'Doomsday' plan to renationalise BT

Balls_Of_Steel

BT could have been a real World Leader in the telecoms business....with less regulation (& without OFCOM)....hang on, isn't that what happened with the banks :eek:

Rochdale_Pioneers

Brian_Bullocks wrote: »

You think the wnankers at the treasury have any clue about running a real business? The Pension scheme has suffered, just as the rest of the Stock Market!!

My company's pension scheme hasn't crashed. Nor has it got a huge deficit. Our trustees aren't investing in high-risk ventures as some of the other pension schemes are.

amcluesent

>I was mocking this view, as I think it's rubbish.<

But then you think everything this government does is great, smashing, super.:D

Old_Slaphead

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

My company's pension scheme hasn't crashed. Nor has it got a huge deficit. Our trustees aren't investing in high-risk ventures as some of the other pension schemes are.

I don't invest in anything racy. My low cost stakeholder pension is mostly cautious managed (with some balanced managed and cash) but it's down around 25% in last year. If it's performance was replicated in a company scheme (ie BT) it would have a pretty sizeable deficit it it were committed to paying out a guaranteed sum. I'd be interested to know the investment breakdown of your company pension scheme.

BT's pension deficit is now more than the company is worth.

The Government has underwritten the pension so if BT goes under then the taxpayer has to cover a further £10bn of liabilities (small beer these days !)

bubblesmoney

silvercar wrote: »

Article in today's Sunday Times about BT contractors. Apparently the budget for contractors has got out of hand and BT have plenty of employees capable of doing the work. So outside contractors have been dumped.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article5733752.ece

the contractor i mentioned hasnt been dumped. its a big multinational software company. they have been contracted for years by BT and even now are contracted. but the IT company got tired of BT not paying on time and started scaling down their operations for BT. they still have some ongoing BT projects in the UK. loads of other IT companies are also hired by BT for IT services.

having an internal BT 'engineer' (ie BT speak for any tom !!!!!! and harry with IT experience/diploma) is different from having an actual engineer having an IT engineering degree/pg degree + related experience. best part after the person i know stopped working for BT and was on holiday at my home for sometime, they used to get frequently calls from BT tech team at odd hours to help them sort out their technical issues, which the person i know used to always help out with as the people calling had become friends during their time at BT. guess thats tech support done on the cheap with lesser staff where tech staff have to resort to calling friends to sort out urgent tech issues even if those friends no longer work for BT

ukcarper

If BT were to collapes the goverment could not allow them to. Without BT's network the the telphone system in this country would collapes.

nickj_2

apparently gordons fave show was life on mars - and now he's tyring to recreate the 70's , we only need the return of mass union disruption , power cuts and the 3 day week and we're there

silvercar

Directors deal of the day (reported in the Times on Saturday) was that the MD of BT has bought 100k worth of shares, so he can't be reckoning on a nationalisation.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/article5729047.ece

epz_2

ukcarper wrote: »

If BT were to collapes the goverment could not allow them to. Without BT's network the the telphone system in this country would collapes.

really, given most of the country already own's a mobile and most businesses (even very small ones) own voip exchanges I doubt it.

At best it we would see a bidding war for parts of the backbone as parts as the loop unbundlers buy up their required capacity and a few bt broadband customers see their service deteriorate.

As I said before its not like power or water where you dont have an alternative, ntl went bankrupt loads of times and no customer noticed.

Julu

epz wrote: »

really, given most of the country already own's a mobile and most businesses (even very small ones) own voip exchanges I doubt it.

At best it we would see a bidding war for parts of the backbone as parts as the loop unbundlers buy up their required capacity and a few bt broadband customers see their service deteriorate.

As I said before its not like power or water where you dont have an alternative, ntl went bankrupt loads of times and no customer noticed.

...But don't BT own all the telecoms physical 'infrastructure'? i.e. the cabling /exchanges etc?