When BT (NYSE: BT) releases its 2009 year results tomorrow, the incumbent provider will also announce that it's expanding its planned Fiber to the X (FTTX) footprint from 40 percent to 66 percent of homes.
While BT would not comment on these rumored expansion plans, a report in the Financial Times pointed out that the plans would require more capital than the incumbent carrier's $2.2 billion budget. When BT revealed its FTTX strategy in 2008, the initial goal was to pass 40 percent of UK homes with FTTX by March 2013.
Last December, BT upped its FTTX deployment timeline to mid-2012 to coincide with the Olympic Games, which will be held in London.
Another potential side benefit of the expanded FTTX plan is that BT will be able sell wholesale capacity to competitive providers such as TalkTalk and BSkyB. And as analysts point out in the FT article, selling wholesale capacity to competitors will be key to helping BT get a return on its FTTX investment.
For more:
- Financial Times has this article
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