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

europemedia


Telewest pleased with 2Mb broadband trial
14/05/2003
Editor: David Minto
Telewest has delivered on its promise to offer customers a 2Mb home broadband option.

Starting in April, Telewest conducted a month long trial with 1,500 lucky 1Mb blueyonder customers, 85 per cent of whom are reported to have said the upgraded service met or exceeded their expectations.

The cable company is now offering customers the choice of three broadband connections speeds: 512kb, 1Mb and 2Mb. Telewest reported that it had 310,000 broadband subscribers on its books by the end of April, of whom about 30,000 receive the faster 1Mb service. No doubt Telewest hopes similar numbers will now flock to the E70 (GBP50) a month 2Mb, and has said that existing blueyonder customers can upgrade to the new service without incurring any additional charge.

Another quiet start with less than 400k traded in an hour


fyi


NTL blames BSkyB costs for fall in TV subscribers

Dan Milmo
Thursday May 15, 2003
The Guardian

NTL chief executive Barclay Knapp warned BSkyB yesterday that its wholesale revenues will continue to plummet unless it slashes the cost of premium channels



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including Sky Sport 1 and Sky MovieMax.
Mr Knapp said Britain's largest cable operator was no longer chasing TV subscribers after emerging from a tortuous 7bn debt restructuring last year because the cost of buying channels from the pay-TV broadcaster and selling them on to customers remains prohibitive. NTL has lost 150,000 TV subscribers since the beginning of 2002, with 18,000 of those going since December, according to first-quarter results released yesterday.

"BSkyB could change that for us. We have had long-running discussions with Sky on how profitable it is to resell Sky's services. The way they have priced their premium services gives us no incentive to add them. If they give us an incentive we will be able to sell them," said Mr Knapp.

BSkyB said in third-quarter results released on Tuesday that wholesale revenues - the amount it makes from selling channels to rival pay-TV services - had tumbled 34% to 146m following the collapse of ITV Digital last year and NTL's debt crisis.

ITV Digital, NTL and cable operator Telewest took their complaints about wholesale pricing to the office of fair trading in 1999 but a long-running inquiry absolved BSkyB of anti-competitive behaviour last year. Telewest has negotiated new terms with the satellite broadcaster and a BSkyB spokesman said the group would welcome a deal with NTL. "We remain willing to enter into a mutually beneficial agreement," he said.

NTL said it added 27,000 UK customers in the first three months of the year, despite the slump in TV subscriptions. The group's home division, which supplies TV, telephone and high-speed internet services, now has 2.71 million subscribers. The number of broadband internet subscribers climbed by 144,000 from the previous quarter to 661,000.

Recalling the colourful analogies that made him one of the stars of the dotcom boom, Mr Knapp likened the restructured group to a patched-up car.

"If you get your car out of the repair shop you don't put it on the highway at 100mph. Right now we're just driving it round the block, testing the brakes," he said.

Lower interest payments on its debt, which fell from 12bn to about 5bn, helped cut its first-quarter loss by nearly half to $254m (158m), while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were 156.5m against 154m for the same period last year. Revenues slipped from 556m to 547m after NTL stripped out a one-off, non-cash income gain of 4.2bn related to the restructuring.

Ains,

Up she goes, we need to clear that 2.35p mid area to break but at 2.28p possible.

No real volume yet though.

Hi ash

problem I see with TWT is the same as moni although it obvoiusly has greater scope as shareholders will get 3.5%

however - given TWT's poor trading performance and that of Sky the future prospects are as clear as Mud

p.s. Well done on RED - why the huge volume today - are results out soon?

1.5 million sell just gone through and doubled the volume .....

left a 2.1p limit buy in today for 500,000, might work

all right then 2.2p it is

From Europemedia


E1.4 government broadband spending aimed at 6 companies
15/05/2003
Editor: David Minto

Six companies are set to receive the lions share of a government plan to spend E1.41bn (GBP1bn) over the next five years in upgrading government offices to broadband.

The announcement of the list, which includes two of the biggest names in the business, BT and Telewest, was made yesterday, after the Office of Government Commerce selected its preferred suppliers following a competitive invitation to tender process. The other four companies are Easynet, Fujitsu, Kingston Communications and Synetrix.

According to the Financial Times, the decision means that government departments and local authorities will be encouraged to use one of the six broadband suppliers, who have all negotiated fixed terms to secure their place on the list. Authorities and departments will not be prohibited from selecting a broadband provider not on the list, but to do so will mean they have to carry out their own selection procedure and tendering process, a move that could potentially be both long and costly.

The OGC told the Financial Times that the companies selected for the shortlist had been "assessed on their ability to provide quality, value-for-money broadband services."

In a separate announcement earlier this week, the UK telecoms regulator, Oftel, revealed that 14 per cent of homes in the UK now use broadband. Oftel also said that home internet penetration has risen from the 42 per cent plateau it had rested on for the nine months up to November 2002, and had now reached 45 per cent, with an average usage time of 10 hours per week.

Keith

You are working too many hours .

K

hi ains

I like the news above but have to say that Easynet or none of the others appeals more

at least that way the shareholders benefit as to 100% of the profits

there is not much point in TWT securing large deals when the existing holders will effectively only benefit to the tune of 3.5% of any income from them

dick ... the 3% is factored in and I actually think it's been factored in twice. ie the shares should be worth at least in the new formatand that means 3.3 againsy the 2.3p currently for the shares quoted. This is not a moni - if the bottom line moves up 10% then the 3 moves up 10% (or more) and the current shares move from a notional 3.3p to 3.6p or so ..... we still get all the benefits.



ains

Oddly I agree 100% with ainsoph on this one, but having bgt. some at 4.05p, and adding some yesterday at 2.2p any port in a storm I guess

Telewest to get new email service after spam attacks
By Tim Richardson
Posted: 16/05/2003 at 10:51 GMT


Telewest punters are set to suffer more disruption to their service next week when the cableco moves its email service to a new platform.

The move follows weeks of hassle for Telewest users as the ISP's email service collapsed under a deluge of spam.

After a second spam attack last week, which resulted in mail delays of up to four days, Telewest admitted that an underlying hardware failure was to blame for the extended delays in punters receiving email.

However, Telewest told The Register that next week's planned platform migration has nothing to do with the recent spam attacks.

Telewest will start moving its email service onto a new platform from midday next Tuesday (May 20). The move should be completed by 8pm the following day.

In an email to punters the cableco warned: "You will be able to send and receive emails, but from midnight on 20 May (Tuesday night) you may not be able to see old messages, however you will see them again before we finish.

Telewest also warned that from midnight on 20 May dial-up customers won't be able to hook up to the Net for a short time.

The cableco added: "We have experienced some issues with our existing platform over the last few weeks and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. The new platform will improve our ability to avoid such issues in the future. Also, we are focusing on additional measures to help reduce the possibility of delays for delivering your e-mail."

Fingers crossed, eh?

fascinating.

If existing shareholders do get anything from this restructure, I believe it will be calculated like this.

They will base current value of TWT on the average price of share: in the 10 days preceding agreement.
They will then calculate this against the Bondholders debt at par.

This should give existing holders a value of circa 2p.

After restructure there may be a slight premium, based on the more financially viable position the company will be in.

There may also be a 1 for 100 consolidation, as the amount of new shares in circulation would be a logistical nightmare for the company to manage.

whatif ..... not sure whether you are a holder or not but if you believe what you say - you should sell/leave them alone




ains

Anyone know what is up with a d v f n today?

Very wise advice ainsoph.

Unfortunately it comes some 18 months too late!

:-( ..... I think we will see a minimum 3% d4e and could be higher. Would exoect this to equate to a minimum 3/4p in the short term andmaybe as much as 10p in a rising market within say 12 months


ains


Outrage as Telewest cuts wages
By Tim Richardson
Posted: 16/05/2003 at 14:28 GMT


There's unrest at Telewest's Business Fault Centre in Peterborough after workers there were told that the cableco has decided to cut wages by around 1,100 a year.

Insiders angry at the decision have told The Register that the pay cut will take a sizeable chunk out of people's salaries.

As a result morale has plummeted since the 100 staff found out about the pay cut earlier this week. Many have already begun looking for other jobs.

Telewest says the pay cut has been introduced to bring the Peterborough Fault Centre in line with shift patterns at other Telewest centres around the country.

Workers remain sceptical, claiming that it's just a cheap shot to cut costs at the cableco.

A spokesperson for Telewest said the removal of shift allowances would affect around 60 staff but insisted that a new accreditation scheme would help "increase the earnings potential" for some staff.

ISP NEWS

Friday 16 May 2003, 11:02:16 AM
United Kingdom
Written by Sarah Brown
Broadband communications supplier to public and private sector markets - Telewest Business - has been chosen to provide additional high-speed communications to Education Bradford, following an extension to the contract announced in June 2002.


The schools in Bradford were originally connected via Telewest frame relay circuits at speeds of 64K, 128K and 2Mb and it was decided that if the district was to meet and even exceed the Government guidelines, higher bandwidths were necessary. This latest project worth 2.5 million over the next five years, sees Telewest Business providing 10Mb fibre connections with a network connection to a total of 200 schools in the Bradford area.


The network will enable access to a connection to the Internet and email, as well as web-based education resources. Telewest Business, also hosts the Education Bradford central servers. Tony Grace, Managing Director of Telewest Business, commented:


By introducing an effective, secure and high speed network into its schools, Education Bradford has shown that it is leading the way in this sector. We are pleased to have had the opportunity to further demonstrate our commitment to improving connectivity in schools through our involvement in this project.


The project also provides schools with links to a server farm, which is run and managed by Synetrix. This allows them to access any selected or requested software, which can then be run across the Telewest network.