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Bt have lots of huawei hardware in their systems which is manufactured in china and backed by the Chinese military and subsidised by the Chinese government. The word is they have embedded software which allows traffic to monitored by the chinese . Don't think Bt are responsible for national security so no problem if some company wants to take it over can't see anybody crazy enough unless they can squash ofcom .
But they don't have OFCOM breathing down their neck and a bunch of mp's continuously complaining about the fact that bt doesn't pump all its profits into a network that their competitors can benefit from. Amazing that Sky recently got a pat on the back for the least complaints about their bb service which runs over bt's network and is serviced by openreach. While bt's bb got almost as many complaints as talk talk who coincidentally runs its bb over the same network. Either sky customers don't complain much or somebodies cooking the figures.
Had a chat with the lovely Liv just b4 I retired. Very capable and open minded. It would be interesting to see where BT would be now had she got her chance. Still think the water companies and ofwat have us all stitched up when their raw material falls from the sky is collected by naturally occurring rivers and streams and all they do is push it through a few filters. Then charge what they need to to keep the divi,i salaries and sp nice and high. Must be good to be able to decide how much income you need divide it by the amount of customers you have and then simply charge that without having looking over your shoulder for the competition to step in. Cos there isn't any.
Cheers Rodders . No doubt someone will say comparing shares to beer and petrol is not a fair comparison so have a look at the sp of severn trent in 1989 240p now 2 quid . They however are running a virtually unregulated monopoly so no wonder really.
No not the book the year bt was privatised. Beer was 72p a pint petrol 40p a litre and bt sp 130. Today beer 360 a pint a x5 increase petrol 130 a litre a 3 times increase bt 205p a x1.5 . Beer is still just beer petrol is the same stuff as it was in 1984 whereas bt has completely changed from noisey over expensive phone lines to broadband and virtually free phone calls but has lost at least half its value when compared to other commodities. Think something is skewing the market.
Aus you are right to say it needed regulation early on but the government said the regulator would step back after other providers were established no later than 1996. Well they are still at it and no wonder when they pay themselves the eye watering saleries they do . Who would want to give that up when all they have to do is drag bt down at every opportunity and stifle the investment in a better network.
You are thinking smart cabinets that switch between themselves without need for an exchange. Nice idea but unfortunately it relies on everybody being conected to one which is a long way off and will probably never happen as mobile will circumvent it. The theory is good and could save bt a load of cash by shutting down exchanges but they will have to invest heavily in more smart cabinets to make it happen.
Aus bt share holders paid for the network they didn't inherit it . The problem is ofcom think we were given it and therefore the government still somehow own it and think they can control it. Fttp is never going to happen it's far too expensive and 90% of punters don't want or need it. It's just another stick to beat bt with. Mobile tech will eventually rule the day and bt need to invest more in that . Fttc will soon be overtaken and the cable network only used for back haul .
Difficult to see how the pension fund managers and investment geezers can ignore this at 6 to 7% when it's a company that cant be allowed to fail. Barring a labour government openreach will never be taken into public ownership. Rupert is more likely to put a bid in which I'm sure he would if he could off load the pension deficit to the government who are still responsible for it should bt wind up.
BT has already installed chinese manufactured hardware in its exchanges which was nice and cheap as it was subsidised by the Chinese government. Read into that what you will but I don't think BT are the guardian's of national security that's more mi6 territory. The cost to the government and the tax payer if they have to pick up and run bts pension scheme would be quite significant . Not something they would wish to do I'm sure. One of the company's that would like to see bt fail is sky as we are their only sports tv competitor which I'm sure they would love to get rid of.
Fleccy sincerely hope you are right but the evidence of recent months shows a determination by some to try and cause at least a split in bt if not dismantle it altogether. I am sure 5 would be very appealing to most share holders cant see anybody stumping up that much . Strange that the government with quite a lot riding on bt crown guarantee national security etc seem to be complicit via ofcom in seeing bt struggle. Some mps always banging on about poor bb speeds but do nothing to promote investent in the only company capable of providing a better infrastructure
As BT cannot fail as a company the area we are moving towards is a take over at a nominal price. This is what I think some players a hoping for so they can get more control over the market. The big share holders have lost confidence and are not prepared to risk criticism if they support this share. It's a nasty spiral caused by the Italians which we only pull out of if we carry on with business as usual and maintain the dividend . Only time will restore confidence . Once the market turns on a company it's difficult to turn it back look at Barclays . They have nt recovered since Diamond bailed out.
That's a long term wager ! Face it Sky have lost their muscle if they can't out bid a relatively small telecoms company for what is their bread and butter offering. They have to get a new owner with more clout. Vod is 3 times the size of BT so would be a perfect buyer. Hang on to that £50 this is definitely going one way or the other. If Sky had outbid BT for the champions league they would have been £10 already.
Do me a favour ! The only reason the shares are rising is because Sky are in big trouble and an easy take over target for Vod or more likely an American based company looking for a European foothold. If a take over doesn't materialize the sp will fall back below 8
So uploading on the internet and downloading via satellite. Don't think the gamers would be very fond of that but it might work for large file downloads. People outside the range of infinity and virgin etc might benefit if it worked at all.