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

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

Sounds as though they're still in denial, Ains. :-)

I think the pension fund is more robust than the market thinks .... BT are playing it down because that's also the way they see it



ains

London residents now have an innovative new way of sending messages to friends and loved ones with BT Internet Kiosks video and photo email.

Visitors to Internet Kiosk "blue boxes" at 8 locations in London will be able to record a 30 second video clip of themselves and email it to the friend of their choice. The technology is quick and simple to use, with detailed instructions to guide novices through - video clips can even be reviewed and re-recorded before sending, so they can be word perfect when they reach their intended recipient.

Video and photo email is being introduced for an evaluation period, should the service prove successful BT Internet kiosk will look at providing at more of its network of over 1,000 Internet enabled kiosks.

Video and Photo email will be available at the following locations:

Outside 220 Top Shop Oxford Street.
Cranbourn Street, (On the walk between Leicester Sq and Covent Garden).
Prebend Street, Islington.
Victoria Coach Station.
Heathrow Terminal 3 outside Burger King.
Waterloo Railway Station.
Harrow shopping centre outside McDonald's.
Thistle hotel in Marble Arch.

not helping the share price much at this time though .....


by Richard Agnew

BT is offering free trials of video and photo email from its web-enabled payphones in London before launching the service on a one-off charge basis next month.


The trial, lasting for the next two weeks, allows users to record a 30-second clip of themselves and send it on to friends and relatives free of charge.

It has been made available at kiosks on Oxford Street, Cranbourn Street, Prebend Street and at Victoria Bus Station, Heathrow Terminal 3, Waterloo and the St. Georges Centre in Harrow.

The company will then charge 1 for video emails and 50p for photo messages from 8 March and, if the trial is successful, extend the services to the rest of the country.

BT aims to have 20,000 internet-enabled payphones up and running over the next five years, most of which will by fitted with high-speed connections.

It currently has 1,200 installed and earlier this month began shipping a new range of broadband-enabled kiosks from Marconi.

13:42 Monday 24th February 2003
Graeme Wearden


BT believes it can increase ADSL's range without slashing its bandwidth, meaning that another 600,000 homes should be able to get a 512Kbps service after all
A longer-range broadband product being developed by BT will be just as fast as its existing consumer ADSL service, contrary to earlier suggestions from the telco.

This 'extended reach' ADSL is being trialled by just 10 people, but a larger trial is expected to begin in late March.

By increasing the distance over which ADSL will work, BT hopes to reduce the number of households that cannot get broadband -- even though their local exchange has been upgraded -- because they live too far away from the exchange.

Up to 6 percent of households in ADSL-enabled areas suffer from this problem. Technical limitations mean that today's 512Kbps ADSL won't work properly if the line loss on a telephone line is greater than 55dB -- equivalent to a line length of about 5.5km.

According to BT, this 'extended reach' broadband will halve the number of households whose line quality is too poor for ADSL to work.

"We are conducting internal trials, looking to extend the maximum line loss permitted from 55dB to 60dB. The impact of this would be to increase ADSL coverage in enabled areas from today's 94 percent to 97 percent," a BT Wholesale spokesman told ZDNet UK News on Monday.

Before BT launched rate-adaptive DSL, the maximum line loss allowed was 41dB, a maximum line length of just 3.5km.

BT had said last week that this forthcoming extended reach ADSL would run at 256Kbps rather than 512Kbps, a statement reported by ZDNet UK.

However, BT has now said that this is not the case, and that it hopes to raise the maximum line loss without dropping the bandwidth.

This confusion within BT seems to have arisen because BT Wholesale is also developing a 256Kbps ADSL product. This, though, is at a very early stage. According to BT, some Internet service providers would like to be able to offer a cheaper and slower broadband product, so it is investigating whether such a service is commercially and technically feasible.



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

20 more exchanges to get ADSL
By Tim Richardson
Posted: 24/02/2003 at 14:56 GMT


Another20 exchanges are to be converted to ADSL during May as part of BT's ongoing scheme to respond to hotspots of demand for broadband.

So far, 23 exchanges have been converted to ADSL as part of BT's pre-registration scheme. A further 135 are currently being upgraded.

Oh, and there are around 25 exchanges that are within a smidge of reaching their targets which, once reached, will result in BT upgrades to ADSL.

Anyhow, the following are all due to be converted to ADSL during May:

BRIXWORTH, Northamptonshire
GOOLE, Humberside
SLEAFORD, Lincolnshire
NEWTOWN, Mid Glamorgan
NEW MILLS, Derbyshire
HALSTEAD, Essex
THIRSK, North Yorkshire
ALRESFORD, Hampshire
LIPHOOK, Hampshire
HORSELEY FIELDS, West Midlands
GALASHIELS, Borders
NORTH SHORE, Lancashire
TOTNES, Devon
WARGRAVE, Berkshire
OAKHAM, Leicestershire
HEADLEY DOWN, Hampshire
SOUTHWELL, Nottinghamshire
TAVISTOCK, Devon
IRVINE OLDTOWN, Strathclyde
LOOSE, Kent

Congrats to all.

Monday 24 February 2003, 11:28:25 AM
United Kingdom
Written by Sarah Brown
BT have struck a deal with Internet security solutions firm, SonicWALL, Inc. who, under the contract, will supply products from its range of firewall appliances, which will form BTs entry-level firewall offering to its web hosting customers.

140/150 still looking likley as pension poss looking worse than first thought

not aware that it looked worse .... BT just following the market down with FTSE100 down nearly 3% - sector about the same ...... there is just one top 100 riser at this time and thats just a maths thing on two decimal places


ains



BT denies it needs 1.5bn pension plug

Richard Wray
Tuesday February 25, 2003
The Guardian

BT yesterday moved to quell fears that it will have to make a massive one-off payment into its pension fund to deal with an ever-deepening funding black
hole.

The company's auditor, Watson Wyatt, is still carrying out a five-month audit of BT's pension fund, which has 346,000 members and is one of the largest in the private sector.

Earlier this month BT insiders indicated that the fund could be as much as 2.5bn in the red, compared with 1bn three years ago, because of the decline in the value of shares since the heady days of the dotcom boom.

The company's triennial funding valuation is calculated using everything from share price levels to property values. The current audit is expected to be completed by May.

When the last triennial audit was carried out the company increased its annual payment into the fund by 200m over five years.

That payment is expected to increase slightly, with BT rolling its top-up payments over a longer period in order to boost the fund.

Speculation that the company will have to make a 1.5bn one-off payment to cover liabilities was denied yesterday.

"Our actuaries have indicated to us that they see no reason for us to significantly increase our annual top-up payments," a BT spokesman said.

The collapse in share prices across the world has left a number of leading British companies, including Rolls-Royce and British Airways, nursing large pension fund deficits.

Many companies which had been able to take "pension holidays" are finding it necessary to pour money into their funds in order to cover recent losses.

Pharmaceuticals group GlaxoSmithKline, which employs more than 100,000 people, recently announced its fund was 1.3bn in the red.

according to express today even if contributions upped to 250mil a year this would still take 20 YEARS to plug but dresner report says not even 300 mil year would be enough that is taking at todays stock market value if it drops even further which looks likley then they will have large prob and with market share dropping ie twt/ntl etc with less revenue coming in etc that does not bode well for future share price

Clearly the market is about people taking opposing views .... the review of the pension fund is yet to take place. The fund was closed a while back and I believe the staff and the trustees are happy with the situation and the measures that are being proposed. As and when the markets improve so BT will gain both ways. Market share is not what it's all about. That's just one factor in the marketing/pricing/ (and more importantly) net profits mix.

Bt are still the preferred supplier and preferred company within the sector. I use all the companies you mention and have recently disconnected TWT line as it is far more expensive than BT.

If you believe there will be a further financial meltdown then clearly you will sell both BT and the market ..... I think we are close to the bottom and therefore a bull on the market and BT. In a year or so we will see who is right.


ains

i think the share price has further to go down yet but im not saying it is a basket case by any means as if the war starts the markets could rally and a lot of the pension deficit would be wiped out but short term with the pension , war etc i think the bears will win the case i have a order for 145 so if it reaches that i will snaffle a few thousand up


Biffa

We will see .... yesterday it was about the market and especially the pensions situation - clearly not helped by the PRU. but believe way oversold. I took the advantage of adding at 154.5p just ahead of the close - as a ST trade expecting a bounce today/tomorrow (see trading thread for tuesday) Still happy to hold as a longer term play.


ains

Quite a few FTSE shares are holding up...i think its about basket case shares getting nailed.Might buy some a bit lower,predictions are for a low in the coming weeks.

BT was 176 when this thread was started,now 155..quite a fall in a few weeks.

BT are about the same as sector over the same period and tracking the FTSE100 quite closely.

Clearly the pension thingy is haveing an over adverse effect - still happy to hold with average around sub 160p at this time




ains

Needs to stay above 153p



Broadband appeal

RESIDENTS across the region are being urged to register their interest in broadband in a bid to bring the high-speed internet service to more exchanges in Dumfries and Galloway.

Currently, the service is only available to users of the Dumfries telecommunications exchange, allowing householders and businesses access to the internet and send e-mails ten times faster than by dial-up modem.

Dumfries MP Russell Brown recently visited Blaines Restaurant in the town to find out how broadband is benefiting businesses and he met with British Telecom to discuss how broadband can be extended to more areas in the region.

With the enabling of an exchange costing up to 500,000, BT told Mr Brown it needs to ensure there is a genuine and reasonable demand before the investment is made.

The firm has launched a registration scheme, with trigger marks, at which point they will install broadband.

In Dumfries and Galloway, out of the 13 other exchanges, only Stranraer has been set a trigger target. But that is at 300 and only 61 customers have registered.

Mr Brown said: If 300 customers register in Stranraer, BT will bring broadband to them.

However, BT Scotland has also said that even if an exchange has not been allocated a trigger, it will still check the number of customers registered against it.

I know from local people contacting my office that people outwith Dumfries would like the opportunity to access broadband.

If sufficient demand is shown in areas such as Annan, Langholm, Moffat and Lockerbie, then BT says it will consider giving an exchange a trigger level to meet and right now, that is currently the best way of bringing broadband into the area with all the benefits that will accrue for businesses and consumers.

So it is in everyones interest that as many people as possible register their interest in broadband. With access to it, businesses can gain a vital competitive edge in sales, marketing and customer service operations and make significant savings in their operating costs.

02/27 09:56
BT Signs Five-Year Communications Agreement With Honeywell
By Dex McLuskey


London, Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- BT Group Plc, the U.K.'s biggest phone company, said it signed an agreement to provide communications services to Honeywell International Inc., the biggest maker of cockpit electronics, in western Europe. Terms weren't disclosed.

BT's BT Ignite unit, which supplies faster Internet services to European businesses, will provide voice, data, cellular, video and Web services to Morristown, New Jersey-based Honeywell under the five-year accord, the companies said in an e-mailed statement.

BT is seeking to boost corporate business after competition from rivals including Cable & Wireless Plc and WorldCom Inc. pushed its share of voice services to such customers down to 44 percent in the U.K. in the three months to Dec. 31. BT in November signed a 1 billion-pound ($1.58 billion) contract to manage communications for Unilever, the biggest food and soap maker.

BT's shares, which have lost 21 percent of their value in the past year, rose as much as 2.6 percent, or 4 pence, to 157.75p and were trading at 154.5p as of 9:44 a.m. in London.

Hit a new low this afternoon as market heads south in front of US open

ains



BT begins trial of extended-reach ADSL
[PC Pro] 13:17

BT is bidding to stretch its ADSL broadband service over a greater distance. The goal is to put more people within the reach of phone line-based broadband.
Currently, 5.5km is the maximum distance for receiving ADSL services from a local exchange. BT, however, is now trialling ADSL services over a distance of 6km. While its still at a very early stage, customer trials are due to begin at the end of March.

The importance of this whole issue is that the greater the distance supported, the more people can benefit from their local exchange being ADSL-enabled and more people have more choice for broadband. ADSL is the provision of broadband over PSTN (public switched telephone network), as opposed to the less-prevalent cable or satellite-based services.

The challenge facing BT - involving the basic laws of physics - is to preserve effective bandwidth over greater distances. 'We have to make sure the impact on quality is not so great that the product wouldn't be commercially viable,' said a BT spokesperson.

ADVERTISEMENT

They emphasised that no firm timetable yet existed for the possible implementation of the service

Issues to be met include the guaranteeing of contention ratios. For longer distances, the same bandwidth may be available to fewer customers, potentially increasing the service costs per user for ISPs.

Originally, a 3km limit existed for the provision of broadband from ADSL-enabled exchanges.

BT Wholesale has just brought its ADSL-based business services in line with existing domestic offerings. It has extended the reach of its 500Kbits/sec 'BT DataStream Office' service to 5.5km from a local exchange.


Alun Williams