BT Announces Pre-Tax Profits Helped By An Increase In New Broadband Customers
BT has announced that its pre-tax profits doubled to £441 million in the third quarter and in the same period it has increased its share of new broadband customers.
BT has announced it has drawn 53% of all new broadband customers to its services in the last three months of last year. The telecoms giant said this is the highest it’s been since 2003.
The last three months of 2010 saw BT’s broadband TV service, BT Vision won 40,000 new customers. This is significantly higher than the 24,000 new customers to BT Vision in the previous three months.
In fact the number of customers using BT’s network has risen from 253,000 added in the previous quarter to 356,000 in the last quarter.
The chief executive of BT, Ian Livingston, said “These results show that we are making progress on a number of fronts”.
A telecoms analyst, Mark Giles said “BT Retail continues to post impressive broadband subscriber additions”.
In early trading this morning, BT’s announcement of pre-tax profits has resulted in a 3% rise in their shares.
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Microsoft Issues Internet Explorer Browser Security Warning
Microsoft has issued a warning over its browser security. A new problem has been found with Microsoft’s browser, Internet Explorer. Microsoft has therefore issued a “critical” warning over the flaw and is working on a fix.
Microsoft said the browser security flaw could be used by hackers to get at information or take over a computer. While Microsoft has issued a patch to help protect against attacks the company is working on a long term solution.
The flaw could mean that users may inadvertently download malicious files just by clicking on a web link. As soon as the computer is compromised hackers would be able to access personal data and even send the user to a fake web site.
Angela Gunn, a Microsoft representative said “Such a script might collect user information, e.g. e-mail, spoof content displayed in the browser or otherwise interfere with the user’s experience”.
Microsoft advises users of Internet Explorer to download the security patch as soon as possible to ensure their computer is protected.
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Ofcom Set To Reduce The Cost Of Rural Broadband
The cost of broadband could be reduced for those living and working in rural areas according to the regulator Ofcom.
Ofcom says that the cost of broadband in areas where BT Wholesale is the only provider could be reduced by as much as 14.75% below the rate of inflation. The problem is that in many rural areas prices have not been driven down by competition.
Various internet service providers buy broadband services from BT Wholesale and Ofcom hopes that lower broadband prices will not only increase competition but will mean that current providers can deliver more value for money.
BT said that Ofcom’s proposals must not deter investment. A spokeswoman for BT said “It is key that the details strike the right balance between control and incentives to invest in rural areas”.
Bringing down the cost of rural broadband will not only help people living in rural areas but will also help to reduce the cost of business broadband.
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Everything Everywhere Responds To Traffic Light Claims
Utility Exchange reported recently that Everything Everywhere employees were told of job losses via a traffic light system. However Everything Everywhere has responded to the claims made by The Daily Telegraph saying that the claims are not true.
According to a statement by the mobile phone company anyone who was at risk of losing their job through reorganisation should have been seen on a one-to-one basis. At this point the full implications of the changes would have been explained to them by either their line manager or director.
After this process employees were taken through the proposals for their teams in group briefings and told how these proposed changes could affect them.
Everything Everywhere say that a variety of tools are used to ensure that staff are aware of what is happening with regards to their teams and others across the business. This includes employee packs used during meetings. They are also held on the company intranet and according to the company they are designed to ensure that staff members understand at any time what the proposals mean for them and their teams.
They say that one of the ways they indicate the extent of the change is by using an indicative visual colour code. Everything Everywhere say that this tool – or variations of it – is used across the HR industry when a company is dealing with change of this scale. The idea is to give staff clarity about the extent of proposed changes for their teams at a glance.
The company says this colour scheme was never intended to be used in isolation of wider announcements. The company says that if there is any suggestion of a case where this process was not followed then it will be investigated. The company concludes by saying that none of the internal bodies which represent the employees has raised concerns over lack of sensitivity or lack of due process.
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Source: Everything Everywhere
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BT Job Cuts Reach 35,000
BT is set to announce this week that 35,000 jobs have been lost as it tries to return to profitability, reports The Sunday Telegraph. British Telecom had promised to cut 15,000 jobs this year in addition to the 15,000 jobs cut in 2008.
However, BT is set to announce that it’s actually exceeded its target of 30,000 and cut an extra 5,000 jobs. It’s thought that most of the jobs lost were in the UK but most of them were either agency or temporary jobs.
It’s thought that BT is also hoping to cut another 5,000 jobs this year and if it manages to do this then BT’s workforce will have fallen from 162,000 to 122,000. In the year to April BT is expected to have made savings of £2bn.
BT is expected to reveal the news on Thursday when its pre tax profits are expected to be announced as in the region of £1bn and £1.1bn. This comes after a loss of £134m last year. It’s also thought BT will issue an update on its plans to connect 10m homes to superfast broadband by 2012.
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Source: The Sunday Telegraph
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Telekom Austria proposes recharging phone boxes
Driving business diversification – In an attempt to move with the times telecommunications company Telekom Austria has unveiled exciting new plans to turn its public telephone boxes – which are in danger of becoming obsolete due to the advancement of mobile phones – into battery recharging stations for electric cars…
The company, which provides of a range of fixed line, mobile, data, and Internet communications services in Austria, confirmed the scheme was still in the very early stages but explained that it came up with the idea to turn its 13,500 phone boxes into recharging stations for electric vehicles – cars, scooters and bicycles, as it looks into alternative uses for the facilities.
According to reports, there are currently 223 electric cars registered in Austria together with 3,559 hybrid cars – from a total of 4.36 million cars on Austrian roads. But the Austrian motor vehicle association – VoeC, expects this number will rise to approximately 405,000 by 2020.
After revealing its first prototype phone booth incorporating an integrated electricity charging station in Vienna earlier this week, Telekom Austria’s chief Hannes Ametsreiter advised the company’s aim is to convert 29 more phone boxes by the end of 2010.
During the trial period electricity will be provided free of charge and for future use the phone booths have been fitted with a mobile payment feature allowing customers to pay for their electricity by phone using Paybox or SMS, or alternatively by using an RFID card or chip.
An electric car needs about 6.5 hours re-charge, an electric scooter 80 minutes and an electric bike roughly 20 minutes.
Sources: Space Mart / TMC Net
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Microsoft Brings Social Media Together With Spindex
Microsoft is developing a tool which will bring all of a user’s social media sites together meaning they don’t have to keep logging on to different websites, reports The Daily Telegraph.
The software tool is called Spindex and will show users all their social media activity which Microsoft says will “Make sense of your social overload”.
In a blog on the Microsoft site, the general manager of Microsoft’s Fuse Labs said that Spindex was going to be available in a preview form. Lili Cheng said it brings together streams from various sources including Facebook, Twitter and Bing. She said it will make it easier for users to see “what’s new, see personalised trending topics, and generally make the most of the time you spend being social on the Web”.
Spindex is currently only available to those at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco and is one of a number of projects developed recently by Microsoft’s Fuse Labs which include a Bing-Twitter coming together so that users can see where their friends are tweeting and a tool to integrate documents into Facebook.
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Source: The Daily Telegraph
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Microsoft IE Browser Share Down To 60%
Microsoft’s browser, Internet Explorer had a market share of 95% in 2003 but this figure has now fallen to 60%, reports BBC News Online. Figures show that while Internet Explorer (IE) still has the largest market share of any web browser, it is losing ground to other browsers.
Firefox is catching IE with a market share of 24.5% while Google’s Chrome is in third place with 6.7% market share.
It’s believed that Microsoft has been losing market share because there have been concerns over the security of Internet Explorer, especially Internet Explorer 6. However, a new version of IE is due out soon and it’s thought this will address many of those concerns.
While some experts blame security issues for Microsoft’s loss of market share others say it may be down to an increased awareness of other available browsers. In March European computers received a list of available browsers to choose from after a dispute between Microsoft and the European Union. Customers now get a choice of 12 browsers and they choose which one to make their default browser. However, it’s thought this will not have affected these market share figures just yet.
The figures do show however, that Microsoft isn’t having things all its own way and competition is getting tougher in the browser market.
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Source: BBC News Online
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Netservices for sale at £3.2 million
GCI Telecom Group is set to acquire network provider NetServices for £3.2 million, reports The Business Desk. To include the sale of WAN Services Limited, Netservices is set to request shareholder approval at the next general meeting however, 53% of shareholder representatives have already agreed to vote in favour of the deal with GCI, which trades as Edge Telecom and IPI.
NetServices chairman, Graham Norfolk acknowledged that the disposal was the “best way forward” for the company and its shareholders, and said:
“At the Preliminary results in November 2009, we reported the various successes of the business, including becoming a Cisco Premier partner. However, despite a significant restructuring and a refocused strategy, revenues were difficult to predict and were taking time to come through. Therefore, we believe the assets of the business will perform better within the larger GCI group”
Upon successful completion of the sale, Netservices will change its name to Accumuli Plc and will concentrate on acquiring companies operating in the IT services, technology and communications sectors.
Source: The Business Desk
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Apple iPad Sales Reach 1 Million In 28 Days
After all the hype about the Apple iPad it appears that it’s quite popular. The Daily Mail reports that Apple has sold a million iPads since its launch a month ago which is twice the number of iPhones sold when it first came out.
The 3G version of the device came out on Friday which helped Apple to reach this milestone for the iPad. The firm said in only 28 days sales of the device had reached 1 million. The chief executive of Apple, Steve Jobs, said it took 74 days for the iPhone to reach the same number of sales. He added that demand was still exceeding supply.
The 3G version of the iPad is more expensive than the original model – the short range Wi-Fi tablet and the device is yet to go on sale internationally. International pre-orders will begin on 10 May and the iPad is set to go on sale in nine new countries later in the month.
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Source: The Daily Mail