I am a trader as well as an investor and hopefully this thread will reflect both aspects ....

We should start by saying this is a highly speculative share and the market takes no prisoners.

Over the last 18 months I made lots twice in the early days - then lost it back - bought a million at 2.6p average - founded the TAG - bought another half a million or so at sub 1p - sold most at average 4.25 - bought back at 2.2p and less - sold most at 3.5p and now buying back - overall a good net profit at this time.

I think the d4e will happen (say 90% chance) and the 3% currently talked about will give or should give a price equating to say 3/5p. Longer term on succcess of d4e and progress in the sales market the shares should move to around 10p - assumming markets are not in freefall.

I am looking to buy at any time and hoping for a war generated dip - when I do I will let you know.

The TAG site is a great place for catching up on the TWT news and I will post here as well.

Currently trading on TWT is light (1.7 million traded) and the price is down a littlw with a wide spread (2.01/2.35p). This is a sets share and you must expect a crtain amount of manipulation in these troubled times - FTSE down over 4% intraday

I have a core holding of at least half a million shares and intend to be a long term investor at this time.


ainsoph


http://www.investoraction.co.uk - currently we have 804 registered members holding around 100 million shares in total

Very low volumes and a move south by a tick or two - also looking to add a few


ains



Freeview surpasses ITV Digital in four months

London, March 4 2003, (netimperative)



by Philip Buxton

Freeview, the BBC's replacement service for the defunct ITV Digital is in 1.4m homes - 200,000 more than the ITV Digital service could claim - just four months since its launch, according to new BARB figures for March due out this week.


Andy Duncan, director of marketing and communications for the BBC, revealed the figures at today's FT Broadcasting and New Media Conference adding that a new campaign promoting the service would be revealed at the end of this week. The growth means that Freeview can claim 3m viewers, prompting Duncan to describe the service as a valuable third platform in the digital TV market, behind satellite and cable.

The service, which was launched in October backed by a major campaign on BBC channels, was sprung after the BBC won the digital TV licence previously held by ITV for the ITV Digital service that collapsed last year. At its peak, ITV Digital had 1.2m subscribers.

The take-up of Freeview has been sparked, said Duncan, by a clear marketing strategy aimed at potential digital viewers generally ignored by Sky and the cable giants. He said that existing digital services were aimed at the populist ABC1, 18-35 consumer, leaving less technologically literate groups largely untapped.

He said, however, that Freeview was 'complementary' to the commercial digital services and that he could forsee households using cable or satellite services, alongside Freeview for other rooms.

Duncan added that the Beeb was now happy with its range of services for the forseeable future having launched a bevvy of new channels in the past twelve months, culminating in the new BBC Three, launched last week.

However, criticism continues to flow over the funding of digital services through the licence fee, while many license fee payers still do not use digital services. Duncan estimated that 15m UK homes are still without any form of digital TV service.

Hmmmmmmm ..... sounds like a good match for Malone

ains





BILL HUFF March 05, 2003

Telewest rescue fears as investor breaks ranks
By Dan Sabbagh, Telecoms Correspondent



TELEWESTS biggest bondholder, the American vulture investor Bill Huff, has broken ranks with the companys other major creditors in a move that threatens to delay the 3.5 billion capital restructuring.
The move reflects a more aggressive stance being taken by Mr Huff, who is also the newly appointed chairman of Telewests cable rival, NTL.

Mr Huff had been working with a committee of Telewest bondholders on a debt-for-shares swap that would give bond investors 97 per cent of the company. He has abandoned the committee, which is advised by UBS Warburg, and is now dealing directly with Telewest.

It is not known if Mr Huff, or one of his representatives, wants a seat on the Telewest board. Although his position at NTL does not render a board seat at Telewest illegal, it would make it impossible for him to decide on any matter where there was a conflict of interest.

As the two companies co- operate across a range of issues, Mr Huff would be prevented from taking part in many operational decisions. He would also be blocked from participating in any talks about a merger between the two companies.

It is widely expected that Telewest will merge with NTL in the next two years to beef up the cable industry so that it can head off the competitive threat from BT, the telecoms group, and the broadcaster BSkyB.

If Mr Huff does demand a board seat, other investors are also expected to demand board representation, which would leave the company with little prospect of attracting genuine independent directors. A recruitment process is scheduled to begin shortly.

Next week Mr Huff and analysts from WR Huff Asset Management, his investment company, will begin an extra round of due diligence on Telewests operations. As a result, Telewests other major investors, including Liberty Media, Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom, will also be given the opportunity to revisit the companys books.

Mr Huff says that he holds about 20 per cent of the companys bonds, twice as much as previously thought, although the claim is impossible to verify because there is no precise record of who owns which bonds. If he does have such a quantity his negotiating position is powerful because a one-fifth holding is just short of a blocking minority.

Telewest hopes to conclude its restructuring through a court-sanction scheme of arrangement, which requires 75 per cent approval of every class of investor. If Mr Huff were to withold consent and take a few others with him, he could ensure the scheme collapsed.

NTL, which has just emerged from its own restructuring, has only one independent on the board, the former television executive David Elstein, out of a total of six.

Telewest refused to comment.

Are the Papers making their own news again or has telewest just invited Big Boys to go over it's books, before results?

"Next week Mr Huff and analysts from WR Huff Asset Management, will begin an extra round of due diligence on Telewest’s operations. As a result, Telewest’s other major investors, including Liberty Media, Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom, will also be given the opportunity to revisit the company’s books".

It's an interesting situation ...... I sume it's by no means certain who will come out on top. I always felt that TWT were keen to divorce themselves from Liberty - if they could.

Wide spread and virtually no volume this morning.


ains

Telewest launches poignant wireless broadband trials

London, March 5 2003, (netimperative)



by Chris Lake

Telewest Broadband has begun trials of a new wireless broadband product to promote cable-free internet access in the home in a move that signals the company is prepared to set itself up as an all-in-one home internet provider.


The company has provided a self-installation kit to a number of existing digital television subscribers in the North West who will give feedback on the ease of use and value for money of the new product.

Customers taking part in the trial can link the Netgear wireless access point with their set-top box, making use of the in-built cable modem to provide a wire-free home networking experience.

While Telewest is still laden with huge debts, it is predicting break-even for the end of this year and is now at a crucial point for deciding its strategy; whether to become a simple cable utilities provider or go further and aim to become the provider of internet access throughout the home. The trial signals that it is testing out the latter.

The new wireless connection will support 512Kbps and 1Mbps services and follows on from the release of a wired self-installation pack that was launched in January, for 12.50. The Netgear wireless kit is preconfigured with security settings to prevent drive-by hacking.

Telewest director of internet services Chad Raube said: "[The trial] will introduce the every-day surfer to the benefits of wireless technology, while ensuring the process of installing and maintaining the connection is as simple as possible."

I am interested in this and guess lots of others will be ...



Telewest trials wireless BB for the home
By Tim Richardson
Posted: 05/03/2003 at 10:23 GMT


Telewest has brought forward trials of a new self-installation wireless connection that gives its punters the freedom to get broadband anywhere in their home.

Around 500 existing Telewest digital TV punters in the North West region are being recruited to take part in the pilot.

The kit behind the trial lets punters access their blueyonder broadband service via a wireless access point and the cable modems embedded in their digital set-top box.

The self-install pack pack includes a pre-configured Netgear wireless access point and enables a connection for both Telewest's blueyonder 512kbp/s
and 1Mbp/s broadband services.

Pricing details have yet to be announced.

If successful, then a full commercial roll-out of the self-install wireless connection could be pencilled in for the summer.

In January, Telewest unveiled a wires-based self-install product for its broadband service that makes use of cable modems embedded in its digital TV set-top boxes.

NTL appoints new CFO

London, March 5 2003, (netimperative)



by Chris Lake

Former BP/Amoco VP Scott Schubert has been brought in by NTL as its new CFO, following the cable operator's emergence from bankruptcy protection in January.


Schubert, currently executive VP and CFO of US network technology firm WilTel Communications, will report directly to CEO Barclay Knapp and will be based in Hook, Hampshire, at the company's operational headquarters.

His appointment becomes affective from 1 April, when he will become part of NTL's executive management group.

Schubert has 25 years experience of financial leadership gained within companies including Williams Communications and BP/Amoco, where he integrated the two companies' financial operations after they merged in 1998.

NTL completed its financial restructuring in January, whereby its lenders exchanged almost $11bn in debt for equity.

BC close to cable deal

London, 5/3/2003, (venturedome.com)




Private equity firm BC Partners is being tipped as the likely buyer of Deutsche Bank's cable TV unit Telecolumbus for around 500m euros.


BC faces competition for the deal from Apollo, DB Capital and the same consortium (Apax Partners, Providence Equity and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners) that recently acquired Deutsche Telekom's German cable TV networks for up to 2.1bn euros.

While BC is the most likely buyer, a final decision is not due until the middle of next week at the earliest. BC is believed to have signed some form of co-operation agreement with the Apax/Providence/Goldman grouping.

"That would be the best solution because there would be no cartel problems but both sides could profit from each other," said a source close to the negotiations.

Deutsche Bank bought Telecolumbus for 720m euros in 1999 and has long been trying to sell it. A proposed deal with Liberty Media Corp of the US last year was pulled when Liberty was blocked by German antitrust regulators from buying the Deutsche Telekom cable assets.

Deutsche is believed to have written down the value of its investment in Telecolumbus by around 200m euros. WestLB, Credit Lyonnais, ING and Rabobank have all been linked with the provision of debt finance for the deal.

MP to raise broadband cap issue in parliament
05/03/2003
Editor: David Minto

The Labour MP and former Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson has said he will raise awareness in the House of Commons of NTLs decision to cap broadband usage, according to a report from The Register.

Mr Robinson paid an hour-long visit to Kingsley Smith, the driving force behind the DontPayNTL web site and campaign, after his mother, Sue, wrote to her constituency MP.

Mrs Kingsley is understood to have argued that NTLs restriction on downloads was undermining Tony Blairs strategy for Broadband Britain.

PARIS (AFX) - Groupe Air France SA said it will increase all its airfares by 3 pct from March 6 in response to the increase in the price of aviation fuel.
It said the rise is in line with increased prices already announced by its suppliers.

note one thing from several posts back ainsoph, quote to the effect if Malone wished to retain veto he would need to expand his eventual stake from around 11% to 15%.............hmm would he do this, and would it be via corporates or equity??

Not enough equity at the current or notional 3% D4E but maybe there is a slim chance of him negotiating something better. The good thing is we will get to vote ...... one day


ains





UPDATE 1-NTL hires Scott Schubert as CFO
Wed March 5, 2003 10:15 AM ET
(adds quote, detail, background)
LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - British cable TV group NTL Inc said on Wednesday that Scott Schubert, chief financial officer of once bankrupt U.S. telecoms company Williams Communications WTEL.O , would become its chief financial officer on April 1.

Schubert is the first executive hired since NTL itself emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January. In addition to his job at Williams, Schubert was worked 23 years at U.S. oil company Amoco and oversaw its integration with British giant BP Plc BP.L .

"He has over 25 years of broad financial leadership experience, including the past four years in the telecommunications and media industry, and is therefore well equipped to exploit the opportunities at NTL as we focus on delivering profitable growth and returning to service excellence," Chief Executive Barclay Knapp said in a statement.

NTL shares were 0.5 percent higher at $10.05 in early New York trade.

Schubert is not the first executive from WilTel, as Williams is now known, to cross the Atlantic for work. Matthew Bross, senior vice president and general manager at Williams, joined NTL's larger rival BT Group BT.L in November as the former fixed-line monopoly's first chief technology officer.

NTL and Britain's other cable group, Telewest Communications Plc TWT.L , spent heavily on acquisitions and network upgrades and had to undergo balance sheet surgery over the past year. John Gregg, former CFO of NTL, lost his job as part of the debt restructuring.

William Huff, a leading bondholder in both NTL and Telewest, has taken over as NTL's acting chairman until a permanent replacement for NTL co-founder George Blumenthal is found.

The Times newspaper reported on Wednesday that Huff had broken ranks with the other members of a committee of Telewest bondholders working to put the finishing touches on its financial restructuring. He abandoned the committee to work with the company directly, the paper said.

Shares in Telewest fell 7.5 percent to 2.21 pence.

Telewest backs Essential with mailer

Staff, Marketing 06-03-2003 07:00

LONDON - Telewest Broadband has started a 750,000-strong mailing campaign to promote its 'Essential' digital TV and phone package.

The campaign is the first by agency Rapier to promote the cable firm's digital TV offering, for which it has 1.76m customers.

The creative comes in the shape of an Ace of Spades, with the strapline 'A pack full of Aces', to convey the breadth and quality of choice of its 47 digital channels.

The 'Essential' package costs 50 to install, then 8.50 a month for customers who opt for its Telewest 321 fixed-line phone service at 10 a month.

Telewest hired Rapier to its 6m ad business late last year, as it refocused its marketing away from brand-building toward customer retention.

interesting background comment on Malone from the FT today





Malone returns to his American roots
By Peter Thal Larsen in New York
FT.com site; Mar 05, 2003


John Malone is turning his attention back to the US. Following a fruitless two-year campaign to buy European cable assets, the veteran media investor is once again hunting for deals in the market where he made his name.

Liberty Media, Mr Malone's holding company, this week started a process which could lead to it taking control or selling out of QVC, the home shopping business it jointly owns with Comcast, the dominant US cable operator.

At the same time, Mr Malone is studying a bid for Hughes Electronics, the satellite TV operator controlled by the car group General Motors. He has also been sniffing around the US media assets of Vivendi Universal, the cash-strapped French group.

In many ways, the current media landscape is ideal for investors who, like Mr Malone, have spare cash, an eye for value and an appetite for risk. Valuations are depressed, and most of the large media conglomerates are more interested in selling rather than buying.

But Mr Malone's attempts at dealmaking reflect more than just opportunity. They also signal the pressure on Liberty Media to exercise direct control over more of its investments.

Throughout the merger boom of the late 1990s, Mr Malone was mostly a seller. He sold his TCI cable business to AT&T for a rich price in 1998. He swapped his stake in Ted Turner's broadcasting group for shares in Time Warner, ending up as one of the largest shareholders following the merger with AOL. His stake in Gemstar-TV Guide, the television programming group, was exchanged for 18 per cent of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

While most of these deals were well-timed, they left Liberty Media with an increasing proportion of its assets tied up in passive shareholdings in large, publicly traded companies. Over the past three years, Liberty Media stock has underperformed the media sector by 22 per cent.

Furthermore, the stock trades at a substantial discount to the value of its investments. Analysts currently estimate the gap at about 30 per cent.

This is not just of interest to investors. Mr Malone faces an increasing risk that the US government will determine Liberty Media to be a holding company - a move that would limit its room for maneouvre and probably increase its tax bill. Given Mr Malone's famous aversion to tax, that is an outcome he is keen to avoid.

So Mr Malone has good reason to be looking for investments that he can control. "He has been chastised for not being an operator in an operators' world," says one former associate. "The Warren Buffett investment style is not getting him any credit."

The bigger question, however, is whether Mr Malone still has enough influence to get his way. Although still a powerful shareholder - he was partly responsible for the removal of Steve Case as AOL's chairman earlier this year - he is no longer able to exercise as much leverage as when he owned a cable operator.

With $3bn of cash on its balance sheet and a further $5bn of hedges which could be easily cashed in, Mr Malone can clearly afford to buy Comcast's 58 per cent stake in QVC. Owning 100 per cent of the business would also allow him to borrow against QVC's substantial cash flows. On the other hand, he may be more interested in negotiating a settlement.

As always, Mr Malone is keeping the people on the other side of the negotiating table from him guessing about his real intentions. His reputation may not be what it was, but it would still be unwise for anyone to underestimate him.

03/06 08:51
NTL Seeks to Sell Irish Cable Unit, Irish Independent Says
By Thomas Molloy


Dublin, March 6 (Bloomberg) -- NTL Inc., the biggest cable- television company in the U.K. and Ireland, is seeking to sell its Irish unit, the Irish Independent said without citing anybody.

NTL, which bought the Irish unit for the equivalent of 674 million euros ($739 million) in 1999, may sell it for about 100,000 euros, the newspaper said.

The company's Irish operations supply cable television to 350,000 viewers in Dublin, Galway and Waterford. It had a pretax loss of 24.3 million euros in 2001, the newspaper said.

NTL was split into two units in January. Bondholders took 100 percent of NTL's U.K. and Ireland unit and 86 percent of its European businesses last year after NTL defaulted on bond payments in Europe's biggest-ever corporate bond default.

Wide spread and almost no trading ....





Cable firms look to gaming

By Jane Wakefield
BBC News Online technology staff


Gaming via set-top box could be the next step for cable TV companies keen to transform the niche image of online gaming into a mass market money-spinner.

Cable needs to capture gaming market
Former managing director of broadband for Telewest, Dr David Docherty, has urged cable firms to take advantage of their bandwidth to become the provider of choice for the networked home.

Game consoles could either be plugged into the cable set-top box or linked wirelessly to provide players with a high-speed connection via the TV.

Gaming has already proved a winner for the satellite broadcaster Sky, with more than 1.3 million people paying to play games every week through its Sky Active service.

Smart pipe

Linking up handheld computers, gaming consoles, MP3 players and other net-enabled devices to the cable pipe is the next step for debt-laden cable firms, said Dr Docherty in a speech at the FT New Media and Broadcasting conference in London.

The internet-driven media cornucopia hasn't gone away just because investors have gone in search of other prey

David Docherty, former Telewest director
"It could change the dynamics of multi-player gaming from geeks on PCs to the mass market," he said.

"Everyone knows how obsessive young males are about gaming," he added.

Making the cable pipe smart and ensuring it remains more than a "sub-scale utility" is essential if the cable firms are to shake off their debt and become more than just providers of telephone, internet and TV services, he said.

"The general view is that cable is screwed but beneath the mountain of debt there is a perfectly functioning business," he said.

"The internet-driven media cornucopia hasn't gone away just because investors have gone in search of other prey," he added.

The satellite broadcaster Sky is already offering games via its set-top box.

It has seen the popularity of its interactive Sky Active service rise following the success of paid-for games such as Tetris, Battleships and Space Invaders.

The service also added the popular Tomb Raider game in December.

Sky now has more than 1.3 million gamers a week and 40% of these are women.

Spaghetti junction

Dr Docherty also believes that the flat-rate charge for broadband offered for cable companies is unsustainable as the amount of bandwidth users require for things such as music downloads increases.

Ntl has already capped its broadband service in a move that has angered users. Telewest, as yet, has no plans to introduce capping.

Telewest, has, however, begun to embrace the ideas of cable as the bandwidth of choice for the future networked home.

It has begun trials in the North West of England of a wireless broadband connection that will allow users to hook up their PCs via a wireless card in the back of their set-top boxes.

"We are looking at getting PDA's, consoles and PCs sharing the same information so that the cable connection recognises you as the same person," said a spokesman for Telewest.

"It will get rid of the spaghetti junction of devices in the home," he added.

NTL Ireland not for sale, says UK parent
Thursday, March 06 14:03:24

(BizWorld)

British cable TV provider NTL has denied that it is putting the former Cablelink business in Ireland up for sale.

"There is not truth to that story, none whatsoever," a spokesperson for the company told BusinessWorld.
The spokesperson was responding to a report this morning that NTL Ireland, which has more than 350,00 customers, was up for sale and would fetch little more than E100,000 on the market. NTL bought Cablelink in 1999 for E674m.


The report said that NTL, which only recently emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after completing a USD10.9bn debt for equity swap, wants to dump the Irish business and focus on its core business in the UK.

Potential buyers for the business include venture capital firm Apax Partners and Irish entrepreneur Denis O'Brien, it added.

Cable companies advised to tap into online gaming
06/03/2003
Editor: David Minto

The former managing director of Telewest, Dr David Docherty, has urged the cable industry to move forward in making online gaming attractive to the masses, according to a report from the BBC.

Speaking at a media conference in London, Dr Docherty said that aggressively promoting online gaming services through the cable network could form the fist step of moving cable away from being known simply a as sub-scale utility. Enabling handheld computers, MP3 players and other net-enabled devices to be linked up to a smart cable outlet is the only serious way cable companies can shift their debt burdens, Dr Docherty suggested.

In contrast to the cable companies, Sky Digital has already begun to tap the potential of online gaming with over a million people paying to play Tetris, Space Invaders and other games each week.

Dr Docherty also contended that, with the growing popularity of data intensive services such as streaming media, a flat-rate charge for broadband is ultimately unsustainable.

Volume is high due to what looks like two rollovers involving a million and a half ....



ains

hmmmmmm ..... always someone to stop a good idea


10:27 Friday 7th March 2003
Graeme Wearden


Pressure from the Ministry of Defence means that 5.8GHz probably won't be licence-exempt, which some claim will make it harder for wireless to close the digital divide
Community broadband activists and some in the telecoms industry are concerned that the rollout of wireless broadband networks in rural areas could be hampered if, as widely expected, the government decides to license the use of part of the 5GHz band of the radio spectrum.

In January, the government announced that it was deregulating most of the 5GHz band, making it legal for people to run wireless local area networks such as 802.11a hot spots without buying a licence, registering the network, or paying a fee.

It also said that it was still looking into the feasability of allowing organisations and commercial operators to run fixed wireless networks in what it called "band C" -- between 5725MHz and 5875MHz.

Band C is currently primarily used for military radar, and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has refused to allow this spectrum to become licence-exempt. Instead, the MoD is insisting on a number of restrictions, including forcing operators to register all their users and pay a fee to the Radiocommunications Agency (RA).

There has been growing concern within the broadband community since this was made public a few weeks ago. Wireless is key to the rollout of high-speed Internet services in parts of the UK where fixed-line services such as ADSL aren't available.

Several groups of local activists have already launched fixed broadband networks running at 2.4GHz -- which the government deregulated last summer -- and some of these people believe that 5GHz would be an even better frequency at which to run a community network, if it was licence-exempt.

The RA warned key members of the wireless broadband sector several weeks ago that band C would be what it called "light licensed" spectrum, a move that "left people stunned", according to one source close to the issue.

Intellect, which represents over 1,000 IT and telecoms companies, confirmed that there is concern within the industry about the implication of making band C licensed.

"It could jeopardise the business case for using 5.8GHz," Graham MacDonald, Intellect's senior radio executive, told ZDNet UK, adding that there was a significant danger of extra costs being passed on to users.

A final decision about band C hasn't officially been made yet, but it appears that the MoD is in a strong negotiating position over the future of the spectrum.

"The MoD, who are the primary users at present, aren't unhappy about sharing the spectrum with civilian users as it will reduce their licence fee, and should also mean that equipment prices fall," a RA spokeswoman explained.

The MoD, though, is insisting that any equipment used at 5.8GHz should support dynamic frequency selection (DFS), which means a user's connection will automatically change to another channel if it detects military radar, and transmit power control (TPC), which ensures that a network transmits at the lowest power level possible.

MacDonald confirmed that some companies believe they could be seriously disadvantaged by these restrictions. The MoD is also insisting on exclusion zones -- near key radar sites -- and some form of licensing or registration scheme, so that networks can be eliminated if they interfere with military radar.

"The MoD will block [the opening up of 5.8GHz] if we don't do these things," explained the RA spokeswoman.

The idea of having to pay to use spectrum that many people had expected would be licence-exempt has led to particular concern in some quarters, though. If wireless is the key to achieving a true Broadband Britain, then the government could be seen as putting more obstacles in the way of rural broadband activists by forcing additional costs and responsibilities upon them.

The RA says that if network operators are indeed forced to pay licensing fees and to register every user, then the process will be as easy as possible.

"It'll be simple and fully electronic. We don't want to be pushing pins into a map," said the RA spokeswoman.

The fee structure could even be designed in favour of small rural networks, she added. "It could be disproportionately cheap for smaller users, such as those with fewer than 100 users, and more expensive for larger ones."

Even this might not be enough to satisfy some, though, including one insider who commented that "it's licensing, without any quality of service guarantee."

The RA confirmed that anyone launching a 5.8GHz network would have to be aware that it wouldn't be prudent to guarantee any service levels, as there's nothing to stop someone else also setting up their own rival system and causing serious interference. "We won't prevent people wiping out each other's networks," explained the RA spokeswoman.

The RA expects that its work on 5.8GHz should be completed by the summer, with the issue being treated as a top priority.