back to article BT's ball-juggling routine can only go on so long

Former state monopoly BT is juggling so many regulatory, financial and operational balls it’s a wonder it has a free hand to get on with the day-to-day business. Just some issues facing the telco include: uncertainty over Openreach’s future; continuous declines in business with the public sector; a £9bn ballooning pensions …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ofcom really needs to pull off the warm cosy, copper Duvet.

    Make life a little more uncomfortable for this sleeping giant.

    Separate.

    Force FTTP for all new installs more than 125m* "as the crow flies" / 250m by cable. Kick Pointless G.fast into the long grass. Enough is enough.

    *I'd accept the longer 250m / 500m by cable as a starting point, though, because we desperately need to get away from this impasse.

    1. Commswonk

      Re: Ofcom really needs to pull off the warm cosy, copper Duvet.

      Force FTTP for all new installs more than 125m* "as the crow flies" / 250m by cable.

      Is that (a) force BT to provide it to the exclusion of FTTC (or even plain old ADSL), (b) force BT to offer it as an option to the customer, or (c) force the customer to have FTTP with all the attendant additional costs whether they want the additional speed it offers or not?

      Given that there is clear evidence of consumer resistance to the additonal cost of FTTC neither (a) nor (c) (which in fact are the same thing) would make economic sense. How are you going to explain to potential customers that they have to have FTTP even if its performance greatly exceeds their requirements?

      I am not disputing that FTTP is the better "technical" solution, but that fact is in and of itself not enough; if the price is too high then potential customers will not be prepared to accept it. B/B and 'phone costs at Castle Commswonk are about to rise again and knowing what we pay for FTTC (and not many phone calls!) I cannot see many people queuing up for FTTP.

      Yeah OK; what about businesses in "remote" locations? I can see that they might have a need for the higher speeds but I cannot see residential customers taking kindly to the idea that they too have to have FTTP just so they can provide economies of scale to BT and thus subsidise those businesses.

      So please explain; where will the money for this ambitious plan come from?

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Ofcom really needs to pull off the warm cosy, copper Duvet.

        In 2017, if 3 billon plus profits BT can't afford to rollout FTTP to lines more than 125m / 250m by cable to new installs, they simply don't deserve to be in business as a Telco.

        The 'BT biased' G.fast trials have indicated beyond 250m any apparent usefulness is outweighed by the negatives. And there are lots of negatives regards G.fast. Telecoms is also about re-investing revenue, instead of BT sitting on their hands waiting for handouts.

        BT took on all British Telecom 'Buzby customers' irrespective of their location. 1980's pre-privatisation British Telecom's slogan was "It's YOU we answer to", how times have changed.

        Now BT seem so arrogant (and corrupted) they don't even answer to Ofcom.

        Simply, new Telecoms rollout shouldn't discriminate based on location.

        Specifically, distance from FTTC/Exchange. If you don't like that BT, move aside, let someone else take control of the local loop, to do a proper job, going forward.

        BT wonder why they are losing so many Corporate Contracts of late. It's probably something as simple as the experience the final decision maker has with their own 'upto' residential Broadband and dealing with BT on a personal level. BT forget, 'corporate speak' doesn't go down too well if that person is having a poor experience of BT elsewhere on a personal level.

        (Commswonk if you are still paying BT prices for line rental then you're a retiree moaning for the sake of it. You could always head to Vivaciti.net. Line rental is £11.40 inc VAT, per month, not £18.99 on a one month rolling contract.)

        1. Commswonk

          Re: Ofcom really needs to pull off the warm cosy, copper Duvet.

          You could always head to Vivaciti.net. Line rental is £11.40 inc VAT, per month, not £18.99 on a one month rolling contract.

          Indeed I could, but having looked at the Vivaciti website the total monthly rental is pennies different from what I pay to BT; call charges may be cheaper - I will admit I haven't looked at the detail of those. And even then they are trying to tell me I could get "up to 80 Mb/s" when I know perfectly well that the fastest I have ever seen here was i.r.o. 51 MB/s with something like 44 Mb/s being more common.

          So I will return with the counter - accusation that you are moaning about BT for the sake of it! :)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Ofcom really needs to pull off the warm cosy, copper Duvet.

            Interesting, that's a handy number for you. 51Mbps to be plugging BT's 55/10 circa 52Mbps Products that no other ISP's offer. Just making that clear to everyone that reads your posts.

            Line Rental and Broadband are still separate products you take from whoever. I should have guessed there was no choice but BT for you, given what you write.

            1. Commswonk

              Re: Ofcom really needs to pull off the warm cosy, copper Duvet.

              And your point is what exactly?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    take openreach back and let BT retail sort it's own problems out

    Given the amount of government subsidies and sweeteners the privatised British Telecom have diverted away from their promised improvements towards shareholders and management bonuses then the UK tax payer has already paid for Openreach many times over.

    I am sure BT will attempt to say the results of their mismanagement was somehow the UK tax payer's fault and demand yet more public cash before they finally sell out, proberbly to China. However since we have already paid for the infrastruture then that should be returned to it's rightful owners

    After more than 30 years of BT management bonuses that were clearly undeserved, I am thinking openreach management should stay with BT then perhaps all of BT's management can give up their pensions to make up the deficit.

  3. Pen-y-gors

    Do what you know about!

    BT is a telecomms company, and it should stick to that. In other words, dump the Pay-TV, particularly the Sport, which is being massively subsidised by the poor line-renter.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Do what you know about!

      AFAICR all this overseas non-core stuff was an attempt to have part of the business outside the regulated area. They've been trying for well over a couple of decades. They've been consistently crap at managing it.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Do what you know about!

        "outside their regulated area"

        Given Ofcom's approach and dubious CMA decision on EE, is hardly regulated in the sense of the word, BT seem do as they please, including a core business role of corruption, it seems.

  4. MontyMole

    If Openreach was separated out, wouldn't a large chunk of the pension deficit also go with Openreach?

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Pension deficit

      Unlike the article's author, I don't see a "ballooning pensions deficit" as being a BT specific problem; it is a problem impacting all pension schemes.

      Given their decisions todate, I expect Ofcom to back Sky and demand that Openreach is unencumbered with such expenses on the basis that this will allow Openreach to invest more of its income in the network. However, Sky et al will lobby Ofcom to demand Openreach keeps its wholesale prices low, so minimal service improvement benefit to the consumer, but plenty of opportunity for Sky et al to continue beating up Openreach... Additionally, Ofcom so far have shown themselves blind to the long game Sky have been playing, and so will miss the fact that a BT so financially encumbered will be less able to compete with Sky and so be less able to outbid Sky for TV rights...

  5. Zmodem

    EE will then have a max bandwidth of 0.4MBps for your internets, and will make you look like a retard when using google maps for satnav, just to download 10 images at 4 mins each

    going to have to view your route from space soon so you don't outrun your internets

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