BT 1998 Annual Report Download - page 8

U S I N E S S RE V I E W
In April 1997, BT•NIS (a joint venture between BT
and Marubeni) began trading in Japan as a Concert
distributor, Internet service provider and supplier of
advanced voice and data services. In February 1998,
BT•NIS announced its intention to apply for a licence
to take advantage of the newly-liberalised telecoms
market in Japan.
China is one of the most exciting markets in the region
and, potentially, one of the largest in the world. For the
last few years that market has grown at a rate of about
20 million lines a year.
In March 1998, BT took a further step into this market by
signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the
state-owned operator, China Telecom. Although the MoU
does not involve investment, it will foster co-operation and
understanding between the two companies, and enable
us to swap technology and examine mutually beneficial
business opportunities.
And, in Singapore, BT is part of a consortium which has
recently won a fixed and a mobile licence, enabling it to
compete with Singapore Telecom from April 2000.
In the UK
BT’s UK network is one of the most advanced in the
world, and we have invested nearly £30 billion since we
were privatised in 1984. Investment at this level ensures
that we can continue to deliver reliable and innovative
services to all our customers.
There are more than 3.5 million kilometres of optical
fibre in the UK network, 7,500 local exchanges and
69 main switching units.
Business communications
One of the key growth areas for BT has been the
increase in business lines, mainly due to new ISDN
lines. These are now also being used in the home for
Internet access.
Among our larger business customers, there is a growing
realisation that they can gain significant competitive
advantage by using a single supplier to provide them with
integrated communications solutions. BT’s Syncordia
Solutions is at the forefront of this rapidly growing
outsourcing market.
And, as the value of transactions in the world’s capital
markets is expected to continue to increase rapidly, BT –
through its systems integration business Syntegra – has
become the global market leader in the design and
provision of dealing rooms and trading systems. Syntegra
has a global market share of 25 per cent of dealing boards
and our systems are used by 45,000 financial traders
around the world.
Currently, only a third of small and medium-sized
businesses use electronic mail, compared with two-thirds
of large firms; and only a quarter use the Internet,
compared with around half of large corporations. But the
market for information technology and communications in
this sector is expected to grow by around 50 per cent in
the next five years and we believe that this is a market of
huge importance to BT.
BT and the Confederation of British Industry are jointly
sponsoring the Information Society Forum, which focuses
in particular on the impact of new technology on the small
business market. We are also working closely with the
British Chambers of Commerce, offering Internet access
to all their members. And, in South Wales, BT and the
European Commission are financing the work of the
world’s first chair of electronic commerce at Cardiff
University. The University has become the hub of the
South Wales “virtual business community”, in which
anumber of small businesses are discovering how
technologies such as the Internet and videoconferencing
can help them find new ways to market themselves, cut
down on travel costs, get closer to their customers and
suppliers, and trade internationally.
We have also teamed up with Comet, a leading UK
retailer of consumer electronic equipment, to test a
new concept in retailing. Called I.T. Works, this is a
store dedicated to the information technology and
communications needs of smaller businesses. Personal
computers, software and peripherals are on sale along
with the latest in communications technology. If the trial
proves successful, I.T. Works stores will be opened across
the UK.
Quality of service
BT places great emphasis on quality of service and our
customers’ satisfaction with the service we provide. We
conduct over 22,000 interviews every month with our
residential customers and with the general public, as well
as over 10,000 interviews with our business customers.