BT on Friday shared its plans to deploy G.fast technology in two trial locations this summer with a view to a wider rollout starting next year.
The U.K. incumbent will sweat its copper assets alongside an ongoing fibre rollout plan to provide faster broadband speeds throughout the countr y. It also plans to add 4G mobile into the mix; it has yet to finalise its acquisition of EE, but the pair are still working on the deal, it said in its fourth quarter results announcement.
"Mobility is a key growth area for us," BT chief executive Gavin Patterson said, in a statement.
"We are making good progress on our due diligence in relation to a possible acquisition of EE and will make further announcements 
in due course. In the meantime, our Consumer mobile launch plans remain on track."
At the same time, the development of its fixed infrastructure is also front of mind.
"G.fast will help BT deliver ultrafast speeds of up to 500 Mbps to most of the U.K. within a decade," BT said.
The telco plans to carry out trials of the technology to around 4,000 premises in the towns of Huntingdon and Gosforth this summer. If successful, it aims to start a full rollout in 2016-2017 and expects to be able to offer speeds of a few hundred Mbps "to millions of homes and businesses" by 2020. The 500 Mbps milestone will follow.
BT has already trialled G.fast, which uses higher frequencies to enable every DSL sub-channel to carry significantly more data, at its Adastral Park R&D centre. It will probably deploy the technology from various points within the network and will use the pilot projects to assess its options.
"We believe G.fast is the key to unlocking ultrafast speeds and we are prepared to upgrade large parts of our network should the pilots prove successful," Patterson said.
"That upgrade will depend however on there continuing to be a stable regulatory environment that supports investment," he warned.
In a separate announcement, Patterson talked up the performance o f its Openreach unit, which recorded net fibre broadband connections of 375,000 in the fourth quarter of calendar 2014 to reach 3.7 million. The telco’s retail fibre broadband connections grew by 209,000 to 2.7 million.
BT’s consumer business turned in a strong quarter, recording 7% growth in revenue and a 43% EBITDA hike. Consumer ARPU was up by 7% to £410.
At group level BT posted turnover of £4.48 billion in the three months to the end of December, down by 3% on the same quarter a year earlier. EBITDA grew by 2% to £1.57 billion, while net profit increased to £558 million from £493 million.
BT also announced on Friday that it has brokered a new pension deal.
The operator will pay £2 billion into its pension scheme over the next three years as part of a 16-year recovery plan. Its pension funding deficit hit £7 billion on 30 June 2014.
"We remain focused on our prudent financial policy of investing in our business, reducing net debt, supporting the pension fund and paying progressive dividends," said BT’s group finance director Tony Chanmugam.
