibre roll-out was fundamental to its launch of TV services.
Speaking at the Huawei Ultra-Broadband Forum 2014 in London, Selley told delegates that using the company’s fibre broadband network enabled it to deliver TV to 1 million customers, with the 140 channels on BT TV including many in HD, It also enabled the delivery of on-demand IPTV platform YouView.
BT announced mid-2008 it would invest £1.5 billion in fibre optic cables, giving up to 10 million UK households access to faster broadband. Selley suggested that an additional £1 billion had been invested since then, with two-thirds of UK households connected to superfast broadband.
Gavin Patterson, BT Chief Executive, commenting on the telco’s H1 results at the end of July 2014, revealed that the fibre broadband network now covered more than twenty million premises. “We are passing over 70,000 additional premises each week and demand is strong with more than three million already signed up. We have announced a further 2,500 new jobs in recent months to support our strategic investments in fibre and customer service.”