Record fibre connections but BT posts mixed 2026 financial year | Computer Weekly

Even though it said the financial year saw increased demand for its next-generation products and networks, the UK’s leading telco, BT, has announced a fiscal year 2026 with noticeable falls in revenue and broadband customers, offset by a modest gain in profitability.

For the full financial year to 31 March 2026, BT reported revenues of £19.7bn, down by 3% compared with the previous financial year, with adjusted revenue of £19.6bn, slipping by 4%. These figures were driven by lower international revenue, including divestments, declines in handset trading and declines in adjusted UK service revenue.

Adjusted UK service revenue was £15.4bn, down by 1% compared with fiscal 2025, mainly driven by lower voice volumes, offset by Consumer Price Index-linked price increases and an improved broadband fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) mix in its Openreach broadband provision division.

The lower revenue was offset by strong cost transformation and cost control, according to BT, leading to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of £8.2bn, flat year-on-year, excluding divestments. Like-for-like adjusted EBITDA was up by 1%. Reported profit before tax was £1.4bn, up 8%, with the increase said to be primarily driven by lower specific items, lower depreciation and amortisation, offset by a higher finance expense.

During the course of the year, and as part of its long-standing transformation plan, BT realised £580m in gross annualised cost savings, at a cost to achieve of £336m, taking total savings over two years to £1.5bn at costs of £800m. It said that it also realised year-on-year reductions in energy usage in its networks of 6%, in total labour resource of 7% to 108,000 and in Openreach repair volumes of 18%. The company’s overall transformation plan target has been raised to £3.7bn from £3bn, and the programme has been extended by a year to 2030, at a cost to achieve of £1.4bn from £1bn.

Among the officially selected highlights of the year, BT said it had reached a record FTTP build of 4.8 million premises passed in the year, achieving the accelerated target set in 2025 and the fastest build in Europe.

At the end of the year, BT’s FTTP footprint stood at 23 million premises, which is more than two-thirds of all UK premises, 6.3 million of which were in rural locations. It was on track to reach its stated target of hitting 25 million premises by December 2026.

The results also showed record customer demand for Openreach FTTP, with 2.2 million net adds in the year, bringing total premises connected to 8.8 million and take-up among all major fibre providers to over 38%. Higher FTTP take-up, speed mix and price increases saw Openreach broadband grow its average revenue per user by 4% on an annual basis to £16.7.

However, FTTP growth contrasted with overall broadband performance. Openreach broadband line losses amounted to 203,000 in the fourth quarter, giving full-year losses of 825,000. This, noted BT, was slightly better than its near 850,000 guidance, supported by expanded and accelerated build. However, BT also expects customer losses of around 800,000 over the course of the next financial year.

In the realm of mobile, the company boasted that its EE subsidiary remains the UK’s best mobile network, and its 5G+ population coverage increased to 73% from 43% at the end of fiscal 2025. The EE 5G base reached 14.5 million by 31 March, up 10% year-on-year.

BT’s business division achieved what was described as “significant” new connectivity and security wins, including those with BAE Systems, NIE Networks and easyJet. It is also partnering with Nscale to deliver sovereign AI datacentres in the UK.

Summing up her company’s performance over the course of the year, BT chief executive Allison Kirkby called the financial year 2026 another year of strong delivery against the company’s strategy.

“We are building the UK’s digital backbone even faster and further, connecting the country like no one else and accelerating our transformation – and we know there is much more we can do, as we create a better BT for all of us,” she remarked.

“We have delivered on our financial guidance, and we are transforming ahead of plan, offsetting headwinds while successfully competing…We’re announcing an increased full-year dividend of 8.32 pence per share and an updated dividend policy, and we are reiterating our guidance of sustained growth, including cash flow inflection to c. £2bn in FY27 and to c. £3bn by the end of the decade.”