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

Wednesday February 19, 01:52 PM





BT pulls discount offer that breached licence


LONDON (Reuters) - Telecoms regulator Oftel has said that former telecoms monopoly BT Group (LSE: BT.L - news - msgs) has withdrawn a discount offer that put it in breach of its licence.


Oftel issued a provisional order against BT following a complaint by telecoms firm Vanco (LSE: VAN.L - news) about RHM, a BT service reseller which had offered a discount to IBM (NYSE: IBM - news) while Vanco attempted to sign up the U.S. computer giant itself. BT's licence says it must publish any discounts offered to customers.


"I welcome the steps BT has taken to comply with its licence and the commitments it has given to ensure that similar unacceptable behaviour does not occur again," David Edmonds, director general of telecommunications, said in a statement.

oops ..... main market down 1.84% - sector down 3.12% - BT down 4.46%




ains



UK games machine operator looks to broadband

London, February 19 2003, (netimperative)



by Richard Agnew

Leisure Link, the games machine giant, has inked a multi-million pound deal for the supply of broadband as part of an expansion plan which will see it roll out 18,000 more digital terminals over the next three years.


The company's digital division, Inspired Broadcast Networks (IBN), is paying BT 17.5m to provide ADSL lines to its pay-to-play touch-screen machines, which provide punters with fixed-odds betting, quiz and arcade games in pubs, amusement arcades, service stations and betting shops across the country.

The agreement will see the 3,000 terminals IBN currently operates upgraded from ISDN by September, and 18,000 new broadband lines installed to facilitate the roll-out of a raft of new betting and gaming machines and services over the next three years.

IBN chairman Russell Hoyle told netimperative that potential new services would include digital music delivery and downloading of content to mobile phones. It currently allows mobile users to pay for ring-tones via its machines.

Hoyle added that the ADSL upgrade would allow it to increase the number and sophistication of the games available, to manage the content better, fix faults remotely and change services overnight.

Slot and games machine operators are increasingly looking to the web for such benefits. Swedish online gambling software company Boss Media recently launched an interactive video terminal allowing fruit machine firms to increase the games on offer on one device and users to continue gambling when they leave the arcade, from their PC or mobile.

Leisure Link is the UK's largest amusement machine provider with 90,000 terminals in 30,000 locations.

BT explores slower ADSL in search for long-range broadband
17:46 Wednesday 19th February 2003
Graeme Wearden


Is your house located too far from the local exchange for 512Kbps broadband to work? BT is working on a possible solution
BT is examining the possibility of offering a 256Kbps ADSL product that would extend the reach of broadband across the UK.

Trials are still at an early stage, but it is possible that this product could help to close Britain's broadband divide. A significant proportion of homes are located too far from their local exchange for BT's current consumer broadband product -- which runs at 512Kbps -- to work, because of technical limitations.



A slower ADSL product could be commercially viable if it works well enough over a longer distance, BT hopes.

edited

19 Feb 2003 17:04 GMT

BT seeks to calm on India plan after strike threat

LONDON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - BT Group Plc BT.L , Britain's former telecoms monopoly, sought to reassure employees on Wednesday after strike threats from union officials who say BT plans to move 700 call centre jobs to India.
BT, which has been forced to cut costs to boost profits despite stagnant revenue growth, said no call centres would be shut down in Britain if it decided to move some work abroad.

"In line with sensible business practice, we will always review our operations to help us provide our customers with the best standard of service at the most competitive cost," the company said in a statement.

Jeannie Drake, director general of the Communication Workers Union, has written to 3,500 BT workers to say the union would resist "by all means possible" the move of jobs out of the UK.

I repeat my earlier comments that I am not over concerned on the pensions front and think the market is wrong to over sell

ains



BT plays down pension concerns

IAIN DEY BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT Scotsman


BTS FINANCE director insisted yesterday that he was not overly concerned by the 1.5 billion deficit in the firms pension fund, despite no imminent prospect of a stock market recovery.

Scot Ian Livingston, in Edinburgh to brief investors on BTs full-year results, claimed the methods of calculating pension fund values has led to a degree of "misinformation" over the true state of the fund.

He also insisted that BT was more than doing its fair share to increase broadband internet access in Scotland.

Livingston told The Scotsman: "While the pension deficit has got worse, it hasnt got dramatically worse. The critical thing is that although the market has fallen, the cash-flow into the fund hasnt changed dramatically. Dividends, rentals from property and that sort of thing havent really changed."

He added: "Between 1996 and 1999, our fund went from a small surplus to a small deficit, despite the fact that the FTSE went from around 4,000 to around 6,900. But many of the companies who were driving up the market were dotcoms, which didnt pay a dividend. Since the market has fallen, many people think Oh well the deficit must be much bigger now. But no."

The BT pension deficit has swelled from 200 million in March 2000 to between 1 billion and 1.5 billion, although some analysts have claimed the company is attempting to understate the extent of the problem. BT is now injecting an extra 200 million a year to cover the deficit.

In Scotland, Livingston said BT was continuing to upgrade exchanges to broadband status, at a cost of up 500,000, wherever there is sufficient demand.

Ten Scottish exchanges - Culloden, Kilsyth, Helensburgh, Newton Mearns, Cambuslang, Ardrossan, Bathgate, Largs plus one exchange in Irvine and another in Aberdeen - will be upgraded in the next few weeks.

Livingston said: "The problem is not supply, its demand. If the demand is there, well build."

He added: "If people want an infrastructure that they could be proud of, we need the government and everyone else to do it with us."

moving up with the market intraday ....



Jane Wakefield
BBC News Online technology staff


BT Retail's Chief Executive Pierre Danon shares his vision for the future of broadband in the UK and points out where the old BT went wrong

BT spent millions on advertising broadband
Getting people to pay for a raft of new services will be the next stage in BT's broadband strategy, as the telecoms giant tries to persuade people to abandon dial-up modems in favour of fast net connections.

In an interview with BBC News Online, head of BT Retail Pierre Danon put content rather than increased bandwidth at the top of the company's agenda.

He acknowledged that the UK net audience is unlikely to increase much beyond 50% of the population.

Instead the real challenge for broadband providers will be in persuading those with dial-up connections to make the switch.

BT is hoping to tempt consumers by offering services such as 24-hour home surveillance and educational content, offering parents access to the curriculum materials in return for a small monthly fee.

Net market

In countries such as Korea, where 60% of its population use broadband, operators have instead opted for more bandwidth, hoping that services will follow.

But it is vital to create such a marketplace on the net, said Mr Danon.

"The real battleground will be over how much people are willing to pay. Most of the internet today is free and the battle of the future will be on what is not free," he said.

Despite seeing content rather than speed as the way forward, BT is determined to distant itself from being a content provider, setting up deals with firms such as Yahoo instead.

Mr Danon is scathing of attempts to lump content and access together.

"AOL Time Warner said access and content needed to be together and it is a failure," he said.

Content dilemma

BT is constantly scotching rumours that it is interested in developing content itself, describing itself as the plumber of the internet, more interested in pipes than Harry Potter.


15 months ago the UK was the last country in the world on broadband, nobody was taking it. BT was going through disaster

Pierre Danon, BT
So what is the future for BT Openworld, the ISP which offers both dial-up and broadband access and content?

Mr Danon plays up Openworld's role as a small business ISP, admitting that it is not the consumer business that is the most successful.

"On the consumer side I personally have a view that it will be difficult to really do content because there are companies like Yahoo, MSN and AOL already doing that well," he said.

"BT Openworld will not be a content provider or producer but will put content together for customers," he said.

BT's controversial product, BT Broadband, which offers people a no-frills net connection with no webspace or e-mail address is seen by Mr Danon as the way forward, offering users a launch pad for shopping for various services on the net.

He is convinced that BT will hit its target of having half a million customers to the no-frills service by the middle of the year, although with just 100,000 so far signed up it might have its work cut out.

BT in chaos

Other ISPs have been incensed by the product, which they say offers BT an unfair advantage in the market.

Mr Danon insists BT is breaking no regulatory law with its no-frills product although he admits that Oftel's regulation has been "lighter".

He sees the no frills product as a breakthrough for a company whose broadband strategy was floundering.

"15 months ago the UK was the last country in the world on broadband, nobody was taking it. BT was going through disaster," he admits.

Efforts by the regulator to limit BT's dominance of the market did nothing to help.

"By forbidding BT to enter this market, the only thing that was done was to weaken the UK," he said.

Rather than complain he thinks other ISPs should be grateful for the broadband momentum BT has kick-started.

"Overall other ISPs are benefiting because as soon as we entered the market with an advertising campaign the business for everyone exploded, including AOL and Freeserve," he said.

Vanguard of change

The company was afraid of new technology and ashamed of its legacy

Pierre Danon, BT
BT itself looks healthier than in the recent past. The latest quarterly results showed a 37% increase in profits and a further 195m shaved off its infamous debt.

It has been a much publicised struggle to transform BT from out-of-date behemoth, scathing of new technology to a forward-thinking company.

Mr Danon joined the company in October 2000 and feels he, in partnership with chief executive Ben Verwaayen, has been at the vanguard of change.

"Ben and I are movement people. You don't win by conservatism," he said.

By contrast, two years ago BT was between a rock and a hard place, he said.

"The company was afraid of new technology and ashamed of its legacy."

"Ben came along as an outsider and said 'Guys you have it all wrong, broadband is the future and you have to take risks and invest'" he said.

Now Mr Danon says BT is in a more contented place, happier to embrace new net technology while at the same time proud of its voice business.

Intel and Virgin join BT as shareholders in Broadreach Networks
20 February 2003 11:27
By Staff
Broadreach Networks announced that Intel Capital and Virgin have joined BT Group as investors in the company. The investment round, led by VCF Partners, also attracted funds under the management of VCF, Yorkshire Fund Managers and Generics Asset Management. Financial details of the investment have not been disclosed.

Broadreach is a provider of broadband Internet access for users on the move, through both fixed-point terminals and, wireless local area networks (WLAN) access zones in public locations. It is backed by British Telecommunications, a broadband access provider in the UK. Broadreach, formerly known as Womba Telecom, has a network of over 350 terminals in 37 locations. Womba was formed in May 2000, as a spinout from Arthur D Little, the international management consultancy firm known for its specialization in communications technologies. Broadreachs network includes a range of blue chip companies such as Virgin Megastores, LA Fitness and EAT/Railtrack.

hmmmmmmmm ..... currently 163.5p up with the market and sector



LEHMAN CUTS BT TARGET

Investment bank Lehman Brothers has cut its share price target for BT Group BT.L to 200 pence from 245p, retaining its "underweight" rating on the stock.

Lincolnshire gets broadband boost

London, February 20 2003, (netimperative)



by Richard Agnew

Lincolnshire County Council has received a 7m grant from the European Union to subsidise broadband services for 3,000 rural businesses in the county.


The grant, reaped from the European Regional Development Fund, will be used to help firms pay for high-speed services and attract broadband providers, which have so far shown a reluctance to invest in infrastructure to serve many rural areas.

The council, which has itself put a further 7m into the project, also hopes to attract technology companies to the county and to improve internet links for residential users.

It will start taking applications for subsidies from businesses later this year, and hopes to offer further funding to support take-up of IT applications once the infrastructure is in place.

The project will expand on the county's existing scheme, NETLinc, which has connected around 450 schools and public sites in the area under the Government's National Grid for Learning initiative.

The new project mirrors similar public-private partnerships that have been set up to aid broadband roll out in non-metropolitan areas across the country.

One such scheme, the ActNow project in Cornwall, recently expanded after signing up 2,500 small businesses in the county in its first nine months.

Im afraid 150 is looking highly possible or even lower i have order for 145 on this stock as with war poss and markets down across the board generely and with the pension probs , also under threat from competion with cable especialy if telewest/ntl can get their act together ie debt ,the chart does not bode well either

Yes, looks as if you're barking up the wrong tree with this one, Ainsoph.

By the way, the reason I said the equity portion of the pension fund had almost certainly underperformed the market was simply that in any year 75% of fund managers do underperform their benchmarks. For the same reason, it's likely that the bond portion has underperformed the bond market and so on.

maybe ..... have added a few more and averaging around 166p ..... my 3rd biggest holding as of today .... they are still favoured by natwest in their latest review - within the sector where they are neutral on the sector.


I would expect them to start outperforming any time soon - Oftel and the pension thingy has had a more adverse effect than warrants but has allowed me to accumulate a few at bargain prices.


ains

BT rejects fixed wireless broadband plan
By Sarah Arnott [20-02-2003]

Government's 3.4GHz auction doomed to failure, say suppliers
Plans to auction wireless licences for broadband communications are in danger of becoming a fiasco.
The Department of Trade & Industry's (DTI's) auction of 15 regional licences to use the 3.4GHz spectrum will go ahead in May.

The government hopes that the new frequency will fill the gaps in Broadband Britain's costly fixed-line infrastructure.

But BT, which analyst Ovum touted as one of the most likely bidders, isn't interested. Pierre Danon, chief executive at BT Retail, described the government's policy as "stupid".

Talking exclusively to vnunet.com's sister title Computing, Danon added: "We warned the government very early that it was stupid to do 15 bids. We are certainly not bidding."

Supplier body Intellect also warned that the sale may not attract any bidders and analyst Ovum said smaller ISPs would also shun the auctions despite the low reserve prices set because of the cost of rolling out services.

The last attempt to sell off wireless licences was for the 28GHz spectrum in 2000, but only 30 per cent of the licences were sold and the third round of auctions is still going on.

Suppliers are wary of auctions because of the higher costs involved, explained Graham Macdonald, senior radio executive at Intellect.

"I am concerned that we will have a repeat of the 28GHz situation with 3.4GHz," he said.

The 15-licence model also contradicts government commitments to Broadband Britain because suppliers will only be interested in licences covering high-population areas guaranteeing a return on investment, according to Macdonald.

A spokeswoman for the DTI said: "The decision to have 15 licences is the result of more than two years of consultation, and that was the choice that came out of the process."

Comment: BT offers no SDSL guarantees
Martin Courtney, IT Week [14-02-2003]

edited

The prospect of cheaper 2Mbit/s wide area network (WAN) connections becoming more widely available in the UK is good news for IT managers. But unless BT backs up its wholesale Symmetric DSL (SDSL) bandwidth with service level agreements (SLAs) - stipulating service guarantees for reliability, and compensation in the event of failure - third-party providers might find corporates reluctant to sign up for their SDSL services. Not that this would be a total disaster for BT, which makes a lot of money from the leased line services that SDSL links threaten to replace

"Broadband to cover many more areas" - MP
Letter: There is no doubt that the majority of telephone exchanges which can provide broadband access are sited in urban areas.

Constituents from Little Chalfont and other areas where the exchange cannot currently provide broadband services have been in touch with me, lobbying for the service.

Broadband allows the customer to download or to send data by computer much faster than on ordinary telephone lines. The new technology can also deal with high quality graphics or music, much faster than previous systems.

Businesses can benefit from this technology.

An Early Day Motion which I signed earlier this month demonstrated that, if rural businesses are unable to access affordable broadband services, they are at a commercial disadvantage to their urban-based competitors.

There is encouraging news, though.

A couple of weeks ago, I met senior representatives from BT and learned that the technology is available to convert more rural exchanges to provide broadband. The key is for everyone who wants this technology whether private or business users to register their interest with BT or with their internet service providers.

The areas where there is a high level of registration are the areas which are top of the list when it comes to conversion.

Following my meeting with BT, I learned that residents of Holmer Green should receive the service from April 16. Sufficient numbers of people wishing to use the service have registered and so the service has been triggered.

People who live or work in Penn should be able to use broadband services, because the exchange was recently "enabled."

The Minister for E-Commerce and competitiveness, Stephen Timms, has also got in touch with me to say that every school should have broadband services by 2006.

In theory, that means that once the technology is put into every school, people living nearby should also be able to receive the service.

At the moment, the Minister says, about one in four schools in England have broadband access.

However, I recognise that people want to make use of the services as soon as they can, rather than waiting for the service to be "rolled out".

People living in Little Chalfont, Cholesbury or The Lee need to put in their registrations and persuade employers and neighbours to do the same.

For information on how to register please go to this site: www.bt.com/ broadband

It gives information on links.

Cheryl Gillan, MP

Chesham and Amersham

13:31 Friday 21st February 2003

BT...looking weak.

This looks promising and should help them continue Fridays progress

ains


LONDON (AFX) - BT Group PLC chairman Sir Christopher Bland is preparing to unleash a new wave of cost-cutting at the telecoms giant as he attempts to get to grips with the company's plunging share price, the Business reported citing industry sources.
Bland has moved to reassure the group's largest shareholders that the renewed declines in BT's market value, prompted by pension deficit fears, will not be tolerated, and that new savings will have to be found to lift profit margins.

A BT spokesman told AFX News that "there is more that can be done, and more to do" to cut the company's costs, but would not give specific details.

BT is known to be finalising a new round of cost reduciton programmes, including a major IT outsourcing agreement that will significantly lower call-centre expenditures.
The contract is expected to be announced within weeks, the newspaper said

BT plans 1.5bn injection to cover pension gap
By Robert Budden, Telecommunications correspondent
Published: February 23 2003 21:58 | Last Updated: February 23 2003 21:58 edited


BT Group, which runs one of Britain's largest pension schemes, is preparing to plough up to a further 1.5bn ($2.4bn) into its scheme to plug a widening deficit.


The move, which will mark one of the largest cash injections by a company into its pension fund, confirms a worrying trend as growing numbers of European companies suffer from record pension shortfalls after the Worst stock market performance for almost three decades.



BT, currently in the middle of a full three-year actuarial valuation of its pension scheme, is understood to have calculated that additional cash injections of between 70m and 100m a year over the next fifteen years are required to restore financial stability to its pension fund.

The additional payments, to be formally announced in May, will more than double BT's existing financial commitments to its pension. To make up its shortfall, BT is already committed to inject 200m a year into its pension in the five years to the end of March 2007.

The expected move follows sharp falls in stock markets. At the end of 2001, BT calculated the funding deficit in its pension scheme had reached 1.6bn. But, with approximately two thirds of its fund invested in equities, this hole will have now widened substantially.

Outperforming the market on a down day intraday


9:50am (UK)
BT Linked to Higher Pension Charge

By Graeme Evans, City Staff, PA News


Telecoms giant BT is poised to spend up to 100 million a year on plugging the 1.5 billion black hole in its pension fund, it was reported today.

The company, which runs one of the UKs largest pension schemes, will make the payments on top of existing commitments, the Financial Times said.

It is thought that BT will provide between 70 million and 100 million annually for the next 15 years on top of the 1 billion it already plans to contribute in the five years to March 2007.

BT announced a possible 1.5 billion black hole earlier this month after seeing falling stock markets hit the value of pension fund investments.

But it also said it had been advised that its payments were unlikely to change significantly from the current 200 million a year.

The company added today: The final results of our actuarial valuation will be known in May and until the results are known any figure is of course speculation.

The deficit, which BT said could be in the region of 1 billion to 1.5 billion, compared with 200 million at March 31, 2000.

Concerns over the pension fund overshadowed the groups third quarter results announcement two weeks ago, when a 37% rise in underlying pre-tax profits to 521 million was at the upper end of market expectations.

Supermarket giant Tesco has already announced it intends to pay 15 million to 20 million a year during the next 10 years to plug its pensions shortfall.
s

BT plays down pension gap reports

Staff and agencies
Monday February 24, 2003

BT, the telecommunications giant, today played down reports that it would have to inject an extra 1.5bn into its pension fund.
The Financial Times reported that BT was about to plough 70m to 100m a year over 15 years into its pension fund, but BT called the report speculation.

"It is speculation," a BT spokesman told Reuters. "The results [of the pension review] are not due until May."

BT is due to announce in May a pension funding gap, based on new accounting standards. Sharp falls in share prices have led to huge financial holes in pension funds at Britain's largest companies.

Under a new accounting rule, companies must use current market prices to value their pension assets - a method that threatens to reveal some big funding shortfalls in plans that have invested a large proportion of their money in shares. Stock markets have fallen in the last three years in the worst bear market since the early 1970

Previously, companies used actuarial methods, which allow them to make assumptions about long-term investment returns to determine the health of their pension funds.

For guidance, BT's actuary has used the old accounting standards to put the deficit at the end of last year at 1bn to 1.5bn. BT's finance director, Ian Livingston, said at the time the company did not expect the annual pension deficit payment to be much different from its current 200m. "Our actuary has told us that there's nothing to cause that figure to change," he told reporters.

BT's final salary scheme is one of the largest in the UK with more than 376,000 members and assets of 27bn as of March last year. BT is not alone in having to replenish depleted pension funds.

On Guardian Unlimited