UK's BT extends full-fibre broadband to 4.5 million premises

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's BT said on Thursday it had met its target of extending full-fibre broadband to 4.5 million premises by the end of March, a week after it said it would accelerate its roll-out to 20 million homes and businesses by the late 2020s.

Its Openreach networks arm said it was seeing strong customer demand for gold standard fibre broadband, with new orders from the customers of BT and its wholesale rivals reaching a rate of 17,000 a week on average during the last quarter.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Michael Holden)