The BT Story

3 August  2011

You can download the BT Story as a PDF document

Introduction

The BT Story provides a summary of some of the key strategic and policy issues affecting the company today both in the UK and across its growing global businesses. More information can be found at www.btplc.com.

BT today

BT is the major provider of telecommunications networks and services in the UK. But we are also a major global communications company, serving customers in more than 170 countries. We provide services to large corporate and public sector customers with operations across the world in a wide range of sectors such as banking and financial services, consumer packaged goods, logistics, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing. Information about our presence in the different regions around the world appears later in this briefing.

We have embraced fierce competition in our home markets and become an innovative and dynamic company competing in the converged markets of computing, IT and communications.

BT‟s strategy is to drive broadband-based consumer services, become the „Brand for Business‟ for UK SMEs, the wholesaler of choice and the best network provider. We aim to be a global leader through BT Global Services. And all this whilst being a responsible and sustainable business leader.

  

Broadband in the UK

Over 99% of UK homes now have access to broadband – the best in the G8. The UK has the second highest level of take up in the G8 and the UK is the most competitive market in the world, with over 500 Communications Providers providing choice and innovation to consumers. Broadband is available across the UK on an equal basis – BT is committed to providing services on a common basis, with no focus upon delivering fast speeds to cities alone as happens in many other countries. More homes in the UK now have access to broadband than to mains water, over 70% of UK households are now connected to broadband, and 89% of UK homes can already receive 2Mbs services. According to the EU, the UK ranks better for broadband than France, Germany, Italy or Spain.

 

 

 

Broadband – investing in faster speeds and spreading coverage

As well as providing services across the UK in a non-discriminatory way, we are also looking to improve the speed of the broadband services we offer.

At the moment, our advanced ADSL copper broadband provides speeds of up to 20Mbs and is available to more than 65% of UK homes and rollout continues.

Most attention is, however, focusing on plans for investment in fibre as the means to deliver super-fast broadband. Investing in fibre is risky and expensive. However, BT has committed to investing £2.5bn in super-fast fibre-based broadband. This investment will cover two thirds of UK homes by 2015, subject to there being no significant downturn in the investment climate. · The UK is making good progress - BT is building the equivalent of the fibre network in Singapore every quarter.

BT wants to provide much wider coverage when demand and finances allow, to support the Government‟s vision of creating the best super-fast broadband network in Europe by 2015. BT is trialling a one Gigabit fibre broadband speeds in Kesgrave, Suffolk. This will deliver some of the fastest residential speeds over fibre broadband anywhere in the world today.

We are investing £2.5bn in our super-fast fibre-based broadband network. We have now announced the names of over 1,000 exchanges that will be enabled with super-fast broadband, we have passed more than 5 million homes and businesses and we are on target to reach 10 million in 2012, on the way to two thirds of the UK by 2015.

Nowhere in the world has anybody done more than BT has in the UK, unless there has been Government funding or other support. We aim to go further than the current commercially-viable deployment and bring fibre to homes and businesses in the „final third‟ of the UK, provided that investment and regulatory conditions remain favourable and that we are able to use funds made available by Government to support roll-out to rural areas. We are delighted to have taken part in winning tenders which are seeing fibre extended throughout Northern Ireland and Cornwall. We welcome the UK Government‟s recent pledge to free up a further £50m of funds to stimulate investment in rural broadband networks in Wiltshire, Norfolk, Devon and Somerset. All this, of course, whilst offering access on the open, wholesale basis that has created the dynamic, competitive market we have in the UK today.

The final 10 per cent of the UK is going to be the hardest to reach with fixed line super-fast broadband and we are busy trialling other technologies. One of these is based on white space and the initial results are very encouraging and could offer an effective solution for „not spots‟ and „slow spots. 

Digital Economy Act

The Digital Economy Act was introduced into UK law in April 2010 as one of the final actions of the previous Government. The Act dealt with those parts of the earlier Digital Britain Report where legislation was needed in order to implement the proposals.

The most significant elements of the Act for the communications industry dealt with copyright issues. BT is on record as saying that breach of copyright is entirely wrong but action against those who access or share music, movies and other material unlawfully needs to follow due process and be proportionate. The Act was rushed through the last Parliament without there being time for the normal scrutiny processes and as a result of concerns about its lack of legal certainty BT and TalkTalk jointly filed papers with the High Court asking for a judicial review relating to the Act. This was not a challenge to its principles. Rather, the concern was that obligations imposed by the Act may not be compatible with important European rules designed to ensure that national laws are proportionate, protect users‟ privacy, restrict the role of ISPs in policing the Internet and maintain a single market. BT and TalkTalk are currently appealing some of the findings of the Court. The Government has now announced that it will be removing the obligation on internet service providers (ISPs) to contribute towards the costs of Ofcom and the independent appeals body in setting up and administering the regime and it will not bring forward site blocking regulations under the DEA at this time. We are studying the linked announcements and will respond in due course.

Duct access

Although duct and pole sharing will not be the silver bullet to get fibre to every premise in the UK, these products represent a positive step, opening our infrastructure to supply industry with an even wider range of different mechanisms for delivering fibre broadband.

The first companies to trial deployment of their own high-speed broadband infrastructure using BT‟s duct and pole network are Sky and Call Flow, who have signed up to a trial intended to test the processes and practicalities, as well as the real costs involved in deploying their own Next Generation Access (NGA) network through the Openreach duct and pole infrastructure. Other Communications Providers (CPs) are also expected to join the trial. Currently Openreach provides a managed NGA product across its infrastructure on an open platform to all its CP customers, including Sky and all other UK providers.

Smart Metering

The Government is committed to every home and business, including the public sector, having smart electricity and gas meters. The information they deliver will help everyone manage energy use more efficiently, helping us reduce carbon emissions as well as saving money. Smart meters are a critical part of the strategy to deliver an affordable, secure and sustainable energy supply, with later developments leading us towards smart grids and the additional benefits that they will provide.

Smart meters and related grid applications are vital to the economic and social fabric of Great Britain. It is imperative that the programme is delivered flawlessly. Successful implementation will depend on a robust and secure infrastructure providing reliable connectivity and data generation. This complex undertaking requires a solution that must endure for the lifetime of the meters – at least 15 years.

Against this background, BT, Arqiva and Detica, a division of BAE Systems plc, have come together as the SmartReach consortium and offer unparalleled expertise in delivering national communications solutions, secure systems, data services and running Critical National Infrastructure. We are committed to helping protect the environment and to making a meaningful contribution to the development of a thriving low–carbon economy.

Net Neutrality

“Net neutrality” refers to the concept of non-discrimination by network operators in relation to traffic over their networks. Where there is strong competition between service providers, net neutrality should not be an issue since customers can choose to go elsewhere if they are unhappy that a service is being restricted.

BT has made four key public commitments:

• BT broadband customers will be able to access any internet-based service or applications.
• No legal service or application will be blocked on these products.
• Content and application providers will not be charged for basic internet conveyance.
• We will provide wholly transparent information to customers on our traffic management practices in line with industry best practice . 

The 21st Century Network (21CN) - essential investment for future prosperity

In the UK, BT built the world‟s first national IP network, recognising the critical part that collaboration and knowledge sharing through industry standards will play in future wealth generation. Today, 21CN enables BT to deliver next generation services across the UK market at the scale needed by mobile operators, the very largest Internet Service Providers and the most complex global enterprises. 21CN has also allowed BT to reinvent its Wholesale portfolio: introducing higher speed copper and fibre access services; moving data services from analogue to Ethernet and introducing IP and hosted-IP voice services, as well as a range of partial and fully-managed network outsourcing services. Outside the UK, the BT Global 21CN platform is now available in around 170 countries worldwide. The scale and investment involved in this activity sets us apart from other major network providers, particularly in the global reach of what we offer.

Mobility and Convergence - allowing communications wherever you are

Computing and all forms of communication are going wireless and will increasingly be available on the basis of what you want where and when you want it. BT's wireless broadband footprint, including BT Openzone, BT Fon and BT Openzone at Business Hub hotspots now exceeds 3 million locations. And thanks to roaming agreements between global Wi-Fi operators, our customers have access to over 65,000 sites outside of the UK. We continue to provide wireless internet access in places where people want to log on including hotel chains, coffee shops, transport hubs, marinas, airport lounges, 16 major city centres, homes and independent businesses.

Millions of BT Broadband, BT Mobile Broadband and BT Openzone customers can use the internet at these locations. We are committed to providing internet access wherever people want to log on, from their choice of Wi-Fi enabled device including laptops and Smartphones - whether in or out of the home, the office or out and about - and will continue to grow our Wi-Fi hotspot estate.

BT – the global company

Globalisation has changed the economics of business. Networked IT services enable organisations to work seamlessly across time zones and borders. In order to help our customers reach new markets, and improve their productivity and operational efficiency, BT is committed to deliver the services they need to compete in a global market. BT operates globally and delivers locally to most of the world‟s large multinational corporations, including most of the biggest banks, top stock exchanges, leading broker-dealers and top global corporations in industries such as pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, logistics and consumer packaged goods. Customers include many of the world‟s most respected brands, such as Unilever, Thomson Reuters, Microsoft, Pepsico, Fiat, Novartis, AstraZeneca, BASF and Deutsche Post DHL.

BT also serves many of the UK‟s largest corporations and is one of the largest suppliers of networked IT services to the UK government and is a trusted supplier to public sector organisations around the world, serving international organisations such as the EU, NATO, WHO and UN.

BT's global assets include a global, all-IP 21CN network, data centres, solution design and integration professionals and IT security experts. This combination of network, IT and professional services allows BT to offer solutions that help our customers‟ people to be more productive, their own customers to be better served and their organisations to operate more efficiently.

In order to continue to serve such customers it is critical that barriers to entry are eliminated and all operators are treated equally. The protection of incumbent operators and national champions inevitably hurts consumers and the wider economy, restricting choice and curtailing innovation and investment.

The European Union Policy Agenda

The European Union (EU) has a significant influence on the policy and regulatory environment in which BT operates, with EU legislation setting the framework for areas as diverse as fibre access, spectrum, net neutrality, and Green ICT. Our focus is on an open, competitive, level playing field across the EU and across different communications platforms – a true Digital Single Market.

In the connected, knowledge-based economy, the ICT sector makes a major contribution to Europe‟s competitiveness. This is recognised by the European Commission‟s “Digital Agenda” initiative which places ICT and Telecoms at the heart of Europe‟s economic growth and recovery strategy. As well as promoting new high speed networks, EU policy–makers are showing increasing interest in online and consumer issues relating to cloud computing and new services. BT supports a balanced approach which does not impede development of new business models.

The “Digital Agenda” sets challenging goals for fast broadband deployment across the EU, and the European Commission is developing additional guidance on access to next generation fibre access networks which are important for the UK and the rest of Europe. BT supports a policy which encourages both investment and competition in innovative new networks and services and we are pleased the Commission has endorsed Ofcom‟s regulatory approach in the UK, in favour of virtual unbundled access. Competition at service-level will be essential across the EU if the full benefits of innovation are to be enjoyed not just by consumers, but businesses as well.

BT in the USA and Canada

North America is a key market for the company. BT has had a presence in the U.S. and Canada for 20 years, with around 4,500 professionals and offices in over 70 key cities. BT owns and operates one of the largest MPLS networks of any carrier in North America, and manages six network operation centres and three security operation centres. BT serves many large customers in North America, including Unilever, Pepsico, Reuters, Procter and Gamble, and many of the world‟s largest financial institutions.

To support its transformation agenda, BT has made six US based acquisitions (INS, Counterpane, Infonet, WireOne, Ribbit and Comsat) - the latter to provide coverage in Latin America.

The cost of access continues to be BT‟s biggest regulatory issue. Since the major market consolidation in 2005 we have become entirely reliant on the incumbent operators to provide last mile access. The incumbents are enjoying rates of return of anywhere between 47% and 137%, which make it almost impossible for BT to produce a competitive bid on a US only contract.

BT in Asia Pacific

BT‟s presence in the Asia Pacific region dates back to 1985, through the establishment of offices in Hong Kong. It now serves 18 countries in the region, with 17 offices across India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Australia, directly employing around 5,000 people. BT also indirectly employs an additional 25,000 in the region. BT operates 24-hr service centres in Pune & Mumbai (India), Tokyo, Sydney and Dalian (China).as well as a BT Security Operation Centre in Noida, India. BT Research Centres are operating in Malaysia and China.

BT recently announced the roll-out of the first phase of a new investment programme into the Asia Pacific region, covering additional resourcing, new infrastructure and expanded portfolio of services. As part of this plan, BT is in the process of hiring around 300 new positions across Asia. This will ensure that key portfolio and services enjoyed by BT‟s customers around the world can be offered and fully supported in Asia Pacific. BT is also establishing a bid response centre in Singapore to enhance its capabilities to pursue large regional managed services deals, an area where BT leads the market today in many parts of the world.

BT in EMEA (Europe, Middle-East & Africa)

• Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg): BT provides a broad portfolio of services to around 900 large private and public organisations, including Tommy Hilfiger, the Dutch Directorate for Public Works and Water Management, Van Oord, Philips, NATO, European Union, Pioneer, Bourse de Luxembourg and Euroclear. BT employs around 1,900 people across the Benelux, including 600 ICT-professionals & consultants in the professional services organisation.
• France: BT provides managed networked IT services, with strong capabilities in ICT infrastructures as well as associated professional services. BT‟s network comprises 16 points of presence covering all major French cities and 4 hosting centres in Paris and Lyon. It is supplemented by local partnerships to ensure national coverage. In France, BT employs 2,600 people including 1,600 professional services consultants and 450 security specialists serving 1,200 clients, including 90% of France‟s CAC 40 community, with customers such as Rexel, BNP Paribas, La Poste, RATP and Ministère du Travail amongst others.
• Germany and Austria: BT employs around 1,450 people based in Munich, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin, serving about 1,000 customers including many multinational groups. Customers include two thirds of the top German (DAX30) companies, six out of seven German car manufacturers, some of the largest banks, insurance companies, chemical companies and technology groups. BT‟s portfolio ranges from voice telephony to corporate networking, hosting and storage, call centre solutions, customer relationship management, mobile working solutions, security solutions, business continuity and IT consultancy. In Germany, BT has two hosting centres and an extensive high-speed network with its own metropolitan area networks in four major cities.
• Italy: BT is the main provider of communication services and solutions wholly dedicated to the corporate, SME and public sectors, serving more than 200,000 business customers, including ENI, Fiat Group, BNL, Mediaset, Sky Italia as well as the Justice and Agriculture ministries. BT employs around 1,000 people based in Milan, Rome and Turin and sales offices in other major cities. BT Italia owns a fibre network of more than 15,000 kilometres and four data centres in Milan and Rome.
• Spain & Portugal: BT is today the leading alternative in the Spanish enterprise data transmission market with more than 20 per cent market share, according to the most recent report by the telecoms market regulator Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (CMT) published in 2009. BT Iberia employs around 1,000 people providing services to 2,000 major Spanish and Portuguese enterprises, 28 of which are listed in the IBEX-35 index, and to over 30,000 small and medium enterprises.. BT Spain focuses on its domestic networks and local innovative portfolio in addition to BT global capabilities to serve large organisations such as Caixa Galicia, Repsol, Prosegur, Avis, Camper and Rexel.

BT has other substantial operations in Switzerland, the Nordics, Central & Eastern Europe and Russia.

BT has also been operating in the Middle-East and Africa since the 1980s, with more than 300 employees based in South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. BT operates an innovation Centre in Abu Dhabi, in cooperation with Khalifa University & Etisalat.

BT in Latin America

BT operates in 22 Latin American countries with integrated commercial and operational capabilities and employs around 1,000 people across the region, offering a wide range of networked IT services including IP infrastructure, application services, outsourcing solutions and business transformation. BT has three datacentres located in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia and seven network Operations centres in the region, providing monitoring and proactive diagnosis on a 24x7 basis for its customers. The Sao Paulo centre provides worldwide support with multilingual capabilities. BT serves around 2,000 multi-site organisations in Latin America across a wide variety of sectors. Customers include corporations such as Nestlé, Unilever, InBev, SAB Miller, Fiat, Bradesco, GRSA, Microlins and Pao de Açucar as well as public sector organisations such as Caixa Economica Federal (Brazil) and projects Meduca (Panama) and Compartel (Colombia).

BT - in figures

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
	Full year to 31 March 2011	1st Quarter to 30 June 2011
Revenue	£20.1 billion	£4.8 billion
Profit before tax	£1.7 billion	£0.5 billion
EBITDA	£5.6 billion	£1.4 billion
Capital Expenditure	£2.6 billion	£0.6 billion
Employees	92,600 (worldwide)

Regulation and Openreach

Control of the access network in the UK is with Openreach, a business within BT, specifically set up to provide access network services and products on an equal basis to all the UK communications industry. Openreach is responsible for the that part of the network which includes the last mile access between the home and the business exchange, and backhaul - the network which lies between the local exchange and the point of presence of competitors and BT‟s downstream arms. It began operating in January 2006, has assets of £8 billion and employs 20,000 engineers.

BT Vision

BT Vision, our on-demand television service, uses a single set-top box to deliver to the TV set pay per view and subscription video on demand services, digital terrestrial free to air and pay TV channels, communications and interactive services. The service is designed to be easy to use, bringing the next generation of TV technology within reach of a mass audience and putting the UK at the forefront of the development of digital TV delivery. There are now over 600,000 customers.

BT Vision has over 6,000 hours of video on-demand content available, the most in the UK. Among its selection of more than 7,000 programmes, it has 600 films, from classics to family favourites, with seven new titles added every week. BT Vision will be expanded to include free-to-air HD programming, more interactive services, a wider choice of on-demand programming, and is now able to provide more premium sports channels following Ofcom‟s decision to require Sky to offer wholesale access to Sky Sports 1 and 2. Customers are now able to watch Premier League football plus other sports without having to sign up for other channels that they do not want.

YouView (previously Project Canvas)

YouView is the joint venture between BT, the UK public service broadcasters and other partners to develop and promote a new open standard for TV, combining broadcast and broadband television delivery. We are very pleased that the BBC Trust has given its approval for the BBC to participate in this venture and that the OFT and Ofcom have allowed it to proceed. This means that the way is now clear for YouView to launch services.

We believe that YouView will transform the UK TV market, combining broadcast digital channels with catch-up, archive and on-demand content and interactive TV over broadband, free from public service broadcasters and from pay TV providers like BT Vision. It will give a far greater range of content providers access to the living room, creating unprecedented consumer choice.

Pay TV

Ofcom‟s decision to require Sky to wholesale two of its premium sports channels was welcome, although the decision should have covered all Sky‟s premium sports and movies channels. BT Vision is now offering Sky Sports 1 and 2, which is great news for customers and for bringing choice to the UK market. We are, however, disappointed that the wholesale price Sky must offer is higher than that on which Ofcom consulted, and that no wholesale price requirement has been set for HD channels and are hoping that the Competition Appeal Tribunal will tackle these issues.

Customers have been denied choice and have been paying too much for premium channels for too long. This decision is one step in the right direction.

We offer rival companies including Sky the right to rent space on BT lines at wholesale prices, so they can offer phone services to their customers. We want equivalent rights with regard to Sky – the opportunity to buy their content at a fair wholesale price and sell it to our customers.

NHS

BT has more than 60 years' experience of working with the UK‟s National Health Service (NHS) and is now one of its largest suppliers of IT systems and services. It has been at the forefront of developing new technologies for healthcare providers for many years, bringing real benefits to both patients and medical professionals alike.

Today, BT is working with the NHS to not only help it improve patient care but to deliver efficiencies and increase productivity in what are challenging times for the health service. To help do this BT offers a range of innovative solutions, including mobile and agile working, telehealth - the remote monitoring of patients‟ health, audio and videoconferencing and unified communications.

BT is also been playing a key role in the transformational NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT), delivering three key contracts

BT has built and is managing N3 – a secure national broadband network for the NHS which connects every NHS organisation across England and Scotland and over a million employees. N3 is now one of the largest virtual private networks in Europe with nearly 50,000 connections and has saved the NHS more than £192 million by replacing old and more expensive technology. Replacing old and more expensive technology, it provides the foundation for other frontline applications, including supporting the complete transfer of a patient‟s GP record in the fraction of time it used to take. N3 also offers a range of state of the art services such as video-conferencing and voice over internet calls, helping the NHS to become more efficient and save money.

BT is also working with the NHS in London and the south of England to modernise its IT systems to help provide safer more efficient healthcare, with more than 140,000 healthcare professionals registered to use them.

In particular BT has made great progress in the Mental and Community Health care setting, where it has completed its rollout of electronic patient record systems in London and is making good progress in the South. BT is also managing IT systems at 15 acute trusts in London and the South and its most recent deployment was at St George‟s Healthcare NHS Trust last spring. Further deployments are planned this year.

Underpinning the programme is the Spine, the secure database and messaging service BT has built and is managing. The database stores essential patient information, including demographic and clinical information which may be important for the patient‟s future health and care. Its messaging capability also enables the delivery of a range of other services being rolled out as part of the NPfIT in England, including the Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions and Choose and Book, online hospital booking. The Spine has handled more than 450 million prescriptions electronically and more than 30 million appointments have been made via Choose and Book.

For more information please visit the BT Health website at http://www.btplc.com/health/

BT as a corporate citizen

• BT is proud of its record as a world class employer and its contribution to Corporate and Social Responsibility projects around the world.
• we support the British Red Cross with funding for essential emergency satellite telephones, IT equipment and GPS systems for vehicles to help them deliver disaster relief worldwide;
• BT‟s support helped the charity telethon appeals to raise £150m in 2009/10 for good causes (e.g. Children in Need, Sports Relief, Disasters Emergency Committee Haiti appeal);
• BT people provided 49,000 days of volunteering activity in the community in 2010/11 at an estimated value of £13.8m;
• in the UK, one of the charities we support is Childline, the emergency helpline for children and young people. Since 2002, we have donated services worth £5 million and helped the charity raise more than £7 million;
• nearly 10,000 of our employees work from home. Some 65,000 people were equipped to work flexibly, using whichever locations were most convenient to them on a particular day;
• 96% of women return after maternity leave, compared with a UK national average of 47%;
• we invest at least one per cent of our corporate pre-tax profits in communities each year. In 2010/11, our investment amounted to more than £27.6 million – a combination of direct funding and in-kind support. Our employees donated an additional £2.5 million through Give As You Earn schemes;
• we are twice winners of the Queen's Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development;
• we fund and manage the UK's largest corporate Education programme in schools; and
• our total tax contribution to UK central and local Government is around £3 billion each year.  

BT and Climate Change

BT has been active on climate change since the 1990s and our strategy for carbon cutting includes reducing our own emissions, influencing suppliers to produce lower carbon-emitting products, influencing customers by proposing lower carbon solutions to their needs, and engaging with our workforce, to reduce their personal carbon footprints and help them influence their local communities:-

• we aim to reduce our energy consumption by 3% this year
• we have committed to reduce the carbon intensity of our global business by 80% by 2020 (compared with 1997)
• we have reduced the carbon intensity of our global business by 59% since 1997
• 40% + of the electricity we use in the UK comes from renewable sources

BT‟s „green energy‟ contract is saving the equivalent amount of carbon as that resulting from the electricity consumption of over 300,000 households every year. BT has also announced plans to develop wind farms aimed at generating up to 25 per cent of its existing UK electricity requirements by 2016. The wind farm scheme is the UK's biggest corporate wind power project outside of the energy sector. Costing up to £250m, it will bring together third party funding and renewable energy partners to safeguard future supplies of clean, green energy for BT. Subject to planning consent and suitable sites being secured, BT‟s wind farms would prevent the release of 500,000 tonnes of CO2 each year compared with coal generation.

The UK government has recently announced changes to the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) that will change it from its original design as a form of emissions trading scheme into something more akin to a carbon tax that will be charged as annual carbon allowance payments. This change was part of the package of measures designed to reduce the UK‟s budget deficit. The Government has agreed to hold a series of discussions with business to further refine the CRC scheme and look at the broader context of energy and carbon policy.

It is important to deliver a consistent overall carbon reduction strategy that encourages:

• organisations to become more energy efficient;
• organisations to develop their own low carbon self-generation schemes; and
• the market to supply organisations with the lowest carbon sources of energy. 

Any policy changes should, therefore, simplify and consolidate tax and incentives to drive the low carbon economy, provide certainty so that businesses can make plans for the future, aim to support carbon reporting rules that are consistent across Europe and globally, and differentiate carbon emissions from different electricity sources through labelling of CO2, in order to incentivise the self generation and purchase of renewables.

The 2012 Olympics

BT is the Official Communications Service Provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and will be designing, installing and managing all fixed and mobile communications across 94 locations, including 32 games locations. We will be carrying every call, piece of data, image and sports report for the games, and hosting every visit to the london2012.com website.

We aim to help deliver a flawless Games and to contribute to a strong and lasting economic and social legacy for the UK. Wherever possible we will make our Games services part of the BT national infrastructure after 2012.

BT is one of six sustainability partners for London 2010. In line with our own business focus we have developed a ground breaking approach for measuring the carbon footprint of our Games infrastructure, we are working to minimise environmental impacts from the use of communications technology and are promoting lasting behavioural change through educational and other activities. We have recently extended our sponsorship of the BT Paralympic World Cup until 2016, demonstrating our commitment to disability sports.