BT

Rumour mill: BT in partnership talks with T-Mobile UK and 3

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:03:14 -0400

Having been firmly dismissed by Deutsche Telekom, speculation over T-Mobile UK's future has gone quiet as the parent company seems prepared to rebuild its poor-performing UK mobile subsidiary.

However, reports are beginning to circulate that BT, T-Mobile UK and 3 have had informal discussions about some form of partnership that might involve common branding, costs and revenues. Adding weight to these latest reports is the matter that both T-Mobile and Hong Kong-based Hutchison 3 are keen to look at new revenue streams for their businesses in the UK.

BT would be in a position to potentially help these two mobile operators by adding a highly successful fixed network, albeit that BT has just announced dire financial results with plans to make 15,000 employees redundant. However, having sold its Cellnet mobile operations in 2001, BT has made assorted attempts to re-enter the cellular business and presently has a wholesale deal with Vodafone that has attracted a small number of business subscribers.

BT's new CEO, Ian Livingstone, who took over from Ben Verwaayen in 2008, has ordered a strategic review for the cell phone business, and is known to have ambitions to become more involved in the mobile sector.

For more on this story:
Mobile Today

T-Mobile UK not for sale, says CEO; but speculation heightens

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:44:08 -0400

Despite rampant speculation, René Obermann, Deutsche Telekom's CEO, has indicated that he sees the company as staying in the UK with its T-Mobile subsidiary. He stated he believed in T-Mobile UK becoming successful in the medium to long term because the network sharing deal with 3UK would allow T-Mobile to market itself more aggressively.

This somewhat half-hearted measure of support for T-Mobile UK came after Deutsche Telekom (DT) CFO, Timotheus Hoettges, had set the equity value of the company's operations in the UK at £3.3 billion, and Obermann had said that consolidation would be good for the UK market.

Given that no firm statement has come from DT or Blackstone--a major DT investor--that T-Mobile UK is not for sale, the rumour mill has gone into overdrive. An early runner to acquire the business, France Telecom's Orange, seems to have ruled itself out of the bidding with its finance chief appearing to pour cold water on an imminent deal. The next most heavily tipped company is BT with its new CEO, Ian Livingston, known to be harbouring an interest in making a serious mobile play. Having been forced to sell its mobile arm some years ago, BT needs a mobile business to meet its ambitions as a fixed-line and mobile services operator.

For more on this story:
The Telegraph and Financial Times

WiFi operator receives 15 million euro to boost European expansion

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:01:40 -0400

Having already established operations in 11 European countries, one of Europe's largest WiFi operators, The Cloud, is looking to increase its European presence following the injection of €15 million of investment cash.

The company, whose core business is focused on Denmark, Germany, the UK and Sweden, said it planned to use the cash to take advantage of a market it perceives to be fragmented and primed for consolidation.

"I think everyone appreciates how tough the capital markets are and I believe the timing of this investment is a strong endorsement of the business and its plans for international expansion," said Steve Nicholson, The Cloud's chief executive.

This upbeat statement came days after BT Openzone withdrew from negotiations over continuing to use thousands of The Cloud's WiFi access points in the UK. BT Openzone subscribers were informed by e-mail late last week that access to The Cloud's WiFi service would no longer be part of the Openzone service.

For more on this story:
- go to ITPro

Related articles:
BT and O2 extend iPhone WiFi deal. BT/O2 story
BT turns off WiFi access to The Cloud. The Cloud story

BT and O2 extend iPhone WiFi deal

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 06:59:55 -0400

U.K. mobile operator O2 and BT Openzone have struck a deal to enhance the unlimited WiFi access package currently available to O2's iPhone customers. Beginning July 17th, iPhone users will be able to access more than 3,000 Openzone WiFi hotspots at no extra cost. O2 already has an agreement with WiFi operator The Cloud and this new deal will allow iPhone users the use of more than 9,000 public WiFi hotspots. Both the EDGE iPhone and the new 3G iPhone automatically select the fastest available network, switching seamlessly to WiFi when in a hotspot coverage area.

For more on this story:
- read Cellular News and Mobile Today

Related story:
Apple announces O2 as UK iPhone carrier. Article

O2 signs with BT as backhaul becomes stretched

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Proof that operator backhaul is under pressure has come from O2 following its decision to bring in BT to provide and manage the high-speed connectivity between the majority of O2's base stations and the core U.K. national network through its fast Ethernet service.

O2 said that the 5-year deal would allow the company to manage the predicted increases in network traffic that is caused by new handsets that use a lot of bandwidth. It will also reduce the need for O2 to upgrade its network. Nigel Purdy, O2's head of networks engineering said: "By working with BT Wholesale, we have a solution that takes care of our growing access and bandwidth needs while enabling us to realise greater cost efficiencies. It will also significantly reduce our access transmission whole life cycle costs."

Evidence that backhaul requirements are changing also comes from a new study from Infonetics Research. The company claims that mobile operators and backhaul transport providers spent US$3.7 billion worldwide on mobile backhaul equipment in 2007, and are expected to increase their spending in the high double-digit per cents from 2009 to at least 2011.

The report claims there are three factors forcing a migration to packet backhaul:

Rapidly increasing numbers of mobile subscribers, reaching 4.4 billion worldwide in 2011
An explosion in mobile data and video use, particularly on iPhones and their clones
Heavy competition, forcing operators to upgrade their network capacity to improve and add new subscriber services; these upgrades will include IP/Ethernet BTS/NodeBs, WiMAX, and LTE

For more on this story:
-read Cellular News and ISP review

Related stories:
Carriers: Don't neglect backhaul assets. Backhaul viewpoint
Cellular backhaul CAPEX $23B by 2012. Capex story

BT mulls U.K. WiMAX deployment

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Having been announced as the new head of BT only a few days ago, Ian Livingston has already made it clear that he plans to do things differently by letting slip that a U.K. WiMAX deployment is under consideration.

Having had a level of success with its WiFi network, Livingston has stated that WiMAX is being closely looked at to provide a high-speed, low-cost connection to the Internet. Analysts have interpreted this remark as BT being more interested in using WiMAX to serve its corporate customers rather than individual consumers.

Industry observers believe that having its own WiMAX network would allow BT to better compete with the triple and even quad services its rivals are offering, as well as control its own destiny. Ofcom's summer auction of the 2.6GHz band could be used for WiMAX, but there is seemingly no commitment by BT to purchase the spectrum, and that much would depend on price. Livingston has previously ruled out a bid by BT to re-enter the mobile market by acquiring another mobile network operator.

For more on this story:
- read The Financial Times

Competition Commission to rule on termination fees

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:59:55 -0400

BT's ongoing battle with Ofcom over the issue of mobile termination fees has been referred to the U.K. Competition Commission for resolution. Ofcom introduced the new termination fees in April 2007 but BT argues that the regulator used the wrong formula in calculating the fee structure. BT loses out because it has to pay mobile operators every time one of its fixed-line subscribers calls a mobile number. In BT's corner is 3UK which used to get a special deal on termination fees because it was the new kid on the block and had the fewest customers. O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone are largely unaffected by the new fee structure. Given that the industry believes that termination fees are likely to be abolished in the near future the arguments seem redundant but the new structure is costing the aggrieved parties significant sums of money so presumably it is worth battling on.

For further information:
- go to The Register

BT dumps FMC offering after poor consumer uptake

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:59:56 -0500

Launched with great fanfare in 2005, the U.K.'s former state telco, BT, has now quietly dropped its Fusion FMC solution. The company had proudly stated that it expected Fusion would generate £1 billion from new mobile and convergence services within five years--instead only 45,000 people have subscribed to date (not the millions forecast) and the company has now stopped advertising the service.

The sales pitch was that users could make cheap or free calls using the Fusion handset at home over BT broadband, and switch to the Vodafone network or BT's WiFi hotspots outside. However, the concept seems to have proven too challenging for potential users to grasp.

Regardless of this setback, BT is now reported to be testing a service that would allow heavy users of BT broadband to access the web on the move using BlackBerry-type devices made by Taiwan's HTC.

For more on this story:
- read Daily Telegraph and AFXnews

ALSO NOTED: Vodafone inks Amdocs deal; BT to become an MVNO; and much more...

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:59:00 -0500

> Vodafone signs 10-year framework agreement with Amdocs. Article

> Carphone Warehouse banks on U.S., iPhone to lift H2. Article

> BT Italia to become MVNO in December. Article

> Vodafone's Indian ambition hits a brick wall. Article

> Turkcell Q3 profit rises 29%. Article

And Finally... Symbian - the whiff of sour grapes?