BT Openreach’s conscious uncoupling: Reactions from four City analysts (and one business school professor) November 29, 2016 Entire geological eras have passed since Ofcom first began um-ing and ah-ing about spinning BT's Openreach broadband division out from the main company. Today the communications watchdog said it will definitely push ahead with plans to legally separate the two entities, causing BT's share price to fall as much as 1.5 per cent this morning, before paring [...]
Ofcom pushes to legally separate BT and Openreach November 29, 2016 Ofcom said today that it will push ahead with plans to legally separate BT and its broadband network division Openreach. The watchdog accused BT of failing to volunteer any actions that would address competition concerns. BT shares dropped 1.3 per cent at the open. Openreach is the division of BT Group that develops and maintains [...]
CityFibre plans to roll out its fibre network across business parks in 20 cities by next year November 29, 2016 Broadband infrastructure challenger CityFibre is to roll out its full fibre network to 20 cities in 2017 as part of new plans announced today. The scheme is intended to reach some 600 business parks across CityFibre’s 40 city footprint. CityFibre is planning on growing to 100 towns and cities by 2025 across the UK. “By [...]
BT appoints former Ofcom board member as Openreach chairman November 28, 2016 BT has appointed former Ofcom board member Mike McTighe as the first chairman of its infrastructure arm Openreach. McTighe, who takes up his role from January, spent eight years on the board of the communications watchdog and will oversee the new Openreach board – which will operate from early 2017. The communications regulator is currently [...]
Three leads new campaign to curb BT’s mobile network dominance November 28, 2016 Some of the UK’s telecom challenger brands are teaming up to lobby the communications watchdog over BT’s dominance over the airwaves. Three UK is leading a group – that includes TalkTalk, CityFibre, and Relish – which is calling on Ofcom to prevent one mobile network owning more than 30 per cent of the UK’s mobile spectrum. [...]
Ofcom outlines rules for its mobile 4G spectrum auction November 21, 2016 Communications watchdog Ofcom has ruled that BT/EE will not be allowed to participate in one of its upcoming auctions for mobile broadband airwaves. The regulator has set out its rules for next year's auction of 190 MHz of spectrum in the 2.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz bands – representing more than three-quarters of the 4G [...]
BT boss warns Ofcom’s indecision is costing UK November 20, 2016 Gavin Patterson, the chief executive of BT, has warned that indecision over its control of Openreach is costing the UK economy. The communications regulator Ofcom is currently weighing to what extent BT will have to separate Openreach after its consultation closed in October. BT has promised £6bn of investment over the next three years in [...]
IG Group boss joins fintech startup board November 7, 2016 A top boss at spreadbetter IG Group has joined the board of a startup opening up high level investments to individual private investors. Ian Peacock, head of UK and Ireland at the FTSE 250 firm, will join the advisory board of CoInvestor, an alternative investment platform which lets investors put their cash into assets usually reserved for institutional investors. The six [...]
BT investor calls for talks over Openreach arm November 6, 2016 A major BT shareholder, Aviva Investors, has called for the telecoms giant to open discussions about a possible sale of its infrastructure arm Openreach. BT has been fighting for control of its network division for the past 18 months, following repeated calls from its rivals that Openreach should be split out of the group. Aviva is [...]
Vodafone sells Dutch broadband operations to T-Mobile November 4, 2016 Shares in Vodafone dipped this morning after the firm announced its Dutch arm had sold its fixed-line operations to T-Mobile Netherlands for an undisclosed sum in an effort to get EU competition authorities onside. The deal means 150,000 customers’ fixed-line broadband will now be handled by T-Mobile’s Dutch subsidiary. Merger master plan The sale is [...]