BT 2014 Annual Report Download - page 31

28 The Strategic Report
Delivering our strategy
Innovation
BT has a long heritage of innovation, from our roots as The Electric
Telegraph Company in 1846, as the General Post Oce (GPO) and
since privatisation in 1984. We pioneered many of the technologies
that our business is now reliant upon. For example, in 1926 the worlds
rst two-way, trans-Atlantic conversation by radio telephone was
established from our wireless station near Rugby. And in 1943,
Tommy Flowers, working in the telecommunications division of the
GPO, developed the worlds rst programmable electronic computer,
Colossus. In 1968, we installed the worlds rst digital telephone exchange.
In 1980, we demonstrated the worlds rst optical bre submarine
cable. And in 1984, we launched the rst commercial 140Mbps
single-mode optical bre link which pioneered the basis of our global and
bre broadband networks.
We were also at the forefront of dening the global IP and broadband
standards which mean our networks are capable of supporting
the advanced video, business and internet services we have today.
Innovation, supported by our global research and development (RD),
enables us to create the new services that customers want. It also helps
us nd new ways of doing things that will improve our eciency and
reduce costs.
We are one of the largest investors in RD in the UKa and are the second
largest investor in RD in the telecoms sector in the worldb. Since 1990,
we have had over 10,000 patents granted. This year we increased
our ling rate and have led patent applications for 89 inventions
(201213 69). We routinely seek patent protection in dierent
countries and at 31 March 2014 we had a worldwide portfolio of
more than 4,300 patents and applications.c
This year we invested £530m (201213 £544m) in RD. Our research,
development and testing is done at global development centres. They
help us get products and services into the market sooner by drawing
together complementary skills and resources more easily (both our own
and third-party). Our technology headquarters is Adastral Park which is
home to over 50 high-tech companies. It is a world-leading innovation
campus, employing around 4,000 people. We have continued to expand
our recently launched development centres in Kuala umpur and
Bangalore that give us local technical expertise. In October, we launched
a programme of co-innovation with start-ups in ondons Tech City.
Our open innovation model gives us access to thinking from outside
BT  from small, start-up companies, to some of the best universities
around the world. We have teams working with customers, partners and
universities in the US, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. They help us to
identify and track global developments in new technologies, business
propositions and market trends. For example, we have been working
with partners on new ways to get more value from our bre assets.
These include bre sensors which detect tampering in the network and
techniques that make sure communication is secure.
We run innovation showcases for our customers, allowing them to
discuss applications and solutions with our experts. In turn, we get to
hear rst-hand what they need. Our people also help identify innovative
new ways to improve our service to customers. This year our award-
winning internal New Ideas Scheme had more than 2,000 submissions,
delivering £26m of benet through revenue generation and lower costs,
and delivering a better service to our customers.
This year, our research and development focused on
• New technology
 We are investigating methods for reducing the cost of our networks
by using more cost-eective technology and improving the way
networks respond to customer needs or sudden peaks in demand.
We have launched a new service to allow corporate customers to
securely manage applications when employees bring their own
device to work.
BT Media and Broadcast helped deliver the worlds rst live
international transmission of a sporting event lmed in 4K ultra-
high denition. ive coverage of the Saracens versus Gloucester
rugby game was captured, transmitted and shown at three locations
at the International Broadcast Convention in Amsterdam.
• Faster networks
We have trialled technology which enables speeds of up to 1Gbps
over copper lines. Previously these speeds would only have been
available over optical connections.
Working with our partners we successfully eld-trialled a 1.4Tbps
transmission using an existing bre connection a world rst.
• Improving service to customers
We have developed improvements, which are being implemented,
to the systems we use to plan engineer visits to our customers.
This will improve scheduling and reduce engineer travel time.
• Security
We are using novel techniques to analyse social media data to
identify hacktivist activity and predict early stages of cyber-attacks.
This is a service we use ourselves, and oer to our customers.
a Comparison based on Ƭgures for 201213 5D spend.
b Comparison based on total 5D spend over 2008 to 201213.
c On average, we Ƭle with four member states of The Patent Cooperation Treaty and three member
states of the European Patent Convention.
IP Exchange
14bn
400
170
Over 400 networks
connectedglobally
Over 14bn voice
minutesannually
Available in over 170 countries
Europe, $sia,
Americas…
Supports D voice with plans
for 4G connectivity and global
wi-roaming
3 regional hubs
Queens Award for Enterprise
2014 Innovation
4ueenos
Award