BT's chief executive Ben Verwaayen has unveiled his long-awaited strategy to control costs, cut debt and promote growth at the telecoms group.

Mr Verwaayen said his three-year strategy was to focus on "customer satisfaction" and "financial discipline".

Broadband, which allows for high speed and "always on" Internet connection, would be at the heart of BT.

To enable this, the group is to launch a product connecting customers direct to the Internet without first going through an Internet service provider.

BT said it was aiming all loss-making businesses at BT Ignite, its business services division, to reach break-even on earnings before interest, tax and depreciation, by next year.

Key targets included keeping spending down and cutting costs.

It would keep spending below £3bn, drive down costs in sales and administration in its BT retail division by £175m next year, and make savings of £200m in its wholesale division.

Part of the cost savings would be achieved through job cuts, including the 2,200 announced last month as part of a shake-up of its call centre operations.

A BT spokesman said: "We are constantly reviewing staff numbers but there is no announcement on jobs today."

The group employs 108,000 workers, and said this number had been coming down by about 5,000 a year through both voluntary redundancies and the non-replacement of staff.

Staff numbers are to come down by another 5,000 to 6,000 this year.

Debt, which once hit £30bn following an expansion drive, would be cut to below £10bn over the three years. It stands at £13.6bn.

Mr Verwaayen, who took up his post on February 1, also ruled out flotations.

The group last year floated its mobile phone division, since renamed mmO2, on the stock market so that it could concentrate on its core business.

"We are an integrated telecommunications company but with separate operating lines of business. There will be no initial public offerings, no burying our heads in internal restructurings," said Mr Verwaayen.

He also said the group would not be pursuing acquisitions.

"We are absolutely confident we have a very solid basis to deliver these targets, and there is no need for any acquisitions," he said.

Under the customer targets, BT aims to reduce customer dissatisfaction by 25 per cent a year, and make it easier for customers to contact the company and talk to advisors.

The strategy follows BT's major upheaval last year as it counted the cost of its overseas expansion and was rocked by the global economic slowdown.

It was forced to launch a £5.9bn rights issue, sell its Yellow Pages division and a number of international interests to tackle its mountain of debts.