Member Info for Aus3009

Hey Carrington are saying GLC are interested in a bidding war over BT. ? I only see one potential buyer & even that looks more and more unlikely by the Brexit minute.

Trouble is without considering debt, pension deficit, falling revenue and the aggressive competition who don’t have these costs....... interference from the regulator and the investment needed for BT to get where it needs to get to, opinions on how the management or what should happen to the pension are just low level opinions. It’s quite as bad as opinionated views of the flatness of the earth, but it isn’t far off. Based on all these things & whether the board has done a bad job, or the best job possible considering these things or somewhere inbeteeen and finally the equivalent other companies offer today, then my opinion is BT needs to try and reorganise their pension liability. So long as they honour up to to the point where the people have already paid in. As difficult as it is & ive already been there, I don’t think any company should compromise itself trying to deliver pension policies made in a changing world before they knew how it would change. Shouting about worker entitlement and things like that don’t work, because BT doesn’t solely exist for the benefit of its workers, at this point I think sometimes there is some confusion on here. Some companies are bad, some are good & from what I see BT is actually better than most & there’s always an alternative. Course I understand employees want what’s best for them, it’s not reasonable to expect a company to do what’s best for it..... & of course it is it’s money and profit. All of this is of course only my opinion, utterly worthless that it is, because of it I back it and want the RPI tonCPI change because I view it as reasonable. If I thought BT was going too far, my opinion would change, but would be equally pointless as an opinion.

I read that too. I see this as possible short term gain, but I think long term it would be a bad thing for BT to lose it’s Openreach arm, unless a really bold decision was taken to rely on EE for everything..... I dunno is there that much confidence in 5G?

Smasher, that’s capatilism, it’s the game we are playing. I’d like to think BT and many other companies who are also playing in the same game provide their staff with an opportunity for a fairly good living when all is said and done. Reasonable and safe working conditions with the odd perk and benefit thrown in, sick pay, holidays etc etc. I really don’t understand your point exactly. I’m not sure the world, BT or anything else owes us workers a living, of course the rich get richer, are hoping for the rich to get poorer ?

Result by end of the year. Here are the technical and legal arguments https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/12/bt_pension_scheme_court_of_appeal/ I have to say after reading them, I’m not hopeful

Of course this is the unpopular view, but I think a company only has a responsibility to honour pension provision all the way up to the point where they change it & then to honour what ever the new provision is until it changes again. No company should be railroaded into continuing benefits beyond the point where they can no longer afford it or if those provisions materially affect the way they do business. I’m sorry if that’s unpopular & I understand why, but I’ve had same thing happen to me & still hold that view

So are we thinking money is coming to BT for a safe haven?

Casalunos, I don’t think there is anything wrong with your research. The trouble is, the conclusion is BT is a home telephone company. Getting rid of the old home phone infrastructure ultimately will likely benefit BT the costs in every respect to maintain it all probably out weighs its profit ?. Old style home phone services have been in decline for a while, BT knows this.

Hey Velo I cut my chord from sky this year (kind of). I have workmates with the BT box and they say it’s fabulous now, after being bit behind. I have a sky box down stairs with only free view in it it’s paired with a smart tv where I have accounts with Netflix & now tv & Ratoken (for lasted film rentals). Upstairs I have Apple TV where I can get Netflix, now tv and access to iTunes content. I’ve downloaded an app called TVplayer, this gives me access to lots of channels all freebies plus history etc etc and allows me to record straight to a cloud account (no need for a pvr) as well as catchup, also downloaded itv play and others. I’m very happy used to pay £80 pm for sky, now I pay something like £20 & dip in and out of sports events or content from sky with day, week or month passes. Apple TV lets me stream from my phone too, so that means I can get Bt sport really well.... more for less. Plus the apple box gives me access to my shares, plane watching and anything else I can think of from my bed!!!!! (Will be getting one for downstairs soon too)

Faults a possible deal with apple could play out in all kinds of ways. For BT to survive well they need to offer things people want as a package otherwise they might just end up providing BB, which will be very dodgy moving forward and as prices drop further. With Openreach at least they have a wholesale support business. Anyway back to tv. What if BT could offload all the costs of a tv service and its content to Apple. So they get a fabulous tv offering without the costs..... then maybe Apple might want to use Bt TV production facilities to expand into say sports coverage, again giving BT a TV service and now sports package which apple either pay for or contribute towards, maybe even taking a bigger slice of sports from SKY. The Apple TV box gives you smart home features too, house alarms, remote control, energy saving etc etc etc once again all part of a BT package but none of the development costs. Open teach engineers might then operate to install and support smart home and internet of things on behalf of apple services. So Apple get network and support for their smart home plans & BT get a free or subsidised and highly prized tv / smart home offering along with their fixed and mobile service...... EE get the holy grale of converged services and apple get access to internet of things ... everything every where (EE) for their future products. Essentially apple get a national fixed and mobile network to experiment on..... obviously this is me having a day dream but it’s a marriage made in futures heaven... the possibilities are endless....... mean while SKY I think will be slowed down by Comcast....... so I summary BT to enhance their proposition (probably first dibs) at no or little cost & apple get to use a national network fixed and mobile, a national work / support force ....... Apple is the ultimate brand....

Faults, I would suggest you go buy an Apple TV box. I’ll tell you what apps to download. If you don’t like it, then you just don’t get it. It would be an amazing way for BT to accelerate to the kind of service that people in the future will want. As for Openreach it will work same as it does today, apart from it won’t pay profit to Bt plc it will use that money it generates from 600 providers to fund its business objectives. I don’t think it will be sold but if it was it would work well I think

Hey Zib, thanks I can’t pretend to understand this industry as you do, but I try much as I can to learn as much as I can for a company where most of my money is invested. This sounds like a tantalising investment opportunity to me over the long term I’m quite optimistic, a couple of good outcomes will I think drastically change things, because I’m still not convinced pension scheme and business is in the kind of shape that deserves halving the SP. My only questions are do Bt have the management to properly deliver this future in a sensible fashion.

Oh okay confusion over. Openreach does not own the network “In March 2017, after various negotiations and demands with Ofcom, BT plc agreed to divest Openreach's staff and non-network assets into a legally separate company, Openreach Limited. However, the network assets would still be owned by BT plc to ensure the longevity of leases and covenants, and Openreach Limited would still be wholly owned by BT plc's parent holding company, BT Group plc.”

Oh okay bit of research say it does? But other sources say Openreach maintains the network on behalf of Bt plc. Did the spin off include ownership of the network transferred from bt plc to Openreach ltd? Confused . Con

Openreach doesn’t own the “pipes” or network.

NDN who would ever tell you such a thing?

Exit stage left. Your time is up

H-hi it makes perfect sense, SKY / DISNEY are the competition not partners

He really won’t be, why would he?

My share are going to get a nose bleed at this rate. Can it hold though? Would love to refer doubters to Velo’s recent posts. Anyway surely this sudden interest in BT shares must be off the back of some positive news coming soon? Any ideas ?