BT is to increase the growth target of its customer facing Retail division from 3 per cent to 5 per cent, the company said today.

The monster telco said underlying revenue targets remained unchanged, however the shorter plan period and new trading models with BT Ignite and BTopenworld increase growth.

Combined with its ongoing objective of cutting cots by £800 million by 2005, it suggests that BT really is trying to be more aggressive in the marketplace.

BT Ignite, the telco's business services division, is set to reconfirm that revenue is set to grow at 15 per cent over the three years with capital expenditure held at £600 million a year.

BT's mass market ISP, BTopenworld, is also set to confirm that revenue is set to grow by 35 per cent a year until 2005, with the aim of breaking even (for earnings before interest aka EBITDA) for its narrowband business during this financial year, and broadband the year after.

This latest financial update came as BTo announced that it now had 100,000 active broadband consumer customers. It also has 61,600 business broadband customers.

BT's shares were down 2p (0.73 per cent) at 273p by mid morning. ®