Member Info for fleccy

"Coshh does not cover metals."

No, but the chemicals used in the precious metal extraction process will be covered by COSHH, so BT will have to sell the scrap to an accredited company who use responsible processes.

"With reference to COSHH I was thinking more about the correct disposal of PCBs due to some of the materials used in them, even down to old stuff having lead solder etc, the costs could mean they are effectively worthless, but still have to be disposed of correctly."

That can't be right, did you check out the link I posted to "PRECIOUS-METAL-SERVICES.COM"?

https://www.precious-metal-services.com/information/current-purchase-prices/electronic-scrap/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pie4uRL5Bco

Many of the System X circuit boards must be top grade scrap, especially the main Processor boards. I'd expect BT to monetise any value from redundant Equipment/Hardware wherever possible.
As far as COSHH, the companies that deal in the scrap boards will likely take care of all that, and will be accounted for in the price. I'm not saying it'll be a massive windfall for BT, but it might offset much of the decommissioning costs.

"PCBs some kit was effectively leased"

I thought BT would own their exchange equipment, who would they be leasing the equipment from?

"there may not be much money left after correct disposal"

The recovery of circuit boards, chassis/Backplanes should be relatively straight forward, since the boards will be bagged and boxed upon removal. Cable recovery, from overhead trays and underfloor, should also be relatively straight forward too. The building's should have been assessed for asbestos, with a register of any hazardous materials, so in the majority of cases I don't see COSHH being a problem, as long as rudimentary precautionary measures are followed. Remember, Engineers are changing boards and running cables over trays and under floors all the time; As long as they don't interfere with the building fabric, most of the removal should be safe. No doubt any premium, from scrap removal, will be incorporated into the overall decommissioning costs, so well never get to know the overall cost reduction from the sale of scrap.

Maybe the heading for this thread should have been Gold. Since System X and System Y (AXE 10) Exchanges, and Concentrators, date back to the 80's/90's, there is likely to be a lot of Gold on the circuit boards. The Exchanges must have a big scrap value, which will possibly go some way toward decommissioning costs, maybe even reap a profit.

"Talked about this a week or so ago, extract from my post below FYI…"

NDNIC, what about the possible thousands of miles of 2002/2003 sitting in trays, and connected to DDF's, at the exchanges that will need to be cleared? The coaxial cable will be easily recovered and weighed in, and the conductor is bare copper; 2003 has quite a chunky centre conductor too. Most of the access network copper will be redundant now, with FTTC, whether that's been removed, does anyone know?. Then there's the scrap from the Exchange circuit boards, components, and various other items recovered after the PSTN switch off. I suspect BT will have costed any scrap value, and possibly approached various specialist companies who deal in this. Since I have no idea how much scrap circuit boards are worth, I wouldn't be able to guess the value, but some will contain recoverable rare earth elements, gold, etc. In this post I'm assuming that BT still use 2002/3 to carry legacy DASS/Q931 circuits and that they still have much of the coax on trays from the PDH days, since you're ex BT, you may know?

"Coaxial cable, BT2002 & BT2003 to CW1229
Conductor: bare copper"
http://www.batt.co.uk/products/view/829/BT2002-&-BT2003-Cable

"Class 1-A PCBs
Description:

Class 1-A PCBs are old PCBs with galvanically gold-plated contacts / connector strips, very many small and densely placed chips, mostly from old mainframe computers / servers. The circuit boards must not be stripped, attachments such as metal sheets, frames and heat sinks are removed.

Purchase price 10.12.2021
9,65 €/kg up to 1t

Prices for special or larger lots on request / after material inspection

Class 1-B PCBs
Description:

Class 1-B PCBs are PCBs from computers / industrial equipment which have visible gold-plating and numerous chips / transistors and plug-in contacts containing precious metals. In the case of motherboards / plug-in cards (sound + graphics cards), only old circuit boards manufactured before 2000. Metal sheets and heat sinks are removed, as are batteries.

Purchase price 10.12.2021
7,24 €/kg up to 1t"Class 1-A PCBs
Description:

Class 1-A PCBs are old PCBs with galvanically gold-plated contacts / connector strips, very many small and densely placed chips, mostly from old mainframe computers / servers. The circuit boards must not be stripped, attachments such as metal sheets, frames and heat sinks are removed.

Purchase price 10.12.2021
9,65 €/kg up to 1t"
https://www.precious-metal-services.com/information/current-purchase-prices/electronic-scrap/

"It blasted through 180p, up more than 5% on the week."

Well that didn't last long, hopefully we'll see it take off again before the close.

"Come Monday let the bun fight commence."

I'm open minded Nige, the current rises are due to the Drahi hype. If there's no news during the week, and the hype subsides, we could see a pullback.

It blasted through 180p, up more than 5% on the week.

The speculators are piling in, because they know the weekend press reports will be ramping up the takeover rumour mill. Even though I don't believe Drahi could take over BT, clearly something's going on.

I stumbled across an article about Peterborough council rejecting the siting of a Street Hub.

https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/environment/plans-to-replace-peterborough-phone-box-with-new-bt-street-hub-rejected-over-harm-to-street-scene-concerns-3489570

"The decision stated: “The proposed street hub, by virtue of its siting, size and design, would result in harm to the setting of the adjacent Listed Building and the character of the Park Conservation Area and street scene. The development would appear an unduly obtrusive and dominant feature, contributing to the unnecessary proliferation of street furniture within the locality."

Here it is on Streetview:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/64+Westgate,+Peterborough+PE1+1RG/@52.5754689,-0.2456635,3a,75y,168.42h,79.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJ8N2q31alzvK8kgUY78dIw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x4877f10015ba9245:0x592bc26fb7db13b2!8m2!3d52.5755212!4d-0.2456021

I'm being honest when i say the Hub photoshopped image, in the article, actually improves the scene. I wonder what the council makes of the huge advertising billboards, in the background, and the taxi offices opposite, and the huge modern buildings, seems they've missed the boat on preserving the scene. Can anyone else see what the council see's that I can't?

"Whatever the spur, his intentions are almost certainly about to become clearer."

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/who-is-patrick-drahi-bt-altice-profile-takeover-openreach-b970985.html

"Ummm. Average seems to be less than 10 million. Maybe Drahi wants a slice of that too...."

Google shows "The average number of shares traded each day over the past 30 days" as "114.14M"

Date. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .Volume
24/11/2021 16:30:00. . .129631623
25/11/2021 16:30:00 . . . 60897094
26/11/2021 16:30:00 . . .287208951
29/11/2021 16:30:00 . . . 69356032
30/11/2021 16:30:00 . . .109805072
01/12/2021 16:30:00 . . . 75295543
02/12/2021 16:30:00 54126390
03/12/2021 16:30:00 272497787
06/12/2021 16:30:00 64683124
07/12/2021 16:30:00 83372834
08/12/2021 16:30:00 148296799

Vodafone's has had quite a few high Volume days.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRKVbw6_Fv_YiKPamvuPeKhqYZvBhHWlGmOZLkwRgWwkfKvltAO8RqmSoQxBGdlcDjR9CHFymRF2lgu/pubchart?oid=1102357210&format=interactive

We're coming up to Christmas, so in the absence of a full lockdown and zero restrictions around hospitality, Plan B is pointless. The hospitality industry are dependant on Christmas/New Year business, hence the Government policy of allowing hospitality to operate without restriction. Over the next 23 days, the UK population will throw caution to the wind, hitting the food and Ale at work do's, Christmas parties, family get togethers, with New Years Eve fueling lots of snogging and fornicating among the youth of the country. The Government know Plan B is merely a token acton, so the Government might as well have done nothing. Lets wait and see if the BOE use this as an excuse to hold off on an interest rate rise, since the market's already pricing no rise in since the plan B announcement.

"So, there's about a five-week lag between the first appearance of a variant and its effects being identifiable. So, yes, probably "a bit conspiracy theorist". ;)"

Maybe, maybe not, I'm just saying that the outbreak in South Africa suggests that Omicron is less severe, even though it's more transmisible.

"Botswana, one of the first countries to detect Omicron, sees no rise in hospitalisations"

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/botswana-says-no-rise-hospitalisation-omicron-70-vaccinated-2021-12-08/

"Sterling steadies as virus curbs dampen rate hike hopes"

I think you replied to the wrong thread Nige, easily done lol.

"and the zoom/dioptre adjustment mechanisms"

I should have said Focus/Dioptre adjustment mechanisms, not Zoom/Dioptre.

"Fleccy, I would be interested, now that I am retired,I do lots of walking, would be good to get a better view of the different sea birds before they fly off. Thanking you."

Walkersworld, I've now received the Binoculars and they seem really good. The optics give a really clear image, and the zoom/dioptre adjustment mechanisms are tight with a quality feel. I'm not a regular Binocular user, so an Enthusiast might disagree with my opinion, but they seem like a really good Binocular at a good price.

This is just my opinion, so take it with a pinch of salt.
It's clear that Omicron is a lot more transmissible than previous variants, but according to reports i've watched, out of South Africa, the symptoms are mild and not leading to high hospitalisation rates.
The UK is now implementing plan B, with the suggested narrative that Omicron could lead to a thousand hospitalisations a day. With the Bank of England due to meet on the 16th December, this gives them the perfect excuse to hold back from raising interest rates. I know it seems a bit conspiracy theorist, but when you add in the lack of restrictions around Hospitality, the current narrative is more about justifying the BOE holding fire on a rate rise, imo.