BT to invest £6 bn to upgrade infrastructure

British telecom giant BT has announced plans to lay fibre optic lines to around two million premises across the UK, including new housing premises, high streets and business parks, replacing its ageing copper wiring, involving investment of around £6 billion.

The investment over a three-year period, will help homes and businesses to receive faster broadband, including two million new customers for fibre-optic connections, BT stated in a release.

Under the three-year programme, BT will upgrade both its broadband and mobile network, covering the entire country with 4G mobile services. In the process, BT will also secure control of its network division, Openreach.

BT hopes to deploy ultrafast broadband to 12 million homes and businesses, and has set a minimum target of 10 million connections by 2020. This will include two million fibre-optic connections, while 4G mobile services will cover 95 per cent of telecom subscriber base in the country.

While announcing the company's results at the annual shareholders' meeting today, BT chief executive Gavin Patterson will unveil the ambitious project.

BT saw a 15 per cent jump in profits at £3.03 billion for the year ended 31 March, in its first set of results after the takeover of mobile operator EE.

The performance was driven by strong demand for its broadband and television packages, which lifted revenues by 22 per cent to £18.91 bn.

Patterson said it had been a ''landmark year for BT'', which consummated the takeover of EE for £10.25 bn last January (See: BT Group seals deal to acquire EE for £12.5 bn). He said the integration was ''going well'' following an overhaul of the company's management structure in the wake of the merger.

The BT boss warned that any investment plans are ''subject to regulatory certainty'' amid an ongoing battle by the company to maintain control of its broadband network division, Openreach.

The telecoms watchdog Ofcom is formulating an alternative model for Openreach, that will see BT give up financial control of the network arm, with a decision due in the autumn. Openreach increased sales to £5.01bn in the 12 months to March 31, a 2pc increase on the year before.

BT has previously resisted attempts to invest more in fibre-optic cables, instead favouring a technology known as ''G.Fast'' that adapts existing copper wires. The company said today that ''copper has a role to play for many years yet.''