Summary
- Openreach’s FTTP footprint reached 23.4 million premises after adding 514,000 in the quarter; BT still targets 25 million by December 2026.
- Openreach recorded 574,000 FTTP net additions, reaching 9.4 million connected premises and 40% take-up.
- Total Openreach broadband lines fell by 192,000, and BT continues to expect approximately 800,000 losses in FY2027.
- Openreach broadband ARPU rose 7% to £17.7, while Consumer broadband ARPU fell 2% to £40.9, mainly because of declining voice revenue.
- Continuing-operations revenue was flat at £4.3 billion; adjusted EBITDA fell 1% to £2.0 billion and reported profit before tax fell 4% to £505 million.
BT’s quarter contains three fibre numbers that should not be combined. A footprint of 23.4 million is the number of premises the network can reach. The 9.4 million connected premises are customers using Openreach FTTP. The 574,000 net additions measure quarterly movement in that connected base.
Those gains produced a 40% take-up rate and helped Openreach broadband ARPU rise 7% to £17.7. They did not prevent the total Openreach broadband line base from falling by 192,000. BT still expects a loss of about 800,000 lines during the financial year.
The distinction matters because migration can succeed while market share or category demand weakens. Moving a copper customer to fibre improves technology and can improve wholesale revenue per line. Losing a line altogether removes the relationship.
Wholesale improvement meets retail pressure
Openreach’s rising ARPU reflects more FTTP take-up, faster speed tiers and price increases. In BT Consumer, broadband ARPU moved the other way, down 2% to £40.9, mainly because voice revenue declined. Postpaid mobile ARPU rose 2% to £19.7.
The company’s retail FTTP base reached 4.8 million, 1.1 million higher than a year earlier. Of that, 4.5 million connections were Consumer and 0.3 million Business. Consumer broadband customers rose by only 1,000 in the quarter, while postpaid mobile added 13,000.
These are different layers of the same system. Openreach sells access to BT and competitors. BT Consumer then packages broadband, voice and mobile. Wholesale fibre can gain take-up even when a retail bundle loses voice value or when another provider wins the end customer.
The financial result shows the tension. Continuing-operations revenue was flat at £4.3 billion. Adjusted UK service revenue fell 1% to £3.8 billion as broadband and public-sector growth was offset by voice decline. Adjusted EBITDA fell 1% to £2.0 billion, with lower broadband and voice margins offsetting cost transformation.
The cost base is doing part of the work
BT reduced total labour resource excluding International by 8% to 94,000. Network energy use fell 8%, and Openreach repair volumes fell 21%. Those changes support margin while fibre replaces older infrastructure, but they also place execution risk on employees, contractors and service operations.
The International unit is now classified as discontinued after BT’s proposed joint venture with Verizon. The headline metrics are therefore presented on a continuing-operations basis, and prior comparisons were re-presented. They should not be treated as a simple total-group comparison before and after the proposed venture.
BT reconfirmed its full-year and multi-year outlook. It also raised 5G+ population coverage from 73% to 77% and kept the 25 million FTTP-premises target for December. Coverage and footprint are availability measures, not subscribed users.
Who benefits depends on the layer. Households gain access to faster lines; wholesale customers gain a larger fibre addressable base; Openreach gains higher ARPU from the connections it retains. BT carries build and migration costs, while its workforce carries part of the efficiency programme. Competitors can use Openreach infrastructure while still taking retail share.
The next useful evidence is not another premises-passed number alone. It is the relationship among FTTP net additions, total line losses, retail ARPU and cash flow. If fibre take-up and wholesale value outweigh the disappearing line base, the migration strengthens the economics. If 800,000 lines leave faster than value rises, BT will have built a better network over a smaller commercial base.