BT Group has revealed plans to save a further £3 billion ($3.79bn) in costs by the end of 2029.
The UK telco giant disclosed the plans this week as it provided its financial earnings for the full year up to March 31, 2024.
BT announced that it had achieved its first cost savings target of £3bn ($3.79bn) during this period, a year earlier than initially expected.
Delivering the results, CEO Allison Kirkby, who took over the role earlier this year, said the company had "reached the inflection point on our long-term strategy."
“This delivery and greater capex efficiency gives us the confidence to provide new guidance for significantly increased short-term cash flow and sets out a path to more than double our normalized free cash flow over the next five years," she said.
"This enhanced cash flow allows us to increase our dividend for FY24 by 3.9 percent to eight pence per share. We’re also setting a further £3 billion of gross annualized cost savings to be reached by the end of FY29."
Last year, BT announced plans to cut 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade, affecting its operations both in the UK and globally. At the time, BT noted that its workforce was around 130,000.
The telco outlined its plans to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to replace workers in customer service roles, with up to a fifth of these cuts coming from this part of the company.
"As we move into the next phase of BT Group's transformation, we are sharpening our focus to be better for our customers and the country, by accelerating the modernization of our operations, and by exploring options to optimize our global business," Kirkby added. "This will create a simpler BT Group, fully focused on connecting the UK, and well positioned to generate significant growth for all our stakeholders."
For the financial year, BT reported revenue of £20.8bn ($26.3bn), up one percent year-on-year.
Despite this, the telco said that pre-tax profits fell 31 percent to £1.2bn ($1.5bn), while capex was down by three percent to £4.9bn ($6.2bn).
Providing an update for its broadband-focused subsidiary Openreach, BT said that its fiber buildout has passed 14 million premises, and is on track to hit the 25 million target by December 2026.
As for its mobile business, BT said its 5G subscriber base has grown to 11.1 million, up 29 percent from last year.
