BT creating 1,000 new UK jobs in bid to move criticised customer services back to the UK January 18, 2016 BT announced today it would be creating 1,000 new jobs in the UK, as the telco giant works to move its criticised customer services back to the country. BT’s goal is that at least 80 per cent of customer calls are answered from within the UK by the end of the year, and to that [...]
Reactions to BT-EE merger: Telco rivals TalkTalk and Vodafone lash out after Competition and Markets Authority waves through £12.5bn merger deal January 15, 2016 Telco rivals have lashed out furiously, after the UK’s competition watchdog waved through BT and EE’s £12.5bn merger, which was given the final green light early this morning. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the takeover was unlikely to cause “significant harm to competition or the interests of consumers” as the UK mobile market is so [...]
BT’s EE takeover set to get a green light from Competition and Markets Authority January 14, 2016 BT’s £12.5bn takeover of rival EE is expected to get a thumbs up by the UK’s competition watchdog as the two prepare to merge in March. Anything other than a green light would be highly unexpected as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) prepares to announce its final decision on the deal at 7am tomorrow, [...]
Homeward bound HSBC, City Hall race and oil glut make a busy 2016 January 7, 2016 Forecasting events in the City is frequently a fool’s errand but one thing’s clear from the first week of 2016: it is going to be a tough year for much of corporate Britain. Here’s where I think most of the action will be. 1. Among the first big decisions of the year will be delivered when [...]
Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife and Eastenders: Here’s how much timeshifted Christmas TV we watched on catch-up services January 4, 2016 It may have been the classic Queen’s speech which got us tuning in on Christmas day, but it was Downtown Abbey and Call the Midwife which we settled down to watch on catch-up in the days afterwards, as we continued to stuff ourselves with festive food. Britain’s on-demand TV habits meant that both the popular dramas, on ITV [...]
Britain needs to up its game on broadband – or creaking digital infrastructure will hit growth December 15, 2015 The UK is in the middle of a digital revolution. Over the last decade, the internet has emerged as the lifeblood of the modern world. In towns and cities across the country, businesses, governments and residents are becoming ever more dependent on an abundance of digital services and, consequently, on the wires and cables under [...]
Commodities rout, competition issues and zero-hours contracts: Here’s Santa Plc’s annual report December 14, 2015 Last year City A.M. reported that after the financial crisis Santa Claus was in line for his merriest Christmas in years. But things are looking decidedly less festive in 2015. At the top of his naughty list this year? Governments, we suspect, who have not only created controversy over the zero-hours contracts he (probably) uses to [...]
UK broadband battles: Ofcom consultation into BT pricing to close tomorrow December 13, 2015 Get ready for another round of the UK's broadband battles, as industry regulator Ofcom’s consultation into how much BT can charge its rivals for leasing its broadband lines closes tomorrow. After a month-long consultation, part of its Business Connectivity Market Review, Ofcom’s review into BT’s cost attribution methodologies closes tomorrow, leaving the watchdog with a [...]
Nuisance calls to mobile phones soaring despite crackdown on cold calling companies December 8, 2015 Nuisance calls to mobile phones are soaring in the UK, despite a clampdown on unwanted calls and texts. Some 72 per cent of Britons have had at least one cold call from a company in the last month, up from just over half, 55 per cent, in 2013. Both the government and regulators have been [...]
Dame Colette Bowe on her plans for the Banking Standards Board December 7, 2015 Sitting in a small office around the corner from the Bank of England, former Ofcom chair Dame Colette Bowe says that her new job barely resembles her earlier days as a regulator. “We’re very different from being a regulator,” Bowe tells City A.M. “Regulators have statutory duties, as well as statutory powers. Regulators can say: [...]