A little like oom really from my point of view - I believe they are the favoured company within their sector and despite the markets - Oftel and the G3 nonsense they will climb back. They pay a divi and this wioll be seen to be increasingly important in the days to come. They have new management and are looking to enhance shareholder value .....

I hold and swing trade a few and not adverse to intraday trading them.

ains


BT in web-based investor relations drive

London, February 7 2003, (netimperative)



by Chris Lake

BT is launching a web-based scheme which it hopes will improve communications with its retail shareholders and help cut costs.


Dubbed 'ShareholderPlus', the system allows investors to sign up and receive BT communications - such as reports, news releases, mandates and, subject to a change in the law, electronic tax vouchers - by email, rather than by post.

BT said this will help it achieve cost savings - by not having to print and despatch reports - and pointed out that it is also good for the environment.

Furthermore, it has negotiated a number of deals with companies such as Virgin Wines, Apollo Travel, RSA and National Car Rental, to market the service and said it will add new offers in the future if it proves to be a success.

BT claims to be one of the first FTSE100 companies to launch such a programme, though it is likely that more will follow.

www.btplc.com/shareholderplus

Mon 10 February 2003 12:57PM GMT

BT scoops 140m Bradford & Bingley deal
Mortgage provider thinks long-term



Bradford & Bingley has awarded BT a 10-year, 140m outsourcing contract, covering a wide range of technologies and business services.


Over 550 Bradford & Bingley (B&B) sites will be connected across the UK via local and wide area networks, with a focus on collaboration tools, hosting and security.



The bank has opted for Lotus Notes-based email managed and hosted by the telco, which is a major partner of Microsoft, a competing provider of groupware.


Other key parts of the deal include disaster recovery services, security - encompassing firewall management, intrusion detection and virus scanning - remote connectivity for over 1,000 independent financial advisors, and web hosting for online financial services.


B&B has had an outsourcing relationship with BT since 1998 and said the larger contract is helping it reduce its supplier base and receive better service.

Tony Hallett

Oftel Pushes For Wholesale Midband

By:mark.j @ 2:38:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]Oftel, the UK telecoms regulator, is rumoured to be planning a wholesale push for BTs forthcoming Midband ISDN service.

Many of you may remember BTs original announcement from late last year, in which the Midband service was touted as a possible semi-solution to the lack of broadband access in rural areas.

Apparently Oftel is unwilling to allow BT to monopolise the midband market and is planning for a wholesale push. Midband itself has come in for a lot of controversy, with many describing it as a distraction from the real problems of broadband coverage:

Midband, which was announced by BT Retail chief executive Pierre Danon at last November's e-Summit, will give data rates of up to 128Kbps, and although it does not give a constant Web connection, it will provide always-on email.

Trials of Midband are due to start within weeks, but a commercial launch date has not been released by BT.

ZDNet UK understands that some senior figures within Oftel are determined that BT should not be the only midband retailer and that BT Wholesale must make the technology available to other Internet service providers on the same terms as it does to BT Retail.

A decision isn't expected to be made for awhile yet, although BT isn't completely opposed to the idea. Unfortunately Midband is likely to remain controversial until such a time as full and final details are announced. More @ ZDNet.

LONDON (AFX) - Internet service providers will for the first time have to pay a fee to fund the telecommunications industry regulator Oftel.
Currently, only telecom operators have to make up the watchdog's day-to-day running costs.

But under new EU regulations to be introduced on July 25, all ISPs and other electronic communication companies with an annual turnover above 5 mln stg will have to pay towards the cost of regulation, which will total 19.5 mln stg this year.

Under the plans, companies will have to pay a fee equal to 0.063 pct of their annual sales, a spokesperson for Oftel said.

Oftel will later this year be folded into a new super-regulator -- Ofcom -- which will be responsible for both the telecoms and media sector.

Guardian

down BT


Telecoms regulator Oftel clamped down yesterday on BT for offering an unfair discount to a company which was close to defecting to a rival firm.

Vanco, which provides communications services to large corporations, was in the final stages of securing a multi-million pound, multi-year contract with IBM, a BT customer. When BT learned of the Vanco contract, it introduced a six-figure discount through RHM, a telecoms reseller.

Oftel yesterday ruled that BT had breached its licence, which demands that the company make offers available to all customers. It is the first time the regulator has found that the company ftried to undercut rivals.

BT is expected to defend its position vigorously.

Outperforming sector and market this morning @ plus 2.54%

ains

BT pushes the alternative to leased lines: SDSL
Tuesday 11 February 2003, 6:17:20 AM
United Kingdom
Written by James Moreton
Businesses tend to favour E1 leased lines for high speed Internet connections.

Being a dedicated line, E1 does not suffer from the contention issues that xDSL has. Unfortunately this means that they have a high price is usually paid, being far more expensive than the DSL alternative.


SDSL, with the main advantage of having the same upload speed as download, will be able to undercut the leased line prices. BT will be offering businesses SDSL for 200/month + 450 setup, with other companies such as Star Internet and Easynet offering similar services.


It is true that SDSL does not offer the same guarantee of service as its leased counterpart, but will that really matter if it saves thousands?

More ISPs 'to impose download limits'
14:21 Tuesday 11th February 2003
Graeme Wearden


With broadband networks increasingly 'swamped' by P2P traffic, experts predict that by the end of the year most ISPs will limit how much data users can download
The widespread and growing use of peer-to-peer networks is likely to force broadband operators to restrict the amount of data their subscribers are allowed to download, according to analyst group Jupiter Research.

Jupiter Research warned this week that file sharing is growing "at a phenomenal rate", and that the sheer volume of music and movie files being transferred between users is putting a huge burden on broadband service providers.

According to Jupiter, some broadband ISPs are finding that over 50 percent of the traffic on their networks is caused by P2P file-sharing.

"Although not the only factor in driving Internet users to broadband, file-sharing has proven to be broadband's first 'killer application,'" said Dan Stevenson, analyst at Jupiter Research, in a research note. "As well as being a big problem for record labels and the Hollywood studios alike, Internet service providers are beginning to suffer too -- under the heavy weight that file-sharing imposes on their networks."

As a result of the increased traffic, these operators will probably be forced to limit the amount of data its broadband customers are allowed to download from the Net. Should they exceed this limit, they will be charged extra.

"Not wanting to take on the file-sharing networks in court, the best solution for broadband service providers to address this issue would be to impose monthly data limits on their subscribers," Stevenson advised.

Jupiter predicts that by the end of 2003 such data limits will be "the rule, not the exception."

Such a move is likely to prove unpopular with broadband users, though, who are likely to feel that data limits are at odds with the idea of an unlimited, always-on service.

NTL caused a large amount of controversy over the last few days after introducing data limits for its broadband service. It plans to target people who regularly download more than 1GB of data per day.

Back in October 2001, BT also caused a storm of protest when it blocked the ports used by some peer-to-peer applications. It said the move was an attempt to ensure it offered a decent service for all users, but did back down after many customers complained.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

British Telecom

BUY at 176.2p says Merrill Lynch (10th February 2003).

BT releases Q3 figures on Thursday 13th February, when Merrill expects the telecom giant to report group revenues of 4.76bn and group EBITDA of 1.48bn. The broker notes that the group's cost cutting efforts will have helped to offset any weakness in top line growth during the quarter as it did in Q2. In the short term Merrill believes there may be upside potential to its 2004 EPS forecast of 15.9p, given the group's "conservative" cost cutting targets. However some concern remains in the long term, as the broker suspects the fixed-mobile substitution, a trend to which BT is exposed, will be slower in Europe than in the US. Merrill however retains a positive rating and a price objective of 230p ahead of the results.

BT click&buy for the more mature surfer
Wednesday 12 February 2003, 4:04:23 AM
United Kingdom
Written by James Moreton - see netfornowt for fukk article

We have this release from BT, listing a number of popular sites available for our more seasoned readers:


"Its not young people, but those aged 50 plus, that are the most rapidly growing group of internet users in the UK. With the overwhelming selection of content already available on the web, BT click&buy provides users with a trusted source of valuable content at the click of a button.


BT recognises that there is still a reluctance to give out creditcard details across multiple web sites, particularly for the more mature surfer. The revolutionary service from BT provides a simple, safe and secure way to access high quality content, without the risk of giving out credit card details for each purchase. With BT click&buy, you simply register once to open an online account. Any content purchased via BT click&buy is added to this central account and can then be settled using credit cards, debit cards, direct debit or, from April 2003, the BT home phone bill.

The UK has one of the highest percentages of mature web users in Europe. Content available via BT click&buy is proving to be extremely popular with this more mature market, with over 20 per cent of registered users aged 50 or over.

This elite and growing group can go to www.btclickandbuy.com to buy premium content from a wide range of web sites from the world of food, sport, entertainment and leisure, to name just a few:

Premium service aims at families

By Mike Magee: Wednesday 12 February 2003, 12:14


BT AND YAHOO! HAVED SIGNED A DEAL that targets UK broadband customers and seems directly aimed at competing with AOL. The new service called Yahoo! UK Plus offers a range of extras intended to be family friendly.
While experienced Net users are likely to turn up their noses, the new deal could well be a thorn in AOL's side. It offers a "personalised portal experience" and some useful extra software. Most notably, the service includes a firewall, anti-virus and anti-spam filtering, just the sort of thing that the average user needs but may not know about.

To help parents avoid having to give their children an early education about the birds and the bees, the package includes parental controls. The more you read about it, the more it sounds like AOL. It even comes with instant messaging.

Yahoo! says that its equivalent service in the US has been a great success. The new UK service will almost certainly be priced at a premium, though how much it will cost has not yet been stated.

There is no sign of how the two companies will market this offering but, given their size, national newspaper ads seem a certainty. Provided the price is right, they are sure to get plenty of customers.

Strange Facts
In a survey that is running on a BT Openworld users forum, 29% of BTO users polled thought that the service should be bandwidth capped to ensure the majority of users don't suffer. NTL was recently derided by many of its users for introducing a cap and BT Openworld is no stranger to that sort of problem. The latter blocked IP ports used by peer-to-peer software such as Kazaa and suffered a nasty PR backlash.

Libraries to offer free internet use
From The Streatham Guardian

Free library internet access seven days a week has been launched in Lambeth.

Lottery funded The People's Network officially kicked off on Thursday last week at Brixton library.

Access to e-mail facilities, the library catalogue, CD-Roms, word processing, spreadsheets and learning packages are on offer seven days a week in nine libraries in the borough.

More than 250,000 from the National Lottery New Opportunities Fund has been spent on new terminals and a further 64,000 is being used over three years to train library staff to help users.

Councillor Anthony Bottrall, executive member for education, said: "This quarter of a million pound investment in our library service will really boost learning for Lambeth residents of all ages.

"Why pay to go to an internet caf when you can go to a library and have free access?"

The People's Network in Lambeth is part of a 120million national project to connect all public libraries to the internet.

It represents the biggest single investment in the 150-year history of public libraries.

11:42 Wednesday 12th February 2003

Announ. on directors reinvesting divs

More than holding their own today despite the poor market

ains



Wed 12 February 2003 03:29PM GMT

BT and Yahoo team up to offer broadband service
We dont know when it'll available or how much it'll cost, however



Yahoo UK has teamed up with BT Broadband to offer a high-speed internet service.

The new service, dubbed Yahoo UK Plus, will include multiple email accounts, instant messaging, digital photo storage, firewall security and antivirus software. The companies did not say when the service would be available or how much it would cost.

High-speed access and other premium services are a key part of Yahoo's evolving strategy, aimed at shoring up the web portal's bottom line. In the third quarter, the company's fees and listing business rose 120 per cent to $89.4m. About 70 per cent of that business comes from premium services including personals, email forwarding, email storage and internet access.


Today's deal with BT is Yahoo's second with a major telecommunications company. Last year, Yahoo and SBC Communications launched a co-branded DSL service in the US that features Yahoo's front-end web content and services bundled into SBC's internet access. Yahoo gets a cut from subscription revenue and will split its advertising revenue with the telco.

The deal was touted by Yahoo as a way to diversify its revenue in the face of an anemic online advertising market. Executives have long promised more deals with broadband access companies, namely telecoms and cable providers. But to date, SBC remains the only US provider under its belt.

From the description, Yahoo's BT offer mirrors a test product called "Yahoo Plus." Unveiled as a preview in November, Yahoo Plus is a combination of the company's various premium services, similar to the one offered with the BT product. At the time, Yahoo Plus was priced at $7.95 a month, although company executives said the price was liable to change.

In November, BT signed a similar deal with Microsoft, as part of the company's launch of the MSN 8 online service.

02/12 14:35
BT 3rd-Qtr Profit Probably Fell 51% to 350.4 Mln Pounds (Table)
By Dex McLuskey


London, Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The following is a summary of analyst expectations for fiscal third-quarter results for BT Group Plc, the former U.K. telephone monopoly. BT is scheduled to report earnings tomorrow at about 7 a.m. London time.

Net income probably fell 51 percent to 350.4 million pounds ($566.8 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, from 721 million pounds in the year-ago period, according to the average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Revenue probably rose 2.4 percent to about 4.77 billion pounds. Profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization is expected to be little changed at 1.49 billion pounds. BT last year had one-time gains from property sales and one-time losses on sales of foreign businesses.

Analysts Estimates, in million of pounds

Q3 2001 Lowest Highest Q3 2002
Actual Forecast Forecast Estimate
Group Revenue 4,657 4,705 4,846 4,768
Ebitda 1,509 1,472 1,509 1,492
Pretax Profit 381 482 536 520.1
Net income 721* 321 375 350.4

*Includes 900 million-pound gain from shedding property and 165
million-pound loss from selling overseas units.

BT confirms Revenue outsourcing bid
By Gareth Morgan [12-02-2003]

Telco partners with Computer Sciences and SchlumbergerSema to form the 'Fusion Alliance'
BT has confirmed that it is to partner with Computer Sciences (CSC) and SchlumbergerSema to bid for the massive 4bn Inland Revenue outsourcing contract.
In June last year, BT's Syntegra services arm was chosen as one of three bidders invited to submit a tender for the running of the Revenue's IT systems.

The group will be known as the Fusion Alliance. BT will provide the telecoms expertise, while CSC and SchlumbergerSema will contribute their experience of huge projects and government deals.

EDS and Accenture, which currently has the contract, and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young also made the Inland Revenue shortlist. Speculation suggests that it will be hard to dislodge the EDS and Accenture partnership from the contract.

Analsysts Ovum Holway have said instances of an incumbent being unseated from such outsourcing contracts were "as rare as hens teeth".

The deal will cover 73,000 desktops, 200 systems, 20 ICL mainframes and 177 IBM and Hewlett Packard Unix boxes. Another contract currently held by Accenture is also part of the deal.

The successful bidders are expected to start running the operation from April 2004, and the contract could run for 18 years.

The deadline for submitting bids is 14 March 2003, with the final decision expected by December.

ATTENTION:


FOLLOWING NOTICE:

DAMAGE TO YOUR HEALTH: http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=2877490

Guess it's a little late now .....

LONDON (SHARECAST) - Barclays is expected to post a lacklustre set of full-year results. According to analysts it was hit by the combined impact of high provisions and weak stock markets.

On a brighter note BT is expected to post a 30% rise in third quarter earnings, although analysts are keen to hear about the company's ability to hit growth targets and the state of its pension deficit.

Great expectations and figures from BT ...... CEO has just been on CNBC with the overall comments that given a choice peeps like BT - Investors and customers.

Analysts talk of a must have share - super utility - greater divi expectations

All looks promising and expect the shares to move up significantly ...... Don't see how a limited threat of war in the ME can do much harm


ains


Ben Verwaayen, Chief Executive, commenting on the third quarter results, said:

'These are excellent results. We are achieving our key goals of improving cash
flow, earnings per share and customer satisfaction. These results demonstrate a
substantial increase in profitability, with earnings per share* growth of 71 per
cent.

Revenue growth has been challenging, but we gained real momentum in the
corporate sector, winning a number of major new contracts and our solutions
business achieved record sales orders in the quarter.

We generated our highest ever broadband sales, with in excess of 25,000 per
week in January, launched a major market awareness campaign, reduced wholesale
and retail connection charges and lowered the exchange upgrade trigger levels,
demonstrating our strong commitment to broadband Britain.'

THIRD QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Earnings per share* of 4.1 pence, up 71 per cent

Profit before taxation* of 521 million, up 37 per cent

Group turnover* of 4,701 million, up 1 per cent

Net debt reduced by 195 million to 12.9 billion

In January 2003, we received proceeds of 2.6 billion from the sale of our
shareholding in Cegetel to further reduce net debt

Record broadband sales in January, in excess of 25,000 per week; end users
of over 650,000 at February 7, 2003

Further improvements in customer satisfaction


*from continuing activities before goodwill amortisation and exceptional items

Group Finance Director's statement

Ian Livingston, Group Finance Director, commenting on the third quarter results,
said:

'BT's financial position continues to strengthen. Net debt was reduced by 195
million to 12.9 billion. In January net debt has further reduced with the
receipt of the 2.6 billion proceeds from the sale of our shareholding in
Cegetel.

Underlying operating performance is strong with earnings per share* increasing
by 71 per cent over last year to 4.1 pence in the quarter and by 66 per cent to
10.3 pence in the nine months.'



BT tops forecasts
13/02/2003 07:26


LONDON (Reuters) - Dominant telecoms company BT has reported better-than-expected third quarter profit saying it expects to show a pension deficit of up to 1.5 billion pounds for the end of 2002.

Although the pension funding valuation had not yet been completed, BT said on Thursday the companys actuary believed the deficit would be in a range of 1.0 to 1.5 billion pounds -- as falling stock markets erode the value of invested pension money.

Underlying pre-tax profit in the quarter to the end of Decmeber rose 37 percent to 521 million pounds, at the upper end of forecasts. Underlying earnings per share rose to 4.1 pence from 2.4p one year ago, beating expectations, while revenue fell short of forecasts with one percent percent rise to 4.7 billion pounds.

surprised to see the market and some of the media reaction but guess the market is on the down move again ..... I rad the pension situation a little differently and if we are close to the bottom I can see lots of upside when market gets moving northwards

Maybe wrong here but I will hold at current 175p


ains


Thursday, 13 February, 2003, 07:40 GMT
BT warns of pension black hole BBC


BT Group has reported better than expected profits for the final three months of 2002 but warned that its pension fund could be 1.5bn short.
The telecoms company said its pension fund valuation for the end of 2002 had not yet been calculated.

But it said the group's actuary believed it could show a deficit of between 1bn and 1.5bn ($2.4bn).

BT blamed the shortfall on the plunging stock markets, which have eroded the value of pension investments.

The group reported a 37% rise in underlying profits for the final three months of 2002 to 521m.

More soon.

US perspective ....


BT profits from more customers
Thursday, February 13, 2003 Posted: 0900 GMT





LONDON, England -- BT Group on Thursday posted better-than-expected profits for the third quarter as the UK's telecoms operator continued to expand its broadband customer base.

Pre-tax profit for the quarter to December rose 37 percent to 521 million, while revenue edged up 1 percent to 4.7 billion.

BT, which has placed high-speed Internet access at the heart of its strategy for growth, said it had 650,000 broadband subscribers on its network as of February 7, moving towards its target of one million by the middle of this year.

"We see enormous potential for broadband," Chief Executive Ben Verwaayen told CNN. "It is all about profit growth and it is all about doing the best for the customer."

BT's net debt fell 195 million in the third quarter to 12.9 billion. The group said its debt would be further cut in the fourth quarter due to the 2.6 billion sale of its stake in France's Cegetel to Vivendi Universal.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew by 4 million to 1.513 billion.

BT shares were down 3.7 percent to 176.25 pence in early London trading on Thursday.

I think the market has got the pension thingy totally wrong and looking to add a few at this time .....


ains


LONDON (AFX) - Ian Livingston, finance director of BT Group PLC, scaled back investment targets set 18 months ago and attempted to reassure the market on the group's growing pension deficit.
"What we have said for this year is we expect capex now to be about 2.6 bln stg and looking forward we expect it to be somewhere between that number and the 3 bln envelope that we talked about at the beginning for the current financial year," Livingston told reporters.

Regarding the group's widening pension deficit, he said he sees no need to increase the current 200 mln stg annual top-up it is paying into the scheme.

"We have said previously we did not expect the 200 mln a year to change significantly and on the basis of the work the actuary has done to date we have got no reason to change that position," said Livingston.

Earlier BT revealed its pension funds face a potential deficit of more than 1.5 bln stg - nearly 10 times the shortfall it had just three years ago.

BT has been hit by a combination of a huge slump in equity prices and new accounting rules.

At the end of March last year BT had 71 pct of its pension fund assets in equities, then worth 19.2 bln stg. Analysts estimate their value could have fallen by up to 5 bln stg by the year-end.

Ben Verwaayen, BT chief executive, stuck by revenue growth targets for its loss-making business telecom and web hosting division BT Ignite.

He said the Netherlands were the first country in which BT Ignite turned EBITDA positive in the three months to Dec 31 2002.

"If you look to BT Ignite, you see excluding carrier and the business we want to get out of - that is the SME and consumer business - we are growing 7 pct in this quarter under very difficult circumstances.

"So I think that Ignite has enough potential not to change its guidance there," said Verwaayen on the same conference call.

BT has pledged to hit 15 pct revenue compound annual growth rate for 2002-05 at BT Ignite whereas the market sees just 8 pct because it does not expect a recovery in IT and carrier markets.

Livingston said the group has about 500-700 mln stg of non-core assets yet to sell.

Earlier the group said net debt was reduced by 195 mln stg to 12.9 bln stg at Dec 31 2002, but it received 2.6 bln stg from the sale of its stake in Cegetel to Vivendi in January.

The company aims to get its net debt below 10 bln stg.

It also revealed record broadband sales in January, in excess of 25,000 per week, giving it a total customer base of over 650,000 as of Feb 7 2003.

Verwaayen said the group was on track to hit its 6 mln DSL subscribers target by mid-2006. "We are absolutely on target with broadband and you see the momentum growing in the market," he said.

Some analysts view the target as challenging due to to fierce competition from cable operators.

tim.farrand@afxnews.com