[Moderator note -- This thread has been created by splitting the posts from the BT Group Q3 Results thread.]
Folks,
Following the publication of our financial results, I’d like to add my perspective on our progress in building Britain’s connected future. It’s been hard with the poor weather and flooding, but despite that, we have made improvements in the face of one of our most challenging periods ever. Our revenue and EDITDA growth has continued, and our performance on BDUK remains strong. We’re making progress but we’ve still much more to do on improving our service to our customers.
As usual, I’ll review our performance using the cornerstones of our Openreach plan on a page; customers, people, network, stakeholders and shareholders.
Our customers – 'Trusted to deliver'
We’ve received positive feedback from the CPs over the recent period on how we restored service quickly for people affected by the floods, and in particular how well we communicated with them. On New Sites, the number of customers waiting over 30 days for service has reduced by 79% - a remarkable change from a year ago. Service Delivery has delivered more than ever before, but with the storms also giving us a record fault intake, getting through the workstack remains a challenge. We did miss our RFT target, and moving into Q4 we must bring our lead times back under control, particularly in Ethernet. Our customer complaint volumes remain down year on year, but December weather has meant we’ve seen volumes increase into the New Year. There’s clearly more to do, but there’s a lot to be proud of this quarter. Thank you for your contribution to serving our customers.
Our people – 'Inspired, engaged and valued'Over the last quarter our monthly Heartbeat survey tells us that our people continue to feel the impact of pressure and change. On the positive, more people have said recently that things are changing for the better. You’re telling us you know why change has to happen, but the amount and speed of change is challenging. We also need to get the balance right on measuring productivity and quality to ensure that you feel trusted to put customers first.
For the third quarter this year, we have zero reported public affecting low wire or D pole incidents. Our focus on safety and wellbeing remains high, and we’re continuing to invest in tools and equipment. We have around 23,000 iPhones in use today, and will have around 25,000 by the end of the year. Enhancements in middleware should also help our engineers to do their job better.
Our network – 'Nationwide, reliable and fast'
Our trial of ultrafast fibre broadband powered by G.fast technology is going from strength to strength with close to 5,000 homes able to get speeds of 300/Mb/second. Trials continue on the next generation of FTTP and Fibre on Demand, and our Digital Voice trial will start in Q4. Three great examples of how we’re leading the way on network innovation. We’re very close to our target of 99% NGA capacity availability, and have saved almost 90,000 visits this year through FVR, showing our commitment to invest in proactive network maintenance.
Our stakeholders – 'Welcomed in the community'
We’re ahead of target on volunteering participation which is up 97% year on year. Our broadband footprint continues to grow with over 24m homes passed on fibre, and nearly 4m of those in partnership with BDUK. We really are making a difference to Britain, so thank you to everyone who has helped to achieve this. We’re expecting to hear the outcome of Ofcom’s Strategic Review of Digital Communications very soon, and will give you more information about that when we have it.
Our shareholders – 'Competitive and investable'Despite the impact of regulation on our prices, we have now delivered three consecutive quarters of revenue and profit growth. In Q3 we delivered growth of 3% revenue and 4% EBITDA (our chosen measure of profit) mainly helped by the record net fibre additions and higher Ethernet volumes. We have invested 7% more, by the way of capital expenditure, mainly reducing the number of customers waiting for New Sites and Ethernet connections which in turn will generate more profits for the future.
Today I formally hand the baton to Clive, who I believe will be an excellent leader of Openreach. He is one of Britain’s leading telecommunications experts, but also has many years of hands on experience at BT. As we sit in the middle of the tremendous shift from voice to data, telephone to internet and copper to fibre, the demands and expectations on Openreach are significant. Over the last couple of years, we have made significant progress in reshaping Openreach around these challenges. While I cannot promise that these pressures will ease under Clive’s tenure, I am confident that Openreach goes into them better prepared than ever before, and in Clive has a leader who will be able to chart the right course into the future.
Thank you all for helping to build Britain’s connected future.
Joe
