BT 2012 Annual Report Download - page 15

Business
12
this work effectively Openreach’s operational, engineering and systems
capabilities are separate from the rest of BT.
BT Innovate & Design and BT Operate
Our customer-facing lines of business are supported by two internal
service units, BT Innovate & Design (BTID) and BT Operate (BTO).
BT Innovate & Design
BTID designs, develops, tests and deploys IT systems, processes,
networks, products and services. These are either used by, or sold
through, the customer-facing lines of business to end-customers in
the UK and around the world. BTID aims to develop cost-efficient,
flexiblesolutions.
In addition, BTID manages and delivers our long-term technology
strategy and our global research and innovation activities, including our
worldwide patent portfolio (see page 30).
BT Operate
BTO manages our core voice, data and TV networks, and IT applications
which represent the core infrastructure over which we run our portfolio
of products and services.
BTO is also responsible for managing our energy consumption and
the strategy for reducing our future carbon footprint (see page48).
In addition, BTO manages the physical and cyber security of
ouroperations.
Customers, markets and products
We serve a number of different customer groups
in the UK and around the world. In this section we
explain who our customers are and the trends we
see in the markets where we operate, as well as the
products and services we offer customers in response
to market trends.
UK Consumers
The UK consumer customer segment is served by the BT Consumer and
BT Ireland divisions of BT Retail.
Customers
There are around 26m households in the UK and this is growing slowly,
currently at a rate of around 1% every year, due to an increasing
population and demographic changes. We can reach almost all of these
households with our consumer products and services.
At 31 March 2012 we had a total of 10.9m consumer fixed lines in the
UK with around 10m active voice lines (lines where the consumer also
buys calls from us). We had around 6.3m retail broadband customers
(including business customers), of which over 550,000 now take BT
Infinity, our super-fast fibre-based broadband service. At 31 March
2012 our BT Vision customer base was over 700,000.
Markets
The UK consumer market for fixed calls and lines, broadband and TV
services is highly competitive, with more than 100 companies offering
voice and/or broadband services. The market has concentrated over the
last few years and there are now several strong players. The four highest
market shares are held by BT, Virgin Media, Sky and TalkTalk.
Fixed calls and lines
About 84% of households in the UK have a fixed telephone line and
this percentage has been steady for the last two years. There are
currently 23.9m fixed lines to households in the UK, some of which
take more than one line, up 0.5% compared with last year. Fixed lines
have remained important to customers as they need them to receive
broadband services. Around 15% of UK households have only a mobile
phone and about 1% of UK households have no type of telephone at all.
The number of call minutes from fixed lines has been in decline for some
time, with our total call minutes down 11% in the year, as customers are
increasingly using mobile phones, email, social networking and other
kinds of communication as alternatives.
We have the largest share of fixed lines to households in the UK at 47%,
although this has been on a declining trend due to the increasingly
competitive nature of the market. The three main competitors to BT for
fixed calls and lines are Virgin Media, Sky and TalkTalk.
How we are organised
How we are organised to serve our customers
Customers
UK Consumers UK SMEs Large corporate &
public sector customers Wholesale customers
Customer-facing units
BT Retail BT Global Services OpenreachBT Wholesale
Overview
BusinessStrategy
Performance
Governance
Financial statements
Additional information Overview
BusinessStrategy
Performance
Governance
Financial statements
Additional information