Member Info for fleccy

"The UK is on track to be the first country in Europe to allow people to use their smartphone to make calls using signals direct from satellites"

Direct satellite to device is meaningless in a country like the UK, since the service will be limited and only useful in the remotest of areas. If you were in the jungle in Africa then it might be useful, but even if you're in a African village the most sensible option would be to have a 5G Cell connected to a satellite terminal with a dish, possibly powered by solar and supplemented with a battery. Personally I view satellite to device service as not much more than a gimmick, with little payback considering the amount space tech required to offer it. It will never be useful to provide service in Urban areas since atmospherics, distance and antenna directivity/gain will restrict the service to a limited number of mobiles within the same geographic area.

"We will endlessly suffer until an economically competent government is in power"

The only ones who suffer, are the ones looking to make a fast capital gain and agonising on the slightest share price drop. As I've said previously there's more than one investment strategy available for making money. A 5% dividend yield as part of a portfolio of other dividend paying stocks, makes Vodafone an attractive addition to generate income for reinvestment or buying stuff. I don't have an issue with investing for capital gains, but it's a lot more difficult than investing in reasonably safe dividend paying stocks.

We've seen our paper losses go below £170,000 at the start of 2024, yet we were still generating income of around £25,000, currently our portfolio is showing a paper gain £33,502 and it's meaningless in the scheme of things, since we have no intention to sell. Over the next 4 years we're currently on track to earn a passive dividend income of over £100,000 tax free; To earn a return like that, based purely on capital gains, would either take serious skill, or lots of luck, I don't consider us particularly skillful or lucky.

Newbie if you were referring to the uncrossing trade, that's always large. 20 million UT with a day volume of around 63 million doesn't seem unusual to me.

This is just another shakeout, I've seen the same happen with BT many times. The fall is far in excess of what you'd expect from such a small downgrade.

"“But while there is an element of being ‘paid to wait’ with 5% dividend and 6% buyback, the wait is now longer and the impact more material. Thus, we lower to Neutral,” added the analysts, who also cut their price target on the stock to £91 from £106"

I assume they mean 91p from 106p. It's probably unimaginable in the US that a large cap stock could be priced around or lower than a Dollar.

https://www.baystreet.ca/investing/109825/BofA-downgrades-Vodafone-on-expected-impact-of-the-Three-merger-Germany-headwinds

Old news

I would guess driving an HGV is far more difficult than operating a train. I would also guess as long as you know the signals, speed limits and markers indicating various things like upcoming stations, etc, there isn't much more to it. I can't understand why they can't use AI to operate trains, it would be far easier to program AI to operate a train than drive a car. The unions would probably kick off at the first hint of AI taking over from Train Drivers.

Hey, the Government need to find the money to pay for all the public sector pay rises. Train drivers are now probably earning as much, or more, than Captains at Medium sized Airlines, it must be difficult to land that Train in a storm!!!

It looks as though BT are changing their Global business model anyway, so this is likely to be part of that move. It isn't uncommon for telecom companies to have partnerships in countries where they don't have a presence, to provide Enterprise solutions for big international companies. Network as a Service seems to be the way it's going, due to the flexibility it offers, much like SaaS on the software side of things.

https://business.bt.com/connectivity/global-fabric-naas/

Yeah we struck lucky there, for a change 🙄Then again it's all just paper until you realise a gain or a loss. To be honest it's more about dividends for us, that latest Vodafone purchase should push our annual tax free dividend income to over £26,000.

"I simply pointed out that you don't have to pay stamp duty"

I think you meant tax Dan? Otherwise I'm in line for some serious rebates 💷

Https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/telecoms-infrastructure/consultation-promoting-competition-and-investment-in-fibre-networks-telecoms-access-review-2026-31/

It's all part of the process to separate Openreach from BT. It's actually BT who own the ducts and poles, not Openreach, Openreach just manage the infrastructure on behalf of BT. As far as capping the price for 80Mb broadband, it's meaningless since BT/Openreach could just offer a higher speed connection at a price below the 80Mb cap, to compete against the Altnets.

None of this changes the fact that BT can compete more as the Fibre/5G rollout's complete and capex reduces. Makes you wonder if Ofcom are working for some big market players, as this has appeared on the back of a few hefty downgrades and some negative commentary, funny thing is the price is holding up.

26,520 Vodafone shares, at 74.96p, in our ISA's. We used the £20,000 left over from the normal share dealing account tidy up, where we sold VOD/Lloyds and reinvested the majority back into BT. With hindsight we should have topped up the ISA sooner, but it doesn't matter that much in the scheme of things.

I know the story is real, but is there any truth to the claim that Mittal is increasing his stake.

"A spokesperson for Bharti told the FT the company “currently has no plans to buy any further stake above the 24.5 per cent already disclosed”. BT declined to comment when asked by the FT."

Https://www.cityam.com/indian-billionaire-mulls-expanding-bt-stake/

"Indian telecoms billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal is reportedly considering boosting his stake in BT, according to a report in the Financial Times. "

🥱

"Just like winning the lottery"

Yep, pure luck. By adding more rigs and increasing the hashing rate, miners increase their chance of winning the block, but in the end it's only one rig that wins the race. One person could buy a thousand lottery tickets to increase their odds of winning, but someone else could win with just a single ticket. In the case of BTC, the big miners do massively increase their odds of winning the block, but there are a few occasions when the single machine wins and defies the odds.

You might not see debt as an issue, but it's constantly raised as an issue in the financial media. BT are also beaten with the same stick.

"And then there’s the perennial problem of Vodafone’s debt. Telecoms infrastructure doesn’t come cheap, which means the group’s had to borrow enormous sums.

To address the issue, the company’s been selling various divisions and non-core assets to generate some funds to help reduce its level of borrowings.

The sale of its Italian business brought in €8bn of cash. Of this amount, €2bn is expected to be used for share buybacks and the rest for paying down its debt. There was no mention of current net debt levels in the Q3 announcement. This might also explain the apparent investor nervousness"

https://www.fool.co.uk/2025/02/05/with-q3-revenue-up-5-why-does-the-vodafone-share-price-keep-falling/

"Vodafone’s problem – and the ultimate explanation for why its shares are no higher now than in 1998 – is that it has been fighting on too many fronts, in too many markets, while it has been carrying too much debt that has crimped its ability to invest and compete fully across the board. The capital investment requirements to stay competitive meant the dividend was, ultimately, too big to defend, and hence the hefty cuts in 2019 and 2025"

https://www.ajbell.co.uk/articles/investmentarticles/276047/vodafone-looks-set-new-tone-full-year-results

"High debt, revenue stagnation, and competitive pressures continue to weigh heavily on the telecom giant, leaving investors cautious as they await the upcoming interim results"

https://www.ig.com/uk/news-and-trade-ideas/_vodafone-share-price-struggles-thanks-to-slow-turnaround-241111

Clearly the financial media view Vodafone debt as an issue, even if you don't. Incidentally I actually agree with you, but it is a subject worthy of discussion.

"that is clear in what i said - in both cases you are producing graphs to fit your own narrative"

So what narrative is that and what is my motivation for presenting the facts? Are you saying the debt figures and maturity dates are wrong?

https://investors.vodafone.com/debt-investors/bonds-outstanding-eu-and-us

I did say that buying back shares in Vodafone is a good thing, what does my opinion on Lloyds share buybacks have to do with Vodafone? They are two different companies in completely different sectors, so whatever opinion I hold in relation to Lloyds share buybacks is irrelevant when it comes to Vodafone.

"For example Vod could have bonds that compel the buyer to convert to new shares at 120p per share. In that case Vodafone could purchase the same amount back at a lower price if they wanted to"

Didn't I previously suggest something similar in relation to Hybrid convertible Bonds? Which you argued against, make your mind up, you seem to chop and change the narrative from one post to the next. At least I stick to the same narratives and openly admit when I might be mistaken, of course you never get anything wrong do you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohDB5gbtaEQ