BT 1997 Annual Report Download - page 8

Three minute national call
Daytime
(peak)
4
66.0 22.4 –80.1
Daytime
(standard)
4
52.8 22.4 –75.1
Evening/nights
(cheap)
4
17.6 11.9 –60.6
Weekends
(cheap)
4
17.6 8.4 –72.1
Aug Feb Real
1984 1997 terms %
(pence) (pence) change
Three minute local call
Daytime
(peak)
4
8.8 10.1 –33.0
Daytime
(standard)
4
8.8 10.1 –33.0
Evening/nights
(cheap)
4
4.4 4.2 –42.2
Weekends
(cheap)
4
4.4 4.2 –42.2
Aug Feb Real
1984 1997 terms %
(pence) (pence) change
BUSINESS REVIEW
8
BT’s Internet access product for
business customers, BTnet,
provides an “industrial strength”
managed link to the Internet. And
business customers will further
benefit from Concert InternetPlus,
the world’s first high-speed, high-
reliability global Internet service,
developed by BT and MCI. This
network is making it possible, for
the first time, to offer worldwide
guaranteed levels of service for
businesses which use the Internet
for their global communications.
LineOne – a new, mass-market
Internet service – was launched in
March by Springboard Internet
Services, a joint venture
companyformedbyBTandNews
International. LineOne will build on
BT’s technical skills in providing
Internet access and News
International’s editorial and
publishing skills in providing
content, including constantly
updated information from its titles,
including The Times and The Sun.
The benefits of the Internet –
access to millions of people and
almost infinite amounts of
information – are now being sought
by more and more businesses
around the world, and their
communications now account for
more than half of all information
carried. Such customers are
concerned about the security
issues raised by sending sensitive
information over a public network.
To help allay such fears, BT is
working with other companies,
such as Microsoft and Digital, to
develop private Internets – or
intranets. Intranet services are
particularly useful for corporate
customers wanting to make
available their Internet information
sources to their own employees.
They are also useful to communities
of interest wanting to share
information. The global intranet
market is growing extraordinarily
fast and could be worth around
£5 billion by the end of 1998.
One intranet, provided and
managed by BT and the first of its
kind in the world, is BT HealthNet
which links hospitals and GPs
around the UK.
Another IT initiative, which
generated considerable media
interest, was the launch of
Touchpoint – an interactive
multimedia kiosk. There are
currently around 200 Touchpoint
kiosks on trial, located in public
areas across London, where
anyone can look up information,
including an entertainment guide,
news, sport and weather updates,
as well as buy products and
services, from wine and flowers to
airline tickets.
Pricing
Pricing has been a major BT
success story. Since privatisation,
we have made major changes in the
costs and pricing structures of
calls: charging bands and tariff
periods have been simplified;
itemised billing is universally
available; per second charging has
been introduced to replace unit
charging; and, overall, call prices
have been cut by more than half
in real terms.
BT’s inland call charges now make
the UK one of the cheapest
countries in the world in which to
make a call. For example, a three
minute daytime call from London to
Manchester costs less than
23 pence (excluding VAT and
discounts), whilst an equivalent
peak rate call in Germany is more
than twice as expensive.
In addition, BT’s international call
prices as a whole have been cut
by more than 56 per cent in real
terms since privatisation and the
UK is now one of the cheapest
places in the world from which to
make a call.