BT adds 1.1 million Openreach FTTP customers as build nears 25 million

BT added more than 1.1 million net full-fibre customers in the first half of its 2026 financial year, pushing total Openreach FTTP connections past 10 million in October and giving the operator its strongest recorded demand for the product — roughly 6,000 new fibre customers every day across the period.

The operator reported H1 revenue of £8.8 billion (€10.5 billion), up 1 per cent year on year, driven largely by higher handset revenues in its Consumer division and partly offset by declining adjusted service revenue. The figures, published on 5 November, arrive a month after BT completed its acquisition of TalkTalk, a deal CEO Allison Kirkby framed as protective rather than aggressive.

How fast is the fibre build actually moving?

Openreach passed a further 1.2 million premises in the six-month period, lifting BT's FTTP footprint to 24.1 million homes and businesses. The company now expects to hit its long-standing 25 million-premises build target in March 2027 — within four months of this report.

Premises connected to the network reached 9.9 million in H1, crossing the 10 million mark in October. Full fibre now accounts for more than 50 per cent of BT's broadband base, with take-up at 41 per cent. That take-up rate matters commercially: Openreach broadband ARPU rose 7 per cent year on year to £17.80, helped by CPI-linked price rises as well as customers shifting to faster fibre tiers.

Where the numbers are less flattering

The demand record sits alongside persistent line losses. Openreach lost 175,000 broadband lines in Q2 and 366,000 across the half-year. BT continues to guide for around 800,000 line losses for the full year — a figure it has now repeated rather than revised, and one that reflects rival networks competing hard in an unbundled wholesale market.

In the consumer base, postpaid mobile grew by 86,000 customers and TV by 26,000, while broadband slipped 7,000. Churn held stable year on year.

What Kirkby said

"BT delivered a strong first half, with further strategic momentum in a competitive market, resulting in growth in revenue, EBITDA and customer satisfaction," Kirkby said. She added that "Openreach achieved record full fibre demand, with more than 10 million homes and businesses now connected and take-up reaching 41 per cent."

On cost, the picture is moving quickly. BT booked £312 million of annualised savings in the first half — spread across six months, that is over £50 million of savings banked each month — as its simplification and modernisation programme advances.

The proposed international joint venture with Verizon is "progressing at pace", though BT offered no timeline detail beyond that phrase, and the deal remains subject to the usual regulatory clearances.

Cash, dividends and the TalkTalk question

BT reiterated mid-term guidance, including normalised free cash flow of around £3 billion by the end of the decade. For the current fiscal year, it expects around £2 billion — a figure that deliberately excludes any effect of the TalkTalk acquisition, meaning integration costs and benefits remain an open variable.

Kirkby described the TalkTalk deal as "stepping up for the country... protecting millions of customers while creating value for all our stakeholders" — a defence of a consolidation that drew scrutiny on competition grounds before completion. How those millions of migrated customers behave once moved onto BT systems will test that claim.

Shareholders received a modest reward in the meantime: the interim dividend rises to 2.5 pence per share.

BT's Business division, Kirkby noted, is supported by a growing order book and "leadership in secure and sovereign connectivity solutions" — vendor language that the results do not yet quantify.

With the 25 million-premises milestone now scheduled for March 2027 and full-year line-loss guidance unchanged at circa 800,000, the next test is whether record fibre demand can start shrinking those losses before the build programme completes.