BT is a public limited company, registered on the London Stock Exchange and with a
secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The company was de-nationalised in
December 1983, with further tranches of government-held BT stock being sold off in 1991
and 1993.
BT’s shareholders paid the equivalent of about £20bn in 2014 prices to acquire all the assets
of BT. Since privatisation, BT has invested many times more than that £20bn in maintaining
and upgrading its network.
Our shareholders continue to include one million private citizens.
BT today
BT today is a modern communications services company, providing a range of services in the
UK and in more than 170 countries. About a quarter of BT revenues are earned outside the
UK providing services to multinationals and other large organisations from NATO to the
Brazilian national lottery. BT has around 88,000 people in 61 countries, around 72,000 work
in the UK.
BT has recently agreed definitive terms to acquire mobile business EE for £12.5bn. The
combination of EE and BT will provide customers with innovative, seamless communications
services that combine the power of fibre broadband with wi-fi and advanced mobile
capabilities.
The transaction is subject to approval by the shareholders of BT and merger clearance, in
particular from the UK Competition and Markets Authority. It is expected to complete
before the end of BT’s 2015/16 financial year.
Key facts and messages June 2015
Author: David Pincott (david.pincott@bt.com)
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Financial performance (2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15)
Full year
to 31 Mar 2015
£17,851m
6,271m
£3,172m
£2,326m
Full year
to 31 Mar 2014
£18,287m
£6,116m
£2,827m
£2,346m
Revenue1
EBITDA1
Profit before tax1
Capital expenditure
Normalised free cash
flow2
£2,830m
£2,450m
1
Earnings per share
31.5p
28.2p
1
before specific items
2
before specific items, purchases of telecommunications licences,
pension deficit payments and the cash tax benefit of pension deficit
payments.
Full year
to 31 Mar 2013
£18,339m
£6,143m
£2,656m
£2,438m
£2,300m
26.3p
At 31 March 2015 BT shares closed at 438.0p, valuing the company at
£37bn. Over the previous 12 months, BT shares rose 15%,
outperforming the FTSE100 which rose 3%.
Why BT is good for the UK
In 2008, in the teeth of recession, the BT Board approved a £2.5bn investment to make
fibre-optic broadband available to two thirds of the UK’s 28m (approx.) domestic and small
business premises. BT moved earlier than many overseas telcos, meaning that by the end of
2014, the UK was ahead of other major EU states for making fibre broadband available to
homes and SMEs.
We are one of the world’s biggest telecoms R&D investors, in 2013/14 we invested £530m,
and the benefits can be seen in, for example, faster and more reliable broadband as
modifications and breakthroughs are made by our experts. Also:
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we invest at least 1% of pretax profits in good causes each year, £27m in 2013/14.
BT hires 500 apprentices annually and hired 1,000 forces personnel in 2013/14.
BT supports the growth of British business, serving 94% of FTSE companies and 1m
SMEs.
Broadband availability and speed in the UK
BT has been crucial to putting the UK ahead in broadband provision. According to Ofcom’s
December 2014 EU scorecard, the UK continues to lead the top five EU economies on
virtually all the key measures across coverage, take-up, use and competition. Ofcom’s
December 2014 update stated average UK broadband speeds were 23Mbps, enough to
Key facts and messages June 2015
Author: David Pincott (david.pincott@bt.com)
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watch three HDTV feeds on different devices. This average speed, which benchmarks well
internationally, is due in large part to BT’s fibre investment.
According to Ofcom’s latest Communications Market Report (autumn 2014), superfast
broadband is now available to 78% of UK premises. And the EU 2014 Digital Agenda
Scoreboard says it’s 82% (these figures are for all networks and include Virgin coverage).
According to Ofcom’s latest Infrastructure Report, December 2014, 97% of premises can
now receive a broadband connection of over 2Mbps (enough to watch standard definition
TV services such as BT iPlayer). And 85% of premises can receive 10Mbps or more.
More than 99% of UK premises have access to basic broadband (defined by the OECD as any
service of 256kbps or greater, enough to handle email and basic internet functionality). This
is the best in the G8.
Ofcom’s Cost and Value of Communications Services in the UK Report, January 2014, found
that in the last 10 years:
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broadband speeds, availability and use have increased while prices have declined
the average price of a broadband package decreased by 48% between 2004 and
2012 in real terms
the price of a typical bundle of fixed line services has also fallen
the UK ranks cheapest, or second cheapest, against the US and major EU economies
for most mixed baskets of communications service.
Investment in fibre and broadband
BT invested over £3bn to rollout fibre optic broadband to the two-thirds of UK premises
where we could make a commercial case for investment, and in rural areas (the final third)
where we have been rolling out fibre in conjunction with government body Broadband
Delivery UK (BDUK). Almost 22m premises have now been passed.
Central and local government organised a tender process where companies could bid for
about £1bn of public money to supplement their own funds and roll out fibre to most of the
premises not covered by BT’s commercial programme. This is overseen by BDUK. Fujitsu
took part in the process but BT won every tender and is now committed to delivering 46
rural broadband contracts signed with local authorities.
BDUK aims to achieve superfast (defined as 24Mbps) broadband coverage to 90% of the UK
by early 2016 (note, the 90% figure is for coverage by all networks, so a small part of the
90% are premises reliant on Virgin Media infrastructure rather than BT). The government
and BDUK plan a second phase of subsidy to extend fibre coverage to 95% of domestic and
SME premises by end of 2017.
Key facts and messages June 2015
Author: David Pincott (david.pincott@bt.com)
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We have just announced plans to deliver much faster broadband for homes and small
businesses through ‘G.fast, a new standard for broadband connectivity that enables even
higher speeds.
A higher proportion of UK premises can access fibre broadband than in any of the other four
major European economies (Germany, France, Spain, and Italy). The UK take-up rate is also
faster than most other countries, including all the other big-four European economies.
Customer experience
BT invested £80m during 2014 to enable us to prioritise and focus on further improving the
reliability of our products and services.
We are rebalancing our onshore and offshore mix of call centres in order to do more of our
customer work onshore. In BT’s Consumer line of business we grew our UK service
headcount by nearly 10% in the past year and have plans to hire hundreds more people.
We also have more engineers in the field. We hired 1,600 extra engineers in 2014, as well as
300 Modern Apprentices, and continued to recruit hundreds more. Some will replace
natural churn but around half of the new intake will be specifically focused on our
commitment to continue to deliver improved levels of customer service.
We have a new dedicated team (Customer Resolution/Priority Care) to case manage
complex problems and complaints. This means that a customer has a single direct contact
who will own their issue and keep them updated until it is resolved.
Child abuse images online
BT is a pioneer in blocking online images of child abuse. In 2004 we worked with the
Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to develop ‘Cleanfeed’, the world’s first system for
blocking this offensive and illegal material. BT shared the underlying way that Cleanfeed
works with other ISPs.
BT also helped lead the talks which resulted in the creation of the IWF. We acted in this area
because child abuse images are clearly illegal, something that may not be the case with
pornography involving adults, or with ‘hate’ material.
The IWF works with law enforcement agencies and carries out its own investigations and
monitoring of online content, then creates a blacklist of sites to be blocked. BT and other
ISPs fund the IWF. BT has more than doubled its funding of the IWF and its partners in the
past two years.
Child online safety
BT has offered free parental software for years, where parents install software enabling
them to block selected categories of content. BT now provides ‘Active Choice’, where
consumers are forced to choose between having filters on or off when setting up a home
internet connection for the first time. The set-up process takes the user to a set-up page
Key facts and messages June 2015
Author: David Pincott (david.pincott@bt.com)
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which they cannot ignore or avoid, and which requires a choice – child protection filters on
or off?
BT, mobiles and wi-fi
BT is fundamental to mobile telephony, not least because mobile calls are usually carried
part of the way on our landline network. And BT has re-entered the consumer mobile
market with a range of SIM-only deals and mobile phones. BT Business also provides a range
of mobile products and services for the business market.
BT Wi-fi is the UK’s largest public wi-fi network and we believe this to be a critical asset in
the infrastructure race of the future. We are the only broadband company in the UK to
provide unlimited access at millions of BT Wi-fi hotspots as part of broadband packages. We
have over 5m wi-fi hotspots in the UK and Ireland, plus more than seven million
international hotspots through our partner Fon.
Skills and training
BT has had an apprenticeship scheme in place for over 50 years and recruits around 500
young people every year onto our apprenticeship programme. Our current apprenticeship
scheme delivers 15 different apprenticeship programmes and is rated as ‘Outstanding’ by
Ofsted.
BT also runs work Inspiration for Year 10 school children across England, Wales and
Scotland. We give around 4000 school children a taste of work each year and set business
challenges that allow them to start thinking about the practical application of their skills in a
work situation.
BT announced in spring 2014 that over the next 18 months it will provide up to 1,500
vocational training and work-experience placements, mainly for out of work 16-24 year
olds. This forms part of BT’s commitment to the UK employer-led initiative ‘Movement to
Work’ which is backed by the Prince’s Trust and the Government and is aimed at tackling
youth unemployment.
BT in health
BT has been working with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) for more than 65 years. The NHS
depends on our technology and support to keep critical services running.
Together we created N3, the NHS broadband network, securely connecting every GP surgery, hospital
and clinic in England. We’re also working with community, acute and mental health organisations to
deliver clinical information systems – connecting 230,000 healthcare professionals and transforming the
way patient care is delivered.
We are building on this work to provide innovative solutions such as telehealth allowing patients with
long term conditions (such as chronic lung or heart disease) to have their condition monitored from
home.
Key facts and messages June 2015
Author: David Pincott (david.pincott@bt.com)
Page 5 of 14
Inclusion
Creating an inclusive organisation is a key element in delivering our business objectives. We
work with a number of specialist organisations to benchmark our practices independently
across a wide range of diversity measures. It is our policy that everyone should have the
same opportunities for employment and promotion based on their ability, qualifications and
suitability for the work.
BT embraces diversity and has popular employee networks such as: BT Muslim Network, BT
Christian Network, BT Ethnic Minority Network, BT Women’s Network, Able2 (our disability
network) and BT Kaleidoscope, our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group.
Having a physical disability, mental health issue, or other health condition should not be a
barrier to employment. As a UK Job Centre “Plus Two Ticks” employer, BT actively promotes
the recruitment, development and retention of disabled people.
As an inclusive employer, we have policies and tools in place to ensure all our people are
treated fairly and are supported to achieve their potential. Our self-declared disability rate is
5.3% (we ask our people to report this voluntarily) with 4.1% of this year’s new recruits
registered as disabled.
We have been commended for our commitment to recruiting, retaining and progressing
women and ranked in the Top 10 private sector organisations benchmarked by Business in
the Community (BITC) Race for Opportunity and Opportunity Now. BT appeared in The
Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2014.
Our maternity and paternity policies go beyond the statutory minimum. In 2011/12 (the
most recent year for which data is available), 88.5% of women returned to work at BT after
maternity leave and remained with us for at least 12 months. This compares favourably with
the national average of 77%.
Delivering our purpose
Life is now built around connectivity. The connections BT provides every day are an intrinsic
part of modern society and the economy. Wherever we are, what we do is a fundamental
piece of our community’s social infrastructure. So we never stop searching for new ways to
bring social and economic benefits to those places through our products and services.
BT's technology plays its part in responding to the climate change challenge. BT people get
involved too – contributing their skills and energies to make positive changes in areas of
social need.
Being purposeful in everything we do will help us achieve our goal of sustainable, profitable
revenue growth. That means transforming beyond being a responsible and sustainable
business to being united behind a compelling vision of value for our customers, our business
and society.
Key facts and messages June 2015
Author: David Pincott (david.pincott@bt.com)
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We have:
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invested 1.15% of adjusted profit before tax in sustainable and responsible business
practices, for example, investing in renewable energy and innovative products that help
customers cut carbon emissions in 2014/15
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helped 7.5/10 people in the UK to access fibre-based products and services
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helped our customers avoid carbon emissions by 1.5 times (7.1 Mt CO2e) the end-toend carbon impact of our business (4.6 Mt CO2e)
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raised £231.4 m for good causes since 2012
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inspired 26% of our people to volunteer in 2014/15.
Key facts and messages June 2015
Author: David Pincott (david.pincott@bt.com)
Page 7 of 14