BT Wireless equity customers

British Telecommunications PLC
12 January 2001






73% ANNUAL WORLDWIDE GROWTH LIFTS BT WIRELESS TO WELL OVER 20 MILLION EQUITY
CUSTOMERS



A strong year-end performance world-wide has added a total of 5.5 million new
customers to all the BT wireless ventures in the final quarter of 2000. This
lifts the BT wireless equity customer base by 8.7 million for the year to 20.7
million, from 12 million at the end of 1999. All the growth in the final
quarter has been achieved through organic sales across operations, without any
further acquisitions during the last three months of the calendar year.



Peter Erskine, chief executive officer of BT wireless commented:  'BT wireless
has finished 2000 strongly to achieve well over 70% annual growth and nearly
21 million customers. This is a telling result to add to our pioneering market
development through innovation with Genie and the mobile Internet, the focus
on quality customers in our chosen markets, and our goal of driving down
costs. These factors are just as important to achieving our profitable
outlook. The overall scale of our first year achievements, including the fast
growth to 2.4 million world-wide WAP customers, is real evidence we are on
track.'






Mobile Internet sales of WAP by BT wireless world-wide have exceeded
expectations, with the BT wireless WAP equity base closing the year at 2.4
million customers - over 10% of the total customer base. J-Phone in Japan, LG
Telecom in South Korea and BT Cellnet in the UK all achieved strong growth. BT
Cellnet is the UK mobile Internet market leader and in the final quarter more
than doubled its WAP customer base to over 1 million.



Further evidence of the successful uptake of BT wireless mobile Internet
services comes from BT's Genie, Europe's major mobile Internet player, which
is achieving unprecedented levels of usage. At the end of 2000 it had reached
a monthly run-rate of 62.5 million WAP page impressions - a fivefold increase
in just three months, October to December.



The biggest jump in total growth for the final quarter came in Europe where BT
wireless venture growth is up by 4.2 million customers. Leading the growth is
the UK network operator BT Cellnet. It has surpassed its previous best
quarterly record by 500,000, to achieve 1.5 million new customers, taking its
total customer base to 10.2 million.






Strong venture growth has also been achieved by BT wireless's other European
interests. Excluding the UK, BT wireless in Europe achieved quarterly venture
growth of 2.7 million in the quarter. Wholly or majority owned mobile
businesses expanded by over a million customers, with its significant range of
minority interests contributing the remainder. Telfort (Netherlands) grew its
customer base to 857,000 and in Ireland Esat Digifone has achieved a base of
988,000 customers. In Germany Viag Interkom rapidly grew its subscriber base
by 30% in the final quarter to bring it to 3.2 million.



The BT wireless equity customer base from interests across Asia and the
Americas are up 2.1 million. Growth from 2 million at the end of 1999 to a
total of 4.1 million equity customers at the end of 2000 includes the
successful acquisition of c20% of J-Phone in Japan during 2000.



Summary of annual customer growth by region:


                             Equity customers            Equity customers

                             31 December 1999            31 December 2000

                                     millions                    millions
Europe                             10.0                        16.6

Asia, Japan & Americas              2.0                         4.1

BT wireless total                  12.0                        20.7


                                     ENDS





For further information please contact:



William Ostrom, BT wireless                   + 44 (0) 1753 565656



Simon Matthews/Fiona Campbell
Fishburn Hedges                               + 44 (0) 20 7839 4321



Notes to Editors:



The customer numbers are from the 16 operations world-wide where BT wireless
either has outright ownership, a controlling interest or an equity stake.
Customer numbers are measured in proportion to the equity stake in each
operation - so-called 'equity customers'.  Venture customer numbers refer to
the total customer numbers of operators regardless of the % holding by BT
wireless.



About BT wireless



BT wireless is an international leader in mobile communications.  It is
responsible for the development of all BT's global mobile services and direct
in-country operations, as well as for BT's move into broadband mobile networks
through the introduction of GPRS and 3rd generation (3G) services globally.



BT wireless is one of the new lines of business created by BT earlier last
year as part of the company's major restructuring.  It provides management
focus for the company's wholly-owned mobile networks and joint ventures across
the globe and strategic direction for its R&D investment in advanced
technology, market research, product development and vendor engagement. In
November 2000, BT announced plans for a stock exchange listing of up to 25 per
cent of BT wireless during the second half of 2001. The structure and
composition of the wireless business to be listed is still to be determined.




BT wireless' global interests are as follows:


Country            Operator        BT wireless % stake
Europe
UK                 BT Cellnet      100%
Germany            Viag Interkom   45% (to rise to 100% between Jan-July 2001)
Netherlands        Telfort         100%
Ireland            Esat Digifone   50.5%
France             SFR             20.8%
Italy              Blu             20%
Spain              Airtel          17.8%
Isle of Man        Manx            100%
Gibraltar          Gibtel          50%

Asia & Americas
India              Bharti          44%
Malaysia           Maxis           33.3%
South Korea        LG Telecom      24.1%
Hong Kong          SmarTone        20%
Japan              J-Phone         c20%
Singapore          StarHub         18%
Canada             Rogers AT&T     16.9%