BT Group plc. is the listed holding company for British Telecommunications plc., a wholly-owned subsidiary. This subsidiary's activities are principally comprised of telecommunications services for local, long distance and international calls throughout the United Kingdom, along with internet services and IT solutions, a new venture. BT is in the peculiar, and somewhat worrying position, of owning its own copper wire, which it rents out to its competitors. It is, however, regulated by Oftel.
British Telecommunications plc. is principally composed of:
- BT Ignite, BT's broadband supplier to large corporations, operating internationally. It currently serves 70 of the FTSE 100 companies, 9 out of 10 of the top high street retailers, all of the top 10 retail banks, six of the top 10 insurance companies, eight of the top ten pensions companies and 7 of the top 10 construction companies. This subsidiary alone employs 17,000 skilled workers.
- BT openworld, BT's mass-market ISP for broadband and dial-up internet connections. Formerly, the dial-up service was called BT Internet, but it was amalgamated to have the same name as the broadband service. For dial-up customers, an 'unmetered' service is offered, which has the unfortunate drawback of cutting off every 2 hours. Broadband users have the delights of ADSL, but download rates are capped, along with upload rates, and running a server is not allowed.
- BT Retail, comprising BT's high street shops, the supply of BT products to home users, and the advertisement of other BT services. It is this division which is responsible for the mind-numbing use of ET in advertising. BT's shops have suffered, and are being cut back.
- BT Wholesale, the division responsible for the running of BT's telecom networks, and selling out lines to the company's competitors. It is here that Oftel should be regulating the company most, but it seems that the conflict of interests has been largely ignored, and other operators are finding it increasingly difficult to continue business
- BT Exact, a wholly-owned subsidiary responsible for Research and Development work, primarily for other BT companies and their partners.
- BT Affinitis, a group of self-contained business offerings to BT which could, in theory, be supplied by an external company. This is unlikely, however, and BT seems to be planning to offer them to other companies.
In the financial year 1st April 2000 - 31st March 2001, BT's turnover was £20,427 million, with profit before goodwill, amortisation, exceptional items and taxation of £2,072 million. BT states it vision as 'To be the most successful worldwide communications group.' Predictably, they intend to do this by increasing shareholder value by:
BT is one of a number of
UK companies which was once nationalised, but was privatised under the
Thatcher regime. It is almost unique, however, in maintaining its monopoly. For more on the questionable business practices hinted at here, see
fondue's excellent writeup on
British Telecom.
Sources:- http://www.bt.com and its related sites
- http://www.cwu.org/about/telecoms/btbusinessservices.html