Plunging BT sales hit every branch of the biz on way down BT reported to the City this morning a total revenue fall of 6 per cent for the national telco's final three months of 2012. It said sales, excluding specific items relating to "regulatory decisions" on historic Ethernet pricing, hit £4.5bn during the period, down from £4.77bn a year earlier. Adjusted pre-tax profit climbed 7 …
The problem is that apart from in densely populated, wealthy areas, rolling out lots of fibre would mean they lose money. You can tell which are those densely populated wealthy areas, they're largely the ones that already have Virgin.
Virgin and BT both find that less than 10% of households that could have fast broadband actually take it up. Given that number, they're only going to roll out network where they can pass the most households for the least money.
One remedy would be for prices to be higher in rural areas to cover the cost - but few people will pay £250 a month for broadband. Another would be to do something like the Universal Service Obligation BT has on phone lines - but that would mean probably more than doubling the price of broadband so that urban users can subsidise rural ones - or the government can subsidise it with money it gets from taxpayers.
"The problem is that apart from in densely populated, wealthy areas, rolling out lots of fibre would mean they lose money. You can tell which are those densely populated wealthy areas, they're largely the ones that already have Virgin."
Fibre costs a lot less than copper. Most of the phone copper infrastructure in the ground is rotting and a long way past its use-by date. The same arguments were probably being made 100 years ago when phone services were (not) being rolled out in various areas of town.
If cables have to be replaced it makes sense to do it with fibre. Being able to sell added-value services is just icing on the cake.
I get calls from BT on an almost weekly basis trying to sell Bt Infinity. When I explain I am not interested (as I'm trying to sell the house so don't want a fixed term contract) and could they not call again with the same offer they apologise, promise not to call again and hang up. This same pattern has been repeating for months. They did the same thing when I had line rental from a different firm. They really need to learn to listen. Can't wait to find another option (that isn't virgin media).
I just want the copper replacing! It's been 40 years since our lines were installed and you can tell that they're getting tired by the huge noise fluctuations a couple of days after any rain has had time to soak-in.
Surely paying a bill for 40 years should include having the necessary equipment etc updated :/
Is only a part of what BT actually do, and sits within Retail and Openreach. The rest of us in BT often decry this part of the business, as it is hard to sell Professional Services and Major Programmes to corporate customers, when the buyers have had crappy Broadband services at home.
Shame el reg chose to censor my post earlier - will try again.
Why does El Reg have it in for BT? I just don't get it. We all want fast broadband don't we? In the absence a government policy to uplift this countries broadband, it's left to private enterprise and in this case BT to put the multi billions into putting infrastructure in place - a move that risks breaking BT financially - only time will tell.
Surely these results mean that BT can continue that investment which is good for all of us. I don't see the likes of BSkyB investing these huge sums in the infrastructure required - seems they choose to pontificate on the sidelines while profiting from overpriced subscriptions.
When other telcos step up and risk all on the infrastructure we are all demanding then knock yourself out El Reg but since no one else is - cut them some slack.
CC
Can only agree with that, I'm known in family as the 'geek of communications', so whenever a problem shows up with phones, I get called.
This means I see a lot of the frustration that the techs and engineers suffer. They get watched for time, constantly. They get a major problem, they have to tell the customer 'sorry we can't fix it' and drive off, then another appointment has to be made, etc. etc.
And ghods help you if it's an intermittent fault, they HAVE to put it as 'no fault found', then you end up fighting a 100 pound plus bill from your phone provider :-( They hate this as much as the customer. Some of them will go out of the way to find a 'fault' (altho not the one reported) , just to avoid the charge to the customer.
I have been lucky a few times with the customer service part actually. Yes, frequently you get a person who is clearly a script reader, but on several occasions, the person has known shortcuts through the system. And in ONE case, an Indian operator told me, regarding a horrible intermittent ADSL issue, that there were several other calls from the same area, and that it was definitely an exchange issue and would be fixed soon. She was correct.
Beer, because the engineers quite often deserve one.
An example fresh in my mind from BT business.
Cancelled a broadband service prior to an office move on 22 August 2012. Got final bill, with just short of 2 squid credit on it.
Yesterday a new bill for 14 squid or so on that account arrives. WTF ???
Bill queries (India) tell me it's for "Internet Security Software". More WTF ??
Of course, they can't fix it. Have to put me through to cancellations. Rule 1 of good CS: Handle the customer query to completion at first point of contact. Not that ANY large corp understands that. Well, I'm sure they do understand it - they just don't do it. Still, at least I can be transferred (via "Business reception - a longstanding WTF ??) and don't have to redial.
So, this "service" is now cancelled too, backdated to 22 August. 15 minutes of my life I'll never get back is now gone for no reason. And BT have collected yet another reason for not doing business with them (as if I needed any more) - the cluestick has stamped on it 'Cancellation means cancellation, not "generate a random bill 5 months later"'
At some point the market is going to start to have an effect on BT. At present many if not most customers stick to BT because of inertia and more to the point not knowing the true basis on which they pay for their service.
Do YOU know exactly how much you are paying per minute for different types of calls? BT do not put this information on their bills and even if they did you would find it confused by "call set-up charges" and various other devices, not to mention additional charges for "Calling Features" and so on.
If Ofgem ever wakes up and makes BT spell out on their bills the basis of the costs you have incurred it will become much easier to compare costs with other providers. At that point the market will kick in properly (at present it is not having much effect) and BT will lose a lot more of their business than they have retained so far.
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