Since finally loosing the debt-ridden BT Cellnet things have been slowly changing in the newly named BT Group. The new chief executive, Ben Verwaayen, announced today that "BT has to prove both that it can build on the positive results from the third quarter and that it has the ability to execute a credible strategy" and he also said that the telecom giant would be changing the way the business is run.
Telecommunications in the UK have been under the monopoly of BT for a long time. Could these changes finally begin to address the issues that have upset the public for so long? Mr Verwaayen then went on to say "First, we must unite behind a common objective that places the interests of BT at the top of our agenda" and "We must create a strong sense of "us" throughout the company and accept that "us" means BT and not just the part of the company that we work in. Our businesses must work together to deliver the big ticket items that will drive growth -such as broadband.". The final part of this does make some sense but surely it"s about time BT created a strong sense of "them" as in the customers and stopped the focus on the business. For a long time the customers of BT have suffered as the costs of almost all areas of communication are controlled by them.
Speculation is mounting this week as to when the aforementioned changes to the company"s Broadband strategy will be announced. It is thought that prices will fall to between £25 and £30 a month (with the latter seeming a more sensible guess) and this could finally allow anyone to afford broadband. This is all good and well but with them stopping the roll-out of upgrades to their exchanges BT have stopped the development of Broadband across the country, their excuse being that the current exchanges which have been upgraded aren"t getting enough people subscribing.
He then continues to again put the interests of the business first (click read more...)