BT Group CEO Philip Jansen has revealed that the telecom operator will remove Huawei from its core network in phases and the estimated impact will be around £500 million over 5 years.
The decision to reduce reliance on Huawei network from the core part its 4G network and 5G network in the future is in line with the policy of the UK government. Huawei is the #1 telecom network supplier vs Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and ZTE.
“The security of our network is paramount for BT. We are supportive of the clarity provided by Government around the use of certain vendors in networks across the UK and agree that the priority should be the security of the UK’s communications infrastructure,” Philip Jansen said on Thursday.
“We have a long-standing principle not to use Huawei in our core networks. There will be an impact on our 5G rollout plans and the equipment used in our FTTP network build. We are in the process of reviewing the guidance in detail to determine the impact on our plans and at this time estimate an impact of around £500 million over the next 5 years,” Philip Jansen said.
BT’s 5G network is now live in over 50 locations. BT-owned EE has the broadest 5G network, according to RootMetrics.
Enterprise’s 5G sales are ahead of expectation. Customers and sectors are showing significant interest in what 5G technology can bring to the transformation of their businesses. BT is working with 60 large customers on 49 different use cases.
BT revenue
BT reported revenue of £17,246 million (–2 percent) primarily due to headwinds from regulation, competition and legacy product declines. BT reported profit before tax of £1,911 million (–3 percent) due to the fall in revenue, higher spectrum fees, investment in customer experience and higher operating costs in Openreach.
BT is on track with its Phase 1 transformation program to deliver a gross benefit of GBP 1.5 billion of in-year-three savings by March 2021.
Openreach adds more than 600,000 fiber lines per quarter. 66 percent of Openreach broadband lines are now fiber-based. Openreach’s FTTP is passing around 26,000 premises per week.
Openreach increased the pace of FTTP rollout, adding about 26,000 premises per week to the UK’s largest FTTP network. Openreach passed over 2.2 million premises with FTTP and at the lower end of the GBP 300 to GBP 400 per premises passed cost range. BT is on track to exit this year at a run rate of around 30,000 premises passed per week and are on target for 4 million by the end of March 2021.
Openreach last week outlined plans to make FTTP available to around 250,000 homes and businesses in 227 market towns and villages across the UK, with building to commence by the end of next financial year.
Baburajan K
