Tag Archive
Mobile VoIP: 2010 Will Be An “Exit” Year
A few days ago I posted an article about VoIP as the “industry of the decade“, meaning that VoIP has been the industry with the highest growth in terms of cumulative revenues. 2008-2009 has also been an important period in terms of market consolidation. Ribbit has been acquired by British Telecom after a very... »
BT protest over mobile 3G licences falls on deaf ears
Lord Mandelson is to forge ahead with a consultation to extend indefinitely mobile phone companies’ 3G licences, despite the threat of a judicial review from BT. The fixed-line phone group has written a “letter before action” to the Business Secretary, condemning plans to hand over for good the valuable licences to Vodafone and its peers... »
BT warns of court fight over digital spectrum plans
The government’s plans to bring broadband within the reach of every home by 2012 have been put in jeopardy by BT. The telecoms operator has warned that it will take legal action if the government presses ahead in the new year with plans to liberalise the nation’s mobile phone spectrum. BT’s move could derail a... »
BT to complete super-fast broadband network by 2012
BT’s superfast broadband network will be completed in time for the 2012 Olympic Games, the firm has announced. The £1.5bn fibre-optic network will offer speeds of up to 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) for some customers, supporting high-definition video. However, it will only reach around 40% of homes, mainly in towns and cities. To read this BBC... »
How the British market proved no panacea for BT
It is 25 years since the public offering of a 50.2 per cent stake in British Telecommunications. Never before had a major state-owned utility been transformed into a public company with dispersed share ownership. The flotation, five times larger than any previous offering on the London Stock Exchange, was not the product of a... »
Britain’s Phone giants Vodafone and BT eye more cuts
Britain’s two flagship telecoms companies will this week announce deeper cost cutting to compensate for sluggish sales growth, reports The Sunday Times. Alongside half-year results, Vodafone and BT are expected to increase savings targets from £1 billion and “well over” £1 billion respectively. To read this report from The Sunday Times in full, see: business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article6907911.ece … >>> Rest... »
With Ribbit, BT Is Rethinking Its Voice Business
When BT, formerly known as British Telecom, splurged and bought Mountain View, Calif.,-based Ribbit for $105 million some 15 months ago, I dismissed it as an attempt by an aging incumbent carrier to reinvent itself as a web-savvy, next-generation communications provider that was unlikely to succeed. “BT has always been long on promise, but... »
BT to double homes on ultra-fast broadband
BT is to more than double the number of homes able to use the company’s ultra-fast broadband network, in a major revision of its next-generation infrastructure plans. BT’s network – offering download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second – will run past at least 2.5m homes by 2012, or 10 per cent of... »
BT accused of download throttling UK customers
Britain’s biggest broadband supplier has been accused of limiting download speeds on its cheapest package without giving users a clear warning. BT Broadband cuts the speed users can watch video services like the BBC iPlayer and YouTube at peak times. A customer who has signed up for an up to 8 megabit per second package can... »
BT to increase broadband speeds up to 20 Mb/s
British telecoms group BT is to more than double the headline broadband speeds for millions of its residential and business customers for no extra cost and will also trial super-fast fibre-based services, it said on Wednesday. To read this Reuters report in full, see: in.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idINIndia-40070520090603 … >>> Rest of the Story Related Topics: British, British Telecom, broadband, BT,... »
Fury at BT as Barrault gets £1.6m golden handshake
BT executives will not receive bonuses this year for financial performance after missing all its targets, but the group revealed that the executive who oversaw the division that pulled the business into a full-year loss received a £1.6m pay-off after he quit. The UK telecommunications giant yesterday published its annual report for the year until... »
Phone companies join forces to lower call rates
The UK telecom giant BT today announced a joint initiative with the UK’s fifth largest mobile phone provider, 3, to reduce the cost of mobile phone calls in the UK. The two companies have set up a campaigning website, which invites members of the public to sign an online petition to reduce the UK’s mobile... »
Nortel and BT sign 4-year enterprise telephony deal
Nortel and British Telecom announced they have extended their global trading agreement for Nortel’s enterprise telephony equipment and services for four years. The companies said in a release the deal will enable them to “address customers’ needs whether it be voice, contact centres, routing, LANs or VPNs.” The deal extension is good news for Nortel;... »
BT to speed up next-gen broadband rollout
BT is planning to double the pace of its forthcoming next-generation broadband fibre rollout, bringing up to 100Mbps broadband within reach of more than a million premises next year. The move comes after the telco reported tough financials and announced a further 15,000 job cuts. CEO Ian Livingston said a faster fibre rollout would help... »
BT’s Livingston is ‘drinking at the last-chance saloon’
When Margaret Thatcher used British Telecom to kick off her programme of privatisation in 1984, the company, still armed with its monopoly status, proudly employed around 241,000 staff. Twenty-five years later, BT is a shadow of its former self. While the effects of competition have played a part in its fall from the top of the... »
BT doubles job cuts to 30,000 as it slumps to annual loss
BT has slumped to an annual loss for the first time in almost a decade and doubled jobs cuts to 30,000, as the former state-owned telecoms company struggles with a disastrous performance of a key division, reports The Daily Telegraph. Ian Livingston, the chief executive, said the company had been dragged down by the “unacceptable”... »
Top 30 VoIP Leaders On Twitter
Regular readers of this blog should have noticed that in the past few weeks I’ve been covering some topics much less while I’m writing more about other topics. It’s just the result of an analysis of what the readers of my blog are looking for so I’m just behaving accordingly. Makes sense, right? Anyway, since... »
Coming to America: BT Launches UC Services in N.A.
By all accounts, interest in unified communications is on the rise for American companies looking to do more with less while accommodating mobile workers. But a hurdle lies in the mapping of the technology to business needs. British Telecom plc is the latest service provider to tackle this disconnect, by …(322 words) ... »
ECTA: Reding is the ’saviour’ of EU telecoms
The nascent optical fibre connection market underpinning super-fast Internet should be subject to rules aimed at avoiding the creation of new monopolies, telecoms industry chief Innocenzo Genna told EurActiv in an interview, praising Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding as the ’saviour’ of the EU telecoms sector. To read this interview with Innocenzo Genna, chairman of... »
‘Doomsday’ plan to renationalise BT
The government is believed to have drawn up a contingency plan that would involve the wholesale renationalisation of BT, should the company get into financial difficulty, because of the public purse’s exposure to the telecom giant’s mammoth pension scheme. Government advisers believe a wholesale takeover of BT, after 25 years as a quoted company, would... »
BT quarterly profits drop by 81%
Telecoms giant BT has reported pre-tax profits of £113m for the last three months of 2008, down 81% from the same period in 2007. The results were hit by the previously-announced £340m one-off charge at BT’s Global Services unit, which provides services to multinational companies. To read this BBC News report in full, see: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7885136.stm … >>> Rest... »
Mobile operators in final bid to stall EU fee plan
Top telecom operators will meet the European Commission on Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to stall EU plans that would force them to cut call routing fees by up to 70 percent. Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telefonica, Vodafone, British Telecom and Telecom Italia will meet Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding and... »
Should eBay Spin Off Skype? The Debate Continues
Should eBay spin off Skype? While it’s a bad time for eBay to try and spin off it or anything else as the company tries to refocus itself and save its core franchise of online auctions, the answer to that question is yes. Armed with comments made by eBay CEO John Donhaue, folks have... »
BT ponders return to mobile market
BT could launch a mobile phone operation as part of a joint venture with T-Mobile and 3 in a bid to boost profits by cashing in on the migration of broadband and internet services to mobile devices. City sources say that informal talks have taken place between the three companies over branding, costs and revenue.... »
VoicePHP: Indian Startup Marries Voice with PHP
Marrying web applications with voice has long been seen as the proverbial pot of gold: easy to dream about but hard to actually find. A few startups (and some large companies) are trying to solve the problem; some are using Voice XML, while others are betting on Adobe’s Flash. Today, TringMe, a Bangalore, India-based... »
BT faces tough year as broadband nears saturation
Telecoms group BT will face “one of its toughest ever years” in 2009 as revenue from landline phone calls continues to decline and broadband reaches saturation point, according to a new report. The decline in fixed-line telecoms may be so severe that telephone and broadband infrastructure companies, such as BT and Virgin Media, may have... »
British Telecoms Customers Confused By Pricing Info, Tariffs
British punters are getting short-changed by telecoms companies because they struggle to get enough information to properly decide which tariff or deal to accept, say British MPs. Related Topics: 2008, British, British Telecom, carrier, carriers, Info, information, LEC, Pricing, tariff, tariffs, telecom, Telecoms, telecoms companies »
BT slashes 10,000 jobs
BT is axing 10,000 workers, or 6% of its global workforce, Related Topics: British, British Telecom, BT, LEC, telecom »