DIARY: Ruminations, Occasional thoughts & happenings - as they arise
Letter to BT Chairman - 12 December 2003
Yesterday I posted a letter to Sir Christopher Bland, Chairman of BT Group plc, about Broadband Internet connection in Northern Ireland. The content should be self-explanatory so I will say no more.
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 Wednesday, 10 December 2003 |
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Sir
Christopher Bland,
Chairman,
BT Group plc,
BT Centre,
81 Newgate Street,
London EC1A 7AJ
Dear
Sir Christopher Bland,
What would you think of the business acumen of the Directors of a large Company
(selling high quality furniture for example) who put a notice in each of its
chain of shops saying:
“It will not
be possible for customers to buy our WONDER SUITES until 400 or so potential
customers have registered an intent to purchase this product”?
I would be
amazed if you did not smile at the thought of such a ludicrous marketing ploy,
unless, of course you appreciated that the company felt no compulsion to engage
in positive marketing, as it was already making huge annual profit without
exerting itself in normal business activity – perhaps even more than last
years’ BT’s three billion pounds (£3,157,000,000)
profit before tax.
Does
this shrewd marketing policy strike a chord? Is it not traditional BT strategy,
like the reluctance to introduce unmetered
dialling in 2000? If not, why does
your company create such a lunatic marketing hurdle for its customers in
Northern Ireland, never mind the rest of the UK?
I
am one of thousands of existing BT NI customers who gaze with disbelief at the
figure of ‘400 expressions of interest’ set as a ‘trigger’ before
Broadband internet connection will be made available in my locality.
It
is staggering that your Company should arbitrarily set such an artificial hurdle
within my community, a monstrous imposition that BT – a company in a monopoly
position – should impede in this way the rational development of local
industry, business, education and the growth of worldwide human communication.
BT
ought to make Broadband immediately available throughout Northern
Ireland, ploughing back to the community some of the profits that we have helped
your company to generate.
The
cost of actual work required at each exchange is quite low – about £20 to £30
thousand per Exchange I speculate - relative to the BT turnover of almost
nineteen billion GB pounds (£18,727,000,000) during
the year ended April 2003. No use
BT crying about an inability to meet the required capital expenditure costs.
They are tax deductible and amount to only a tiny fraction of the BT profit of
three billion pounds over this single 12-month period.
The
provision of a Province-wide broadband service is vital to our community, not
something that should be manipulated in the interests of BT shareholders.
I
repeat my question: ‘what type of business is it that will only stock an
item if 400 or so potential customers say they might buy it?’ It makes business sense to
stock the item required. The demand for Broadband will only increase if it
is actually available!
I am not here suggesting risk-taking entrepreneurial action – merely rational,
efficient business management – due from a company that claims to be “committed
to making a difference in society.” with “a major programme of
investment designed to improve the quality of life and well-being of the
communities in which [it] operates,” and also that “the central theme
of [its] activities is improved communications.”
You
also state in your PR material – and I hope that it is not merely ‘blurb’,
that:
“We have learnt that one of
the best ways for us to fulfil our commitment to human dignity is to enhance the
positive impact our products and services can have on human rights.
Freedom
of expression is a fundamental human right, and a critical means of promoting
human rights in general. Greater access to communications technology can be a
source of openness in otherwise closed societies; it provides an extremely fast,
efficient and mainly safe means of managing and communicating information, and
can be invaluable to organisations dedicated to human rights.”
The
people of Northern Ireland need such access to high-level communication,
completely apart from business logic. It
goes against all business sense to hold a captive customer base to ransom by
setting an artificial and totally unnecessary hurdle - any such requirement
is ridiculous - but in the light of our human need to communicate with each
other within Northern Ireland and with the international community the
requirement is destructively inhibiting.
You
state that you “intend to be the best provider of communications services
and solutions: for everybody in the UK “
In this part of the UK we wait to be convinced.
BT
must make Broadband immediately available throughout Northern Ireland.
Yours
sincerely,
Michael
O’Shea
I wait with interest to receive a reply.
The reply!
Letter acknowledging the above - 15 December 2003
15 December 2003
Attention Margaret McKiernan Assistant to BT Chairman & Chief Executive
Dear Ms McKiernan,
re: Broadband Availability
Thank you for your 12 December acknowledgement of my letter of December 10th. As an email to the office of the BT Chairman & Chief Executive could scarcely be more appropriate I trust you will forgive the absence of a hard copy reply.
I really do hope that the substance of my letter to Sir Charles will be investigated, for my 'difficulty' is not exclusively mine. Thousands of people who live and work in isolated areas throughout the UK are affected.
In Ardglass, County Down, despite the fact that some £4 million worth of fish is annually landed, processed and exported, plus the presence of a few small business and farming concerns, the 'trigger' of 400 confirmed interests in broadband via the Ardglass Exchange is most unlikely to be met - ever - even though the service is essential to many.
BT, to be consistent with it's avowed social concerns, should immediately activate such small Exchanges throughout the UK but especially In Northern Ireland, where our social, political and economic needs are great.
It would, I believe, be a dereliction of duty and social responsibility by BT to fail to make broadband immediately available..
Thank you for your attention.
Yours truly,
Michael O'Shea
PS: AS a matter of courtesy I should draw your attention to the fact that I have, and am forwarding copies of this correspondence to Oftel & Ofcom, to Government Ministers directly concerned with telecommunications & industry, to Leaders of NI Political Parties, and to the News Media. (see CC below)
CC:
"Minister Education & Skills" <dfes.ministers@dfes.gsi.gov.uk
>,
"Minister Culture" <tessa.jowell@culture.gsi.gov.uk
>,
"Government eService" <edemocracy@e-envoy.gsi.gov.uk
>,
"Secretary of State Trade & Industry" <mpst.hewitt@dti.gsi.gov.uk
>,
"Oftel" <broadcasting@oftel.gov.uk
>,
"OFCOM" <contact@ofcom.org.uk>
"SINN FEIN" <info@sinnfein.org
>,
"UK UNIONIST" <contactus@ukup.org
>,
"SDLP" <sdlp@indigo.ie
>,
"ALLIANCE" <david.ford@allianceparty.org
>,
"DUP" <ianpaisley@dup2win.com
>,
"NI UNIONIST" <info@niup.org>,
"BELFAST TELEGRAPH" <newseditor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
>,
"Daily Mail IT" <it@anm.co.uk >,
"Down Democrat" <terry.mclaughlin@downdemocrat.com
>,
<E-editions@mailonsunday.co.uk
>,
"Irish Independent" <editorial@unison.ie
>,
"IRISH NEWS" <n.doran@irishnews.com
>,
"IRISH TIMES" <newsdesk@irish-times.ie
>,
<jcnews@jc.gn.apc.org >,
"Anne Mallon" <anne.mallon@bbc.co.uk
>,
"Linda McAuley" <linda.mcauley@bbc.co.uk
>,
"Mirror" <mirrornews@mgn.co.uk
>,
"News Independent" <newseditor@independent.co.uk
>,
"News of The World" <ricky.sutton@news-of-the-world.co.uk
>,
"news@britishnews" <news@britishnews.co.uk
>,
"NEWSLETTER" <editor@newsletter.co.uk
>,
"NI PRESS OFFICE" <press.nio@nics.gov.uk
>,
"Martin O'Brien" <martin.obrien@bbc.co.uk>
,
"Press Association" <www@padd.press.net
>,
"DOWN RECORDER" <editor@thedownrecorder.com
>,
"Sunday Mail" <editors@dailyrecord.co.uk
>,
"Sunday Telegraph" <stnews@telegraph.co.uk
>,
"Sunday World" <news@nthsundayworld.com
>,
"TalkBack" <talk.back@bbc.co.uk
>,
"The Sun" <news@the-sun.co.uk
>,
"The Times" <home.news@thetimes.co.uk
>,
Email Letter from Mr Craig Cowie, BT Broadband Contact
Centre
To: "Michael OShea"
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 3:11 PM
Subject: Re: I have a query about BT Broadband - directed to Sir Christopher
Bland
Dear Mr O'Shea
BT Wholesale has decided to rollout broadband on a financially responsible
basis. This means they will only build ADSL in those places where they believe
there is sufficient demand to justify the investments. With this in mind, they
have thought carefully about the number of pre-registrations needed for each
exchange. Considerations like the expected rise in customers after the upgrading
of the exchange are part of the calculations before deciding on a trigger level.
When a target is set of, for example, 400, there are actually 800 customers
needed to return the investments. BT does not to want to make exceptions for
certain areas and lower their trigger levels without a sound financial reason.
Not only would this create a financial risk, but they also feel it would be
unfair towards people on other exchanges. Due to a review of costs in January
2003 some trigger levels have been lowered.
Yours sincerely,
Craig Cowie BT Broadband Contact Centre
For all of the latest information about BT Broadband please visit www.bt.com/btbroadband British Telecommunications plc Registered office: 81 Newgate Street London EC1A 7AJ Registered in England no. 1800000.
My emailed reply to Mr Cowie:
Dear Craig Cowie,
Thank you for your input.
You say "BT Wholesale has decided to rollout
broadband on a financially responsible basis." You mean by this,
presumably, financially responsible to BT shareholders. BT has a much greater,
broader, responsibility to the British and Northern Irish population. I need not
repeat the grand declarations of community responsibility that this monolith
corporation outlines in its promotion publicity.
As a company that has been created by Government selling of
national Post Office resources there is an ambient, permanent duty to take into
consideration factors that go beyond the norms of commercial profit. The money
that I personally have had to pay over the past fifty years is an investment in
a concern that I and millions of my fellow citizens have made - including
yourself no doubt.
You state that "BT does not to want to make exceptions
for certain areas and lower their trigger levels without a sound financial
reason". Finance is important. There is no doubt about this. I would expect
BT to behave responsibly. I am not a shareholder, but my brother is, and I know
that he would prefer to receive a slightly less return on his investment if he,
and others in our locality, could have an immediate practical return in terms of
greatly improved internet access - affecting all levels of business and
community activity.
Those who have laboured as salesmen on behalf of BT,
gathering up customers for your company, might be slightly miffed to discover
that they have been so employed, without remuneration, but that is the penalty
for being suborned by a company whose ONLY consideration appears to be that
measured on a financial scale, regardless of high-flown claims that social and
moral responsibility are also an ingredient. (I refer you to your
website.)
The "financial risk" involved in upgrading
remaining local Exchanges is minimal. The notion is ridiculous, given BT
profits. I have absolutely no time, no patience, with BT protestations, as
expounded by yourself, and I have no doubt that Government, the people and Ofcom
will express this impatience in the very near future, in a most effective
manner.
You, Mr Cowie, are, no doubt, a dedicated company servant,
but I would ask you to stand back and look honestly at the situation. A few
years ago BT was proposing to offer Broadband at about £300 per connection.
Hounded by outside agencies this cost has been massively reduced, to less than
£18 per month by some ISPs. Some difference! Provided Exchanges are updated of
course.
Be alert, keep watching the situation - via my website at www.o2c.org\diary1.htm
for example. There is much more afoot than appears at the moment.
Yours with best wishes,
TOP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FROM: btbroadband@bt.com <btbroadband@bt.com>12
January 2004 12:23
TO: Michael O'Shea <mike@o2c.org>
Dear Mr O'Shea
Thank you for your comments, I understand this must be very frustrating time for
you and I am sorry BT Broadband can do nothing further to aid you. I would again
like to thank you for your comments as they have been very useful.
Yours sincerely,
Louise Dawson
BT Broadband Contact Centre
Ref;167005
From: "Michael O'Shea" <mike@o2c.org>
To: <btbroadband@bt.com>
Cc: "Ardglass Development Association" <ada@ardglass.net>
<ada.ardglass@btinternet.com>
"ALLIANCE" <david.ford@allianceparty.org>
"Margaret McKieran, Assistant to BT Chairman & Chief Executive McKiernan" <cceo@bt.com>,
"OFCOM" <contact@ofcom.org.uk>
"Eddie McGrady MP MLA" <e.mcgrady@sdlp.ie>
"Gerry & Parricia Murtagh" <gerald_p_murtagh@hotmail.com>
"Gerry O'Shea" <gerry.oshea@btinternet.com>
Yes, Louise Dawson,
There is one more thing you can do for me.
I would be most obliged if you will check the following data:
1/ Number of BT landline connections on the Downpatrick (Co. Down) Exchange.
2/ Number of BT landline connections on the Ardglass (Co. Down) Exchange.
THEN: correlate these numbers with a 'trigger' level of 300 for Downpatrick
and a 'trigger' level of 400 for Ardglass.
All in the community will be interested in the calculations involved, in the
light of the BT claim that 'trigger' levels and financially responsible
investments are carefully assessed in relation to each Exchange.
Yours faithfully,
Michael O'Shea
Letter from Marnie O'Neill, BT Northern Ireland - 24 December 2003
TOP Reply
to Marnie O'Neill, BT Northern Ireland 
(Letter above copied to Ofcom & Others - as
follows)
From: "Michael O'Shea"
Cc: "Margaret McKieran, Assistant to BT Chairman &
Chief Executive BT"
Dear Ofcom people,
I call your attention to the ongoing correspondence between myself and British
Telecom. A copy of my latest letter, to BT Northern Ireland, is attached. Other
correspondence can be viewed on my website www.o2c.org/bt&broadband.htm.
I have genuine concerns about the behaviour and procedures adopted by BT and I
would be most grateful if you will support my request for information as
outlined in the last paragraphs of this my most recent letter (copied for
information to other interested bodies and individuals).
Thank you for your help,
Michael O'Shea, 36 High Street, Ardglass, Co. Down, N. Ireland BT30 7TU
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter from Marnie O'Neill BT 23January2004
Reply to M. O'Neill BT 13 February 2004
Letter from Marnie O'Neill BT 5 March 2004
Letter to Marnie O'Neill BT 9 March 2004
email: mike@o2c.org personal web: www.o2c.org village: www.ardglass.net