Openreach slaps another 5 million premises on top of FTTP connection target, expects to pay 'minimal tax in the UK' over next few years

BT's Openreach has promised to bring FTTP connectivity to 25 million premises by the end of 2026, an increase of 5 million against the previous target. To meet its loftier goal, the telco pledged to increase its FTTP build rate from 3 million premises each year to 4 million. This, company boss Philip Jansen said, will result …

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

Was that a pig I just saw fly across my garden?

"So as you can see, that tax benefit does fund a significant proportion of this incremental FTTP build"

Yeah, nice words. I'd be highly surprised if ANY of that actually goes towards improvements in either service or operations.

More like the normal snouts in the trough will get their dividends and other backhanders.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Was that a pig I just saw fly across my garden?

What do you have against dividends? If they borrowed from a bank they'd pay interest, instead they borrow from shareholders, and pay dividends (or not, as in 2020). Would you rather they paid money to fat cat bankers?

Looks like the government is offering a big tax break to help with fibre rollout, and BT is taking that money and using it to fund a 30% increase in rollout rate. Would you prefer that they not take the money and keep to the slower rollout?

[Wellyboot]

Re: Was that a pig I just saw fly across my garden?

The 130% Tax write off covers a wide range of capital outlays, a lot of companies will be trying to maximise the benefit. Its aim is to put a rocket under the immediate post* covid economy.

*hopefully, fingers crossed.

[Nifty]

Re: Was that a pig I just saw fly across my garden?

I was wondering of extending the fibre counted as 'plant, machinery and office equipment' to qualify.

It seems BT had checked and it does:

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2021/05/bt-plans-fibre-rollout-to-25-million-premises-following-tax-deduction/

Which begs the question, when will Virgin be doing extensions to its network to take similar advantage of the 130%?

[Dazed and Confused]

Where and when

Have they published lists of the area getting boosted up the timeline?

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Have they published lists?

Of course, they have. The list is in one of the disused underground stations, in a rusty filing cabinet that is protected by a King Brown snake that hasn't eaten for a year.

Oh, and the list is printed in white text on white paper.

[Jason Hindle]

They are laying cable in my area

Erm, I live on one of those streets that always seems to miss out (only bit of the area never to have had Virgin). Odd place to be, so fortunate to be just around the corner from the cabinet.

[AGeezer]

Re: They are laying cable in my area

You are not alone, I liven an an urban area and stuck on ADSL, ~800 meters from the exchange, surrounded by other roads that all have at least FTTC!

I the case of my road, we have 37 houses, the cabinet appears to only serve these houses/subscribers. It would seem that BT skipped us, likely because they will likely not be able to easily recover their costs.

[Down not across]

Up to...

I suppose the "create up to 7000 new jobs" is just like "up to" is in with regards to broadband speeds.

[Anonymous Coward]

When they're talking about improving the network

They're referring to the old boys network.