Subscriber Numbers

British Telecommunications PLC
11 October 2001

PR0107                                         October 11, 2001

                 mmO2 REPORTS SECOND QUARTER CUSTOMER NUMBERS

  * mmO2 reports active customer base of 16.8 million customers
  * Growth of 643,000 new customers, an increase of 4.0 per cent
  * Innovative mobile banking product helps to achieve over 50 per cent
    growth of customer base in the Netherlands
  * 67,000 (12 per cent) growth in Viag Interkom's higher ARPU Genion
    customer base
  * Data leadership further underpinned by 50 per cent Genie WAP usage
    growth and new mobile data devices

END SEPTEMBER 2001
                                                                       Net new
Operator            Pre-pay   Post-pay       Total active      customers added
                    active                 customer base          over quarter
                   (000's)    (000's)            (000's)               (000's)

BT Cellnet           7,550      3,418             10,968                    78
Viag Interkom        1,643      1,751              3,394                    15
Telfort              1,061        217              1,278                   439
Digifone               755        350              1,105                   107
Manx                    19         20                 39                     4
TOTAL               11,028      5,756             16,784                   643



mmO2 today reports an active customer base of 16.8 million customers,
consisting of 11.0 million active pre-pay and 5.8 million post-pay, over its
wholly-owned businesses - BT Cellnet, Viag Interkom, Telfort, Digifone and
Manx Telecom. This represents an increase of 643,000 new customers over the
previous quarter.

Peter Erskine, chief executive officer of mmO2, said: 'Across the footprint,
our business continues to experience underlying growth. While market
conditions are highly competitive, by delivering innovative products and
services such as the Postbank initiative in the Netherlands and the Genion
home zone product in Germany, mmO2 continues to focus on profitable customer
growth.





'We are committed to improving revenue and EBITDA and all our businesses
remain focussed on high value customers, data leadership and delivering
innovative mobile services and products. Recently we demonstrated this focus
in a number of ways, including: the significant increase in Viag Interkom's
Genion customer base; the launch of the RIM Blackberry mobile e-mail solution
in the UK; and last week's announcement of the O2 xda, a fully connected
integrated GPRS mobile phone and data device that we have developed, using
Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002, which will be introduced in European markets next
year.'

BT Cellnet

BT Cellnet reports a total of 11.0 million active customers, consisting of 7.6
million pre-pay customers and 3.4 million post-pay customers. In the quarter,
BT Cellnet showed net additions of 78,000 active customers (an increase of
95,000 in pre-pay and a reduction of 17,000 in post-pay).

BT Cellnet continues to focus on improving the quality of both our post-pay
and pre-pay customer base. Use of mobile data has also increased with WAP
unique visitors growing by 32,000 to 820,000, a rise of 4.1 per cent over the
previous quarter.

Viag Interkom

Viag Interkom added 15,000 customers to a total of 3.4 million, including a
growth in post-pay of 26,000 customers and a reduction in pre-pay of 11,000.

These customer additions reflect Viag Interkom's concentration on attracting
higher value, higher ARPU post-pay customers. The Genion product, which has
higher ARPUs than its other post-pay products and offers location-based
tariffing which allows customers to benefit from reduced tariffs when they are
near their home zone, has successfully accounted for 67,000 post-pay
additions, a 12% rise in the quarter.

Digifone

Digifone added 107,000 new active customers (99,000 pre-pay and 8,000
post-pay), a growth of 10.7 per cent in its active customer base over the
previous quarter. It now has an active customer base of 1.1 million customers
comprising 755,000 pre-pay and 350,000 post-pay customers.



Telfort

In the Netherlands, Telfort benefited greatly from its innovative mobile
banking partnership with Postbank, adding 439,000 new customers (425,000
pre-pay and 14,000 post-pay), a growth of 52.3 per cent over the previous
quarter. 376,000 of these customers came from this partnership and brings
Telfort's total active customer base to 1.3 million.

Mobile Data

Genie, the European mobile Internet business of mm02, has achieved 5.8 million
registered accounts, a 9 per cent increase in registrations over the last
quarter. In addition, Genie's WAP service continued to show growth, reaching
an average of over 150 million WAP page impressions a month from July to
September, a 50 per cent increase in the monthly average WAP usage over the
previous quarter.

Notes to Editors

mmO2 first introduced the reporting benchmark of active customers in July
2001. This is based around our definition of pre-pay customers as active if
they have used the network in the preceding three months. Inactive prepay
registrations and related handset sales have therefore been eliminated from
the reported customer base of all the operations.

Following the proposed demerger from BT, mmO2 will have wholly owned
operations in the UK (BT Cellnet), Germany (Viag Interkom), The Netherlands
(Telfort), the Republic of Ireland (Digifone) and the Isle of Man (Manx
Telecom) and will also include Genie, a leading mobile Internet portal.

Following its proposed demerger from BT, mmO2 will own third generation
licences to operate 3G mobile services in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and
the Isle of Man - its operating companies in the first three of these
countries have already introduced GPRS services. mmO2 expects its Irish
subsidiary to apply for a 3G licence in Ireland when the application process
commences.

mmO2 is the holding company of the mmO2 group of companies and O2 will be the
brand of the customer facing businesses of mmO2 plc.

                             --------------------

 Inquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Group newsroom on
  the 24-hour number: 020 7356 5369. From outside the UK, dial + 44 20 7356
    5359, or to Derek Bainbridge/Catriona Booth, Brunswick, 020 7404 5959.


More information about the company can be accessed at the website: www.O2.com



This press announcement, which has been prepared by and is the sole
responsibility of mmO2 plc, has been approved solely for the purposes of
section 57 of the Financial Services Act 1986 by Merrill Lynch International,
Morgan Stanley & Co. International Limited and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney
which are regulated in the UK by The Securities and Futures Authority Limited.

Merrill Lynch International, Morgan Stanley & Co. International Limited and
Schroder Salomon Smith Barney are advising mmO2 plc and British
Telecommunications plc in relation to the proposed demerger and no-one else
and will not be responsible to anyone other than mmO2 plc and British
Telecommunications plc for providing the protections afforded to the customers
of Merrill Lynch International, Morgan Stanley & Co. International Limited and
Schroder Salomon Smith Barney Salomon in relation to the proposed demerger.

Schroder Salomon Smith Barney is the trading name of Salomon Brothers
International Limited. Schroder is a trademark of Schroders Holdings plc and
is used under licence by Salomon Brothers International Limited.

This announcement does not constitute, or form part of an offer, or
solicitation of an offer, to purchase or subscribe securities.