Possibility of BT ballot for strike over pay
As reported by Mobile News – BT staff may consider strike action after pay negotiations with the CWU (Communications Workers Union) broke down last week.
According to the CWU, negotiations with BT have halted after it rejected BT’s “final offer” of a two per cent pay increase for all non-management staff – despite the CWU demanding a five per cent rise in February and originally expecting negotiations to be concluded by the end of April.
Representing approximately 50,000 BT employees, CWU argued that it helped BT to save almost £1.6 billion in 2009 and that the telecoms giant is also expected to show an 11% increase in profits to £1.5 billion in its end of year financial results due out this month.
The CWU further accuses BT of similar tactics to those used by mobile network operator O2 earlier this year – by offering a deal based purely on the CWU recommending it to its members.
BT has responded by advising that staff are due to receive a cash bonus of £250 based on targets, however, they have not disclosed further details regarding what those targets would be. The Union believes it would be “crazy” to accept such a deal.
A spokesperson for the CWU added:
“The CWU has bent over backwards to help BT over the past 18 months or so. If we don’t get any further there is now an open threat of balloting for strike action. In terms of any timetable we don’t have one. But we have told BT in no uncertain terms its offer is unacceptable. The offer only exists if we recommend it as it’s much more likely to be accepted by our members. BT says it’s its final offer so we are now at a stand off”
Source: Mobile News CWP
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O2 Tops Broadband Survey – Again
A survey of broadband suppliers has revealed that, for the second year running, O2 has come out top as best broadband supplier, reports The Guardian. The survey – the 2010 Broadband Customer Satisfaction Report carried out by uSwitch.com, questioned over 7,000 broadband customers.
Customers were questioned on 11 categories with 92% of O2 customers being satisfied overall. One of the main stumbling blocks for suppliers was customer service. While 92% of O2 customers were satisfied over all only 44% of Orange customers said they were happy with their firm’s customer service.
It seems to be the more established broadband suppliers such as AOL and BT, who are coming bottom of the league table while new suppliers such as O2 and Sky are leading the way.
O2 won 10 out of the 11 categories including best value for money, best customer service, best technical support and best quality of connection.
O2 offers a basic broadband package for £12.50 a month. However, if you’re an existing mobile phone customer or you top up £10 every three months on pay as you go, you pay £7.50. And O2 are about to launch their home phone service which will offer line rental and calls in a broadband bundle. It means other phone suppliers will have to up their game to match O2.
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Source: The Guardian
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PowerOasis boosted by funding
THE UMIP Premier Fund, which is managed by MTI Partners, has invested £650,000 in telecoms power provider PowerOasis, forming part of a total £1.15 million investment round.
PowerOasis is a UK based company offering telecoms base station operators – turn-key solutions to help reduce power costs. The company’s products enable diesel generators to be supplemented or replaced with renewable energy as and when required, which can significantly reduce diesel use (at least by 50%).
The company reports a significant growth in demand from networks in areas that are not connected to reliable grids, including parts of India, Africa and Asia Pacific and will utilise the investment to increase sales resources, provide operational support and help the development of the next generation of product.
Nick Smailes, chief executive of PowerOasis, said:
“PowerOasis is very pleased with the investment from MTI, it enables us to scale up our operations to meet the significant growth in demand for our telecoms networks power optimisation products and services, and accelerate into this multi-billion dollar market”
Source: The Business Desk
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Microsoft Signals End Of The Office
The generation brought up with Facebook and other forms of social networking will change the way offices work, reports The Daily Telegraph. A study which saw contributions from Microsoft, found that this Facebook generation will rely on mobile technology, remote working and pop up offices in order to carry out their jobs.
The study was backed by the Institute of Directors and public sector think tanks and it noted that IT departments would in the future, not be supporting workers in an office environment but would be helping to ease their way into working from home and other ways of remote working.
A national technology officer at Microsoft, David Coplin, said “Companies will be a bit more aggressive with how much office space they need”. He added that 45% of office space was wasted which accounted for 45% of office costs.
The study suggested that companies will eventually have to let staff use online collaboration tools and social networks in order for them to carry out their jobs and that companies will benefit from this in the long run.
Mr Coplin said that previously there had been talk about the end of the desk phone. Now he says “…we are talking about the death of the desk. It’s not just about working from home. There are compelling reasons for working from a variety of locations”.
So according to Microsoft hot-desking and working from home is the future for the office. But will it lead to workers feeling increasingly isolated because they are no longer mixing with other members of staff on a regular basis? Food for thought.
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Source: The Daily Telegraph
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Hilfiger undresses in BT’s virtual fitting rooms
Tommy Hilfiger is one of the biggest designer clothes brands in the world and has just signed a five-year managed services contract with telecommunications giant BT for a videoconferencing solution that will see the industry’s first ‘virtual fitting rooms’ and will connect offices in Amsterdam, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
The technology, which has been developed together with TANDBERG, which now forms part of the Cisco TelePresence Technology Group, will provide immediate global “in-person” communication and collaboration between Tommy Hilfiger’s designers and manufacturing facilities.
Based around BT’s Unified Communications Video solution together with Cisco’s TANDBERG technology, virtual fittings rooms also feature add-ons including mobile cameras and recording facilities that will for example, enable the design team – based in Amsterdam and New York – to collaborate faster and more effectively with the manufacturing team in Hong Kong. Teams will be able to have face-to-face discussions without leaving their office.
Fred Gehring, CEO Tommy Hilfiger Group, stated:
“We were impressed by BT’s knowledge and experience in the videoconferencing area. This combined with the creative, innovative solution which the BT-Cisco team offered, made the decision easy… The solution will bring us an immersive virtual meeting experience and save both time and money”
Source: BT Plc (Press Release)
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Spice sells Telecoms Division
Utility Exchange last week brought you the news that Spice Plc – a utility support services company, was considering selling its telecoms division. As reported by The Business Desk, Spice has today announced that it has sold its telecoms business – subject to shareholder approval.
According to reports, Team Telecoms Group (TTG) has been bought by Siatel Holdings, a vehicle backed by funds managed by private equity house Gresham – for an amount said to be worth £32.8 million in a move that will be used to reduce Spice’s debt.
TTG is made up of four distinct but complementary telecoms services businesses; Team Simoco based in Derby, UK – which recently acquired ComGroup Victoria, Australia – thus strengthening its position in the global private mobile radio market; Air Radio based in West Drayton, Middlesex and Indigo Telecom Group Monmouthshire, Wales.
The group is expecting the proceeds of the sale, together with an estimated bank overdraft of £4.9 million of the telecoms business, to reduce Spice’s net debt by approximately £30.4 million before transaction expenses.
Source: The Business Desk
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Microsoft Profits Up But Not As Much As Expected
Microsoft has reported a rise in quarterly profits with an increase of 35%, reports The Guardian. The increase in profits is being put down to sales of Windows 7 although sales were not as good as analysts had expected.
Analysts were expecting more from Microsoft and many are suggesting this means Microsoft is not seeing a full recovery just yet after the global economic downturn last year. However, spending around the world in the PC market is set to improve throughout 2010 according to many and this can only benefit Microsoft as it provides the operating systems for 90% of the computers around the world.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is still looking for ways to challenge Google with its online business. This has meant a quarterly loss for Microsoft’s online business which includes the Bing search engine, has increased by 73% to $713m.
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Source: The Guardian
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Spice could hang up on Telecoms business
Spice Plc provides outsourced infrastructure support services primarily to the Utility sector, however, the company has revealed that it is currently in talks to sell its telecoms business. The company was founded in 1996 via a management buy out from Yorkshire Electricity, but the Leeds-based group has confirmed it is in talks with a third party regarding the potential sale of its telecoms business.
The telecoms division is rumoured to be worth £30 million, but, according to Spice:
“At this stage there can be no certainty that any transaction involving the group’s telecoms business will take place”
Spice works in partnership with numerous commercial, public and utility organisations, and has previously disclosed that it was reviewing the future of its gas telecoms and facilities management businesses.
Sources: The Business Desk / Spice Plc
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Microsoft Joins Facebook To Make Facebook Docs
Facebook users will be able to create Microsoft Office documents online and then share them across the internet using Facebook, reports The Daily Telegraph. A collaboration between Microsoft and Facebook has resulted in Facebook Docs.
The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said “It’s all of the power of Microsoft Office suite online with a simple Facebook integration”.
Facebook Docs will mean that Facebook users will be able to create, edit and share Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations and The Daily Telegraph says it’s based on the Web Apps element of Microsoft Office 2010.
This collaboration between Microsoft and Facebook means they are now in direct competition with Google’s Google Docs document service. However the main difference between the two will be that Facebook Docs is aimed at consumers while Google Docs is aimed at businesses.
All 400 million users of Facebook will have free access to Facebook Docs enabling documents to be posted on Walls and Profiles with the capacity for friends to read and comment on documents.
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Source: The Daily Telegraph
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Windows XP Users Affected By Security Update
Computers all over the world have been hit by a Windows security update which paralysed thousands of computers, reports BBC News online. The update labelled part of Windows as a virus meaning computers stopped working.
The update was sent out by the security firm McAfee and the result was that computers kept restarting. The hardest hit appeared to be McAfee’s business customers. Businesses running Windows XP with service pack 3 suffered the most e.g. the University of Michigan reported that out of 25,000 computers, 8,000 were affected by the fault.
McAfee has since sent out a fix for the problem and apologised to everyone who suffered problems. They added that the incident had affected less than 0.5% of their global corporate accounts.
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Source: BBC News Online