Reform Openreach’s relationship with BT or public anger at the UK broadband market will only rise May 24, 2016 Anyone who read the papers last week might be forgiven for thinking that Britain’s broadband troubles are over. After years of rising anger about poor reliability, speed and coverage, a new piece of legislation is on the way, aiming to deliver universal coverage. Unfortunately, this is not a panacea and, while the recently announced Digital [...]
Tumblers at the ready – mixologists are being challenged to create the perfect cockatil for the Queen’s birthday May 23, 2016 Mixologists love nothing more than making cocktails to mark historic events. And now, true to form, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) has launched a glamorous competition for mixologists to create the perfect cocktail to toast the Queen's birthday. British gin and English sparkling wine makers will battle it out to improve on one of [...]
Outgoing BT chairman wants better customer service to be his legacy May 22, 2016 The chairman of BT, Sir Mike Rake, has prioritised improving customer service before he steps down from the role in September next year. “We haven’t improved our customer service enough in recent years,” Rake told City A.M. BT has promised to better its service this year by bringing call centres back to the UK, taking on [...]
IP-O2: Mobile operator strongly considering stock market float May 22, 2016 O2 is strongly considering a stock market flotation, City A.M. understands. An initial public offering (IPO) is one of a number of options being looked at by the mobile operator following its failed merger with Three. However private equity firms are understood to be planning bids for O2, owned by Spanish company Telefonica, which could be [...]
BT boss Gavin Patterson misses out on £290,000 bonus after company fails to meet customer service targets May 19, 2016 BT chief executive Gavin Patterson lost out on a £290,000 bonus thanks to the company missing its customer service targets last year. Customer experience is one of the measures the telecom giant uses to set its executives’ annual bonus, BT said in its annual report published on Thursday. The poor performance led to Patterson’s overall annual [...]
Britain sucked toward billion pound innovation funding Brexit black hole May 18, 2016 British business faces a billion pound funding black hole for research and development that risks leaving the nation trailing behind the rest of Europe when it comes to creating world leading technological and scientific innovation. More than a fifth of the UK’s £8bn competitive R&D funding in the last decade has come from Europe, but that [...]
Investment banking revenues plunged to financial crisis levels in 2015 – and a greater drop is expected this year May 17, 2016 Global investment banking revenues dropped to their lowest levels since the financial crisis last year. And they are expected to plummet even further this year, according to a new report. Analysis in the Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Capital Markets 2016 report predicts 2016 investment banking revenue to total $212bn (£147bn), down seven per cent from [...]
Vodafone raises dividends as it predicts better things to come May 17, 2016 Vodafone's share price rose in early trading this morning, after the telecoms giant reported further declines in its final results for the year – but forecast a turnaround to come in 2017. The figures Group revenues fell three per cent to £40.9bn in the 12 months to 31 March, while group services revenues dropped 3.5 per cent to £37.2bn. Organic revenues [...]
Standard Life sleepwalks towards a pay revolt May 13, 2016 First Schroders, now Standard Life: it’s turning into a season of grand City institutions firing bullets into their own feet. Fresh from the calamitous handling of Michael Dobson’s elevation to the chair at Schroders, its Scottish-based peer is making an even bigger pig’s ear of a process it should be able to navigate in its [...]
Good news for Liverpool fans: BT Sport and YouTube to stream Champions League and Europa League finals for free online May 12, 2016 BT Sport will stream the Champions League and Europa League finals live on YouTube, allowing millions of fans not subscribed to the TV channel to watch the games for free. The decision follows reports that Uefa is concerned with poor viewing figures for the first season of BT Sport's £897m deal which took European football away [...]