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I for one am a big fan of Sharon White. Without the likes of her I would have never got into BT shares at £1 a pop!
@Casapinos, yes I agree that Sharon White was a disaster - she will equally prove to be a disaster at John Lewis. I don't know how on earth some of these people get these jobs
As an economist working for the civil service she had no telecoms experience when she was given the top job, she had in theory qualifications to work in the business world without working in the business world. The harmful relationship between her and Gavin P, meant BT was to be punished no matter what, Dido Harding had a field day with constantly complaining to an overly receptive OFCOM to promote her Talk Talk profits to the detriment of BT. She’s beginning to be found out with her building houses program at JLP.
AS I posted on this board ages ago the removal of MS Sharon White from OFCOM was the best news BT has had in years ,because of a fundamental misunderstanding on her part of her role she kept the screws on BT with regard to cost and repeatedly failed to see that BT, as a near monopoly supplier ,(at the time if not quite so much now)was effectively being restrained from upgrading the UK broadband network to meet the growth in capacity needed for more customers using more data. It is no coincidence that a year or two later a more rational regime is in place and fibre rollout is beginning to accelerate , sadly about 3/5 years later than it should have .(Plot Ms White's tenure at OFCOM ,Mar 2015 to Nov 2019 against the BT price chart!!)
I have no idea what techniques video codecs use, but there's a limit to the amount of compression before errors are introduced.
Fleccy
I invest in BIRD ... You can upload up to 12 video tracks and 36 audio tracks to their cloud editing system with bandwidth of just 2Mb/s
They are the fastest video editing system in the world with patented CODEC ...
All this idea of using massive bandwidth isn't true....the tech is astonishing in terms of doing the heavy lifting of moving video around the internet ....packaged into small data ....
Check it out
regards
"watching YouTube videos or streaming doesn't use the size of data that you seem to think....as all the streaming and videos are super condensed .....they don't move an 8gb action movie from Netflix ...it is shrunk down to an incredible small packet of data that the set box then re-converts back to a watchable picture.....magic.....yes ..and no..I don't know how they do it..something about CODECS"
Compression Decompression is nothing new, it's been used in digital voice since the early days of PDH using something called A-law encoding, as well as others like ADPCM. I have no idea what techniques video codecs use, but there's a limit to the amount of compression before errors are introduced. For 4K UHD streaming they state a minimum of 25mb/s, 50mb/s recommended. I expect Satellite/Terrestrial tv will disappear in the next 20 years, with Frequencies reallocated to mobile communications; All TV will eventually stream online, along side all the other online services, including voice. We are heading to a fully converged world where everything moves to the cloud, even mobile communications, which will require massive backbone/core capacity, and I didn't even mention IOT lol.
My reasoning for investing in Telecommunication stocks, BT and Vodafone, is because I see Telecoms as a no brainer long term investment; I'll just keep reinvesting any spare cash into my Telecom investments until I see the realisation of their true value.
“.... maybe the UK customer isn't paying enough for what they expect to be delivered to them ... and maybe the extra does in fact need to land on the UK customer doorstep to catch up..? ...maybe customers are taking it all for granted, like free banking ??”
OFCOM needs to carry the blame primarily, overly championing the customer for far too long and squeezing the providers to the point investment became a bad word. Of course no argument could be made for as long as BT were investing in BT Sport, it was a bad investment. The relationship between Shazza and Gazza was toxic. Both had to go, once they did, it was the first run of the ladder of a rebuilding exercise.
Fleccy
Compared to mainland Europe ....customers in the UK pay less for their internet/tv packages and it could be debated the quality in such places as Germany and Spain is actually better ..debatable
..... maybe the UK customer isn't paying enough for what they expect to be delivered to them ... and maybe the extra does in fact need to land on the UK customer doorstep to catch up..? ...maybe customers are taking it all for granted, like free banking ??
fleccy
Interesting discussion...but I am not sure I agree....
the ISP ....they up their prices and then give me free data...they keep getting more money ...if I use more data ..well..I am sorry...I have paid for it...
watching YouTube videos or streaming doesn't use the size of data that you seem to think....as all the streaming and videos are super condensed .....they don't move an 8gb action movie from Netflix ...it is shrunk down to an incredible small packet of data that the set box then re-converts back to a watchable picture.....magic.....yes ..and no..I don't know how they do it..something about CODECS
With respect BT are miles behind Telefónica on broadband fibre update ...the use of data of today is ..well behind what BT has been able to get its systems ready for.... whose fault is that ?...a number of factors.. I know
We are approaching selling 8K TV systems to the general public..but you can be sure the streaming of 8K sports events will again use brand new advanced CODECs to shift the data down to the customer TV
"I dont know enough about it all...but ...isnt each Netflix user paying their ISP provider for their use of Netflix"
I think the main issues come from live streaming events, gaming updates, event days, etc, where the Network routers have to ramp up their processing to cope with the extra traffic. When the internet traffic spikes, it causes power spikes increasing the power usage for the Network providers. People can subscribe to Netflix, Disney+, etc directly, but they only pay their ISP for a connection with a defined guaranteed bandwidth on the local connection. Everyone talks about Gigabit internet connectivity, but the more bandwidth you give users, on the local connection, the more they'll download, and they'll attempt to utilise that bandwidth in full. Give everyone Gigabit connectivity, and they'll download HD, or UHD Films instead of SD and probably do it continuously, which means backbone and core network needs to be sufficient to cope with the demand. Imagine 28.1 Million UK households watching various things online, as well downloading other content at the same time, a phenomenal amount of core/backbone capacity is required to cope with that demand. If the FAANG's don't contribute more, the bill will eventually land on our doorsteps. IMO.
Online Retail pays a lot to exist online... a domain name, a banking payment facility, a site security certificate, website maintenance and upkeep, ....and pays their ISP to upload and download web page updates.....
their customers pay their own ISP provider to browse the web pages on the website ...
If there weren't websites ...why would we need a ISP ....chicken and egg
The ISP provider gets a lot of revenue for millions of subscribers each browsing retail online....
Should I pay more to my share broker because I make a lot of profits by using their site ? ..I dont think so
just the other side of the coin....
“I agree, we need power, water, and many other things. The point I was trying to make is that Telecoms subsidise the operating models of non essential Trillion Dollar companies, who contribute little.”
In theory there’s car tax and fuel tax that is put back into building and maintaining roads (in theory that is). The infrastructure of the road network allows the essential freedom of driving your car, catching a bus, and getting goods to the shops.
The infrastructure of broadband and bandwidth in allowing the Content Providers and Online Retail to profit and flourish in trafficking their goods and entertainment and to not pay towards the infrastructure that allows them to exist.
It would have made sense in taxing these guys and ploughing it into the Fibre upgrade.
fleccy
I dont know enough about it all...but ...isnt each Netflix user paying their ISP provider for their use of Netflix ...my ISP prices are constantly going up ..although they do give me free extra GBs of use .
When I stream a movie isnt the CODEC shrinking the size of the data being streamed and then the box next to my TV then re-adjusts it back to a viewing size ?...it is like a balloon that the streaming takes the air out ...and then adds the air back in at the other end ...to keep the data streamed to a much lower amount than originally expected ..due to the CODEC used
"Fleccy
with respect..... you could apply that to many sectors...from whom others benefit nicely....Telecoms are far from being unique in that sense"
I agree, we need power, water, and many other things. The point I was trying to make is that Telecoms subsidise the operating models of non essential Trillion Dollar companies, who contribute little.
Google is a search engine, there are others if Google disappeared; Facebook is just a total waste of space in my opinion; Media streaming companies like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, etc just suck bandwidth out of the network; Amazon whole delivery business model is dependent on the internet; Apple is another utilising lots of bandwidth with various content and cloud streaming services.
My point is, all these companies are effectively subsidised under Net Neutrality rules, all it would take is a slight change in the rules and more profit would be redistributed to the Telecom providers, whether Governments would do that remains to be seen.
BT has been making noise about the FAANGs carbon footprint, and the subsidy provided to them by the Telecom providers. I read somewhere that OFCOM is looking into this, wouldn't it be wonderful if some of the FAANG profits were redistributed to the ISP's/providers?
" Imagine if the internet just disappeared, the world would fall apart."
Fleccy
with respect..... you could apply that to many sectors...from whom others benefit nicely....Telecoms are far from being unique in that sense
I like Bt , even use there internet products , however big greedy players here want to panic you out so they get your shares .
Will buy in around 140p seems a key level .
Gla
"The downside is he will want to do it at these suppressed prices. Buy and hold imo on any further weakness."
Going off past history, we wont get to hear about it until the announcement comes out. If an RNS came out showing Altice were growing their position, then expect big jumps in the price. I have a gut feeling things are happening under the surface, encouraged by things like the RNS's from Morgan Stanley over the last couple of days.
The market has decided to give Telecoms a kicking at the slightest excuse, yet Telecom providers make companies like Goggle, Facebook, Netflix, etc, etc possible. You'd think that Telecoms is a take it or leave it sector, but it provides essential services that makes the modern world functional. Imagine if the internet just disappeared, the world would fall apart.
Patrick Drahi, one person who wouldn't need to be asked twice to look this gift horse in the mouth. Altice for sure will be adding to its already considerable position over the coming weeks / months imo. The downside is he will want to do it at these suppressed prices. Buy and hold imo on any further weakness.
aimo.