UPDATE 1-BT says on track after reporting 3% rise in Q1 earnings

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LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) - Britain's BT reported a
better-than-expected 3% rise in adjusted first-quarter earnings
on Thursday, which it said reflected improved trading across
most of its business and underpinned its confidence it was on
the path to growth.

The company, which aims to build fibre connections to 25
million homes by the end of 2026, reported adjusted core
earnings of 1.87 billion pounds ($2.61 billion) on revenue of
5.07 billion pounds, down 3% and short of market expectations,
for the three months to end-June.

Chief Executive Philip Jansen said the results were overall
in line with the company's expectations, with a good performance
in Britain offsetting challenging conditions in markets for its
Global unit, which mainly serves multinational companies.

"With trading conditions expected to see some improvement
through the year, we have confirmed our outlook and remain
confident that BT is on a path to growth," he said.

Jansen said the company had built full fibre broadband to
more than 5 million premises, and was seeing growing customer
demand for the faster connections.

Its rival Virgin Media O2 said on Thursday it would upgrade
its cable network, which serves 15.5 million premises, to full
fibre by 2028.

Analysts had expected BT to report revenue of 5.15 billion
pounds and core earnings of 1.81 billion pounds, according to a
company-compiled consensus.

($1 = 0.7177 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young and Kate
Holton)