Farooq Hakim, Regional Director for the North East

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1 It s easy to say that a focus on efficiency allows a company to deliver strong financial results and still invest for the future, but that s what BT s full year results show. We have done what we said we would. We re driving fibre across the UK, launching marketchanging sports programming, and using our Wi-Fi capabilities and 4G spectrum to make sure our customers are the best connected. In the process, we ve created 3,000 new jobs in the UK this year. Our 2.5 billion commercial rollout of superfast broadband will reach around twothirds of all UK homes and businesses by the end of next Spring we have already passed more than 15 million premises, including over 525,000 in the North East. We are also improving service to our cities, reaching into more rural locations, supporting people on the move, and boosting demand for superfast broadband services. The European Commission s latest annual Digital Agenda Scorecard shows the UK with 70.3% next generation access, ahead of Germany, France, Spain and Italy. The UK leads Europe in the percentage of homes in sparsely populated (rural) areas that have a broadband subscription, and only Sweden has a greater proportion of homes with a broadband connection. Our cities are the powerhouses of our national growth and a new report - based on actual city case studies - quantifies the costs and benefits of 100% fibre broadband. Modest, targeted investment in broadband infrastructure can help regenerate the local economy and improve a city s competitiveness, whatever its size. Read more on page 4. Farooq Hakim, Regional Director for the North East Stay up-to-speed North East embraces super-fast future Millions of homes to score BT Sport for free Building a better future with 100% renewable electricity Renewing British cities as the powerhouses of growth North East rural town sets super-fast pace Stay up-to-speed For the latest information on superfast fibre broadband availability for exchanges in the North East visit where-and-when/ BT Wi-fi hotspots hit new high in the North East New study stresses benefits of fibre for business Island community gets taste of cutting-edge technology Super-fast broadband goes live in Killingworth

2 North East embraces super-fast future Councils across the region have recently inked multi-million pound deals with us that will bring fast, affordable fibre broadband to hundreds of thousands of premises within the next three and a half years. Digital Durham, a partnership of eight local authorities including Durham County Council, has made an agreement with the company to bring high-speed fibre broadband to around 94 per cent of homes and businesses in Sunderland, Tees Valley, County Durham and Gateshead by the end of The project builds on our commercial roll-out of fibre broadband, which is already making fibre broadband available in many locations across these areas as part of our plan to reach around two-thirds of UK premises. Meanwhile, in Northumberland, we have signed a contract to deliver the County Council s inorthumberland broadband programme, which will see high-speed fibre technology deployed to 95 per cent of its homes and businesses. A massive 660 km of fibre seven times the length of the A1 stretch running through Northumberland will be laid in order to provide 91 per cent of the county s premises with access to worldclass broadband speeds of up to 80Mbps by January A further 4 per cent of the county will benefit from a significant improvement in speeds of up to 25Mbps via the fibre network. In addition, towards the end of the project, we will look to work with communities in the final 5 per cent to see whether fibre can be extended further through innovative collaborative projects. Bill Murphy, Managing Director, Next Generation Access, BT, said: These projects are vital to the future economic strength of all the local authority areas involved. They will enable businesses to compete on a level footing regardless of location, making this large part of the North East a more attractive proposition for business re-locations and start-ups including the creation of new, high-tech jobs. Similar contracts have also just been signed covering West Sussex, East Sussex, Hampshire, Buckinghamshire and Kent (South East); Staffordshire, Shropshire, Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire (West Midlands); Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire (East Midlands); Cheshire (North West); and Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire (East of England) and in the South West Dorset County Council have recently signed a multi-million pound contract and North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire in Yorkshire and the Humber.

3 Millions of homes to score BT Sport for free Take-up of fibre broadband is the challenge for us all and BT Retails new offer, making BT Sport free to any consumer BT Broadband customer, raises the bar in the market. The company is returning sport to grassroots fans, and as a result weekly live matches from the Barclays Premier League will be free to watch for the first time in more than 20 years. The service s three channels BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN will be packed with world-class sport. Viewers will be able to enjoy 38 live and exclusive football matches from the Barclays Premier League and up to 69 live rugby matches from the Aviva Premiership, where BT will be the sole and exclusive broadcaster. The channels will also carry live football from several other top leagues around the world. Other attractions will include WTA women s tennis, action from the UFC, Moto GP, Women s Super League football, Australian A league soccer and action sport and lifestyle programming from Red Bull Media House. The main aim is to increase the number of customers enjoying high-quality sports on TV. Currently, only one in five UK homes takes a sports channel, possibly due to the high prices that have resulted from there being little real competition. What s more, BT Sport gives customers three ways to watch: via their own TV service; on Sky s digital satellite platform and also online; or through a new app which allows them to view the action on the move or at home on their PCs, smartphones and tablets. For more information visit Building a better future with 100% renewable electricity BT has taken a lead in the marketplace by starting to source 100 per cent of its electricity in the UK from renewable energy, making it one of the largest UK commercial firms to do so. We have calculated that this amount of electricity from non-renewable sources would equate to a carbon footprint of around 1 million tonnes of CO 2 a year. As part of our Better Future strategy, our ambition is to source energy, including electricity, from renewable sources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat, to help reduce our overall carbon footprint. During the 2011/12 financial year, we consumed 2.3 Gigawatt hours of energy running our UK networks, data centres and offices, which is equivalent to 0.76 per cent of all the electricity used in the UK. We have also set a Net Good goal, which will help customers reduce carbon emissions by at least three times the full carbon impact of our business by To deliver against this goal, we will reduce our overall carbon footprint through energy reduction in our own operations, help lower our suppliers carbon footprint and decrease the consumption of devices provided to customers. We will also develop our portfolio of services such as conferencing to help customers reduce their emissions from travel, as well as heating, carbon emissions and other forms of energy consumption. As part of the contract with npower, they have issued us with a pioneering A-G rated electricity source label, to certify that all energy purchased will be in the A rated category in terms of carbon content. This label provides us with an assurance that for every unit of electricity consumed, a matching number of units from renewable sources are fed back into the electricity network by npower. The result is clear visibility of the carbon impact of the electricity we purchase, which we believe will stimulate demand for more A rated electricity. This will in turn ultimately help to encourage energy companies to invest in renewable energy infrastructure, driving down overall carbon emissions in the UK. The Rt Hon Edward Davey MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, said: I am delighted that BT is taking this approach to sourcing their electricity. I hope many other corporates will follow the lead of BT and others, in taking their electricity from renewable and low carbon sources. We ve always put being responsible and sustainable at the heart of how we work. It s also an integral part of our broader strategy to create a better business with a better future. For more information visit - btplc.com/betterfuture/betterbusiness/ BetterFutureReport/Default.aspx

4 Renewing British cities as the powerhouses of growth Our cities have suffered from underinvestment in infrastructure and need to find new futures in a competitive and fast-changing world. We all know that fibre broadband can transform a city s prospects. That it will help existing businesses survive and thrive, and that it encourages new businesses to start up and grow strong. But it has been hard to quantify either the costs or the benefits of taking a 100% broadband approach in our national powerhouses. A new report from independent academics Prof Tony Travers and Don Levett commissioned by BT, seeks to do just this, based on an extensive series of detailed city case studies prepared by Regeneris, the leading economic consultancy. The report produces clear measures for the investments required and sets out evidencebased expectations of the returns, to inform and underpin future infrastructure project planning. The report s main purpose is to show how cities can use modest, targeted investments in broadband technology that have the potential to deliver many times that investment in return, as an element in their wider economic development plans. Widespread access to faster broadband will be critical for the continued growth of the UK s internet economy. Policymakers must choose whether the UK benefits from an infrastructure that helps our cities stay ahead of the curve, or suffers the competitive disadvantage entailed by playing catch-up. The report also emphasises that speed alone will not bring the promised economic benefits. We must also make sure that those in need of the speed actually have access to it, and that everybody - in both the private and public sectors understands how to deliver the efficiency benefits that the latest technologies offer. Our cities generate more than 60 per cent of the UK s Gross Value Added, and the lion s share of innovative economic activity. They remain vital to our economic growth and crucial as hubs for spreading connectivity and services more widely across their local regions. Investing in fibre broadband infrastructure can encourage local growth and enhance a city s competitiveness in both national and global markets. Download the report at Thegroup/BTUKandWorldwide/BTRegions/ England/Factsandfigures/Factsandfigures.htm North East rural town sets super-fast pace The small and remote town of Rothbury, situated in the heart of a National Park s wild and beautiful countryside, is set to be the first community in the UK to roll out fibre broadband using the Government s Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF). Provision has been made possible by a unique partnership project involving the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Northumberland County Council, local consultants, the community and BT, which has created a solution to deploy fibre broadband and transform broadband speeds in what is a highly challenging environment. The RCBF is funded by DEFRA and the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) via Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), which manages its rural broadband programme. It awards grants to communities to establish super-fast broadband in hard-to-reach areas, and has agreed to provide 460,000 to bring fibre broadband to Rothbury. The RCBF selection process is highly competitive, and local demand for service is a critical factor in supporting the case for investment. The people of Rothbury have long recognised the importance and value of excellent broadband connections, and signed up to register their demand as far back as Though they failed to secure funding at the first attempt, the community and the council continued their registration drive, and this has paid off in the RCBF approval process. We are also making a substantial financial investment to reach 98 per cent of homes and businesses in Rothbury and the surrounding areas by the end of Our agreed solution will provide high speeds and coverage for these premises via a mix of broadband technologies, including Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) and Fibre To The Premises (FTTP). In addition, to meet RCBF funding criteria, a Build and Benefit scheme will be implemented, whereby community partners including farmers and landowners help with infrastructure installation, for example by laying duct for new fibre. Broadband services for businesses and consumers will be offered by as many as 70 service providers, with whom we will compete equally for customers. This model will create real choice and ensure competitive pricing for the people of Rothbury. Bringing public, private and community interests together in partnership has made fibre broadband infrastructure development for this isolated town feasible, and it stands as a model for what can be achieved in other challenging areas across the UK.

5 BT Wi-fi hotspots hit new high in the North East BT Wi-fi hits more than 292,000 hotspots in Yorkshire and the Humber of which more than 35,000 are in Leeds, 24,000 in Sheffield and more than 19,000 in Bradford. Across the UK and Ireland, the company has added more than 20,000 new hotspots each week over the past year, taking the total to 5 million. More than 400 million connections were made across our wi-fi network in 2012/13, while latest figures show users online wi-fi time is increasing too, with minutes more than tripling in the same period. Tom Keeney, BT Regional Director for Yorkshire and the Humber, said: We are seeing growing use of our network as wifi users spend more time online and use more data. People are now so confident and comfortable with their gadgets, we ve had to meet the demand with more hotspots in a wider choice of places on the high street and in thousands of neighbourhoods across the region. An incredible 13 petabytes of data (13 billion megabytes) were consumed across our wi-fi network during 2012/13. The volume is the equivalent of downloading 3.9 billion MP3s, or non-stop streaming of The Hobbit in HD for 1,042 years. If you were to take smartphone photos placed side by side, this amount of data would be over 624,000 miles long, or long enough to wrap around the equator twice. BT Wi-fi is free and unlimited for BT Broadband customers although anyone can log on. It s available at brands including Starbucks, GAME, John Lewis, Network Rail and Hilton, plus millions of homes and thousands of independent businesses. For more information visit New study stresses benefits of fibre for business A new report commissioned by BT on the potential economic benefits for small and mediumsized enterprises through the take-up and use of fibre-based broadband indicates that there are opportunities to be seized across all business sectors for significant growth and development. While the figures in the report relate to the US and Northern Ireland, its conclusions are relevant to small and medium-sized businesses wherever they are based. The study looks at the potential benefits for companies within various sectors and shows that they could significantly increase their income and reduce operating costs, contributing hundreds of millions in revenue to the economy, through the exploitation of fibre. The report also revealed that the deployment of fibre by these sectors has the potential to generate hundreds of millions in additional revenue for the economy by 2018, saving tens of millions in operating costs in the process. The study s conclusions are based on data supplied by the Strategic Networks Group (SNG), the broadband economists group that measures the transformational impact of broadband on businesses, communities and regions in the US. The SNG s key findings were as follows: 0 per cent of advanced manufacturing sector firms rank broadband as essential or very important for remaining in their location 71 per cent of advanced manufacturing sector firms employ collaborative tools which are made easier to use through fibre broadband 80 per cent of financial sector firms rank availability of broadband as essential or very important to remaining in their location 37 per cent of all new jobs in the creative and digital sector can be attributed to use of the internet. The full report, along with a fact sheet setting out the key points, can be found on the Superfast Broadband Northern Ireland webpage: a-fibre-bright-future-for-northern-ireland

6 Island community gets taste of cutting-edge technology As part of our ongoing commitment to innovation, which has been underlined by a 544 million global investment in research and development in 2012/13 alone, BT has chosen the northernmost point of Northern Ireland as a pilot site for new wireless to the cabinet technology. The trial, which is the first commercial deployment of its kind in the UK and Ireland, will allow a number of premises on Rathlin island, off the coast of County Antrim, to enjoy broadband speeds of up to 80Mbps for the first time from next month. Until now, services on Rathlin have been limited by the difficulty in providing a high-speed link to the island. Working closely with colleagues at our Research & Development facility at Adastral Park in Suffolk, our Northern Ireland operation is deploying a newly-developed radio solution linking the Ballycastle exchange on the mainland with the Rathlin island exchange. This is then integrated into the next generation high-speed fibre broadband architecture, which provides a fibre-like capacity directly to a street cabinet on Rathlin. Frank McManus, head of wholesale sales and services in BT, said: We have been exploring innovative ways to deliver high-speed broadband capability to Rathlin for some time, so we are very excited to announce the launch of this technology trial. This is a first for the UK and Ireland and will enable residents on the island to enjoy similar fibre broadband speeds as those available to businesses and households across Northern Ireland. Rathlin resident Jonathan Mitchell runs his own software company, while his artist wife, Ann Henderson, uses the internet to conduct live video and interactive whiteboard art teaching with children from her island studio. Commenting on the pilot, Jonathan said: My wife and I both work and depend heavily on internet access to run our businesses. At the moment, we have very limited speeds with our home broadband service so we re really looking forward to trialling the new technology to see the impact it will have on our day-to-day work processes and how much more efficient and adventurous we can become through highspeed internet access. The initial phase of the pilot will run for six months. If successful, the solution has the potential to offer high-speed fibre broadband capability to the majority of premises on Rathlin. For more information, visit

7 Super-fast broadband goes live in Killingworth More than 9,000 households and firms in Killingworth are joining the high-speed revolution as engineers complete the local investment in fibre broadband. The North Tyneside town follows Benton and Wallsend, where the technology is already available. Whitley Bay is also due to be upgraded this year, and by the end of spring 2014 more than 735,000 homes and businesses across the North East will be able to benefit from our 2.5 billion fibre roll-out programme. In addition, the company is seeking to work in partnership with the public sector to reach parts of the region that lie outside its commercial footprint. Farooq Hakim, BT Regional Director, said: BT s fibre network is expanding rapidly across the region bringing a boost for local economies wherever it goes. Research suggests that within 15 years fibre broadband could bolster the economy of a typical town by 143 million and create 225 new jobs, 140 new start-up businesses and 1,000 more homeworkers. The arrival of fibre in Killingworth can really help local firms in these economically challenging times, opening up new ways of working and speeding up vital operations, such as file and data transfers, conferencing and computer back-up, all of which may also help cut costs. Our fibre footprint currently passes more than 15 million UK homes and businesses, and is expanding all the time. It is now due to pass two-thirds of the country s premises around 19 million during spring 2014, at least 18 months ahead of the original timetable. Openreach is primarily deploying Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) technology, which provides download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps. However, it is also making Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) technology, which offers the top current download speed of 330Mbps, commercially available on demand in any area where fibre broadband has been rolled out. For further information on the Openreach programme, visit co.uk