BT 1998 Annual Report Download - page 9

B U S I N E S S R E V I E
For the period October 1997 to March 1998, 83 per cent of
our residential customers and 88 per cent of our business
customers said they were satisfied with the services we
provide. Satisfaction with inland calls was 95 per cent.
Some residential customers were badly hit by the weather
problems in late December and early January – the
number of faults cleared in nine working hours or by
successful appointment dropped to just under 80 per cent.
However, for our business customers, the number of
faults cleared in five working hours or by successful
appointment increased to over 89 per cent.
Ninety two per cent of customers are satisfied with our
Operator Assistance Service (100) and 90 per cent are
satisfied with our Directory Assistance Service (192).
BT is investing £84 million in new technology to improve
the standards of its directory enquiries service, including
an expansion of the database so that, by 2000, it will also
be able to provide the numbers for mobile phones,
radiopagers and fax machines.
Network reliability remains consistently high – less
than one call in 200 fails because of the network, and
a customer is unlikely to experience a network fault
more than once every seven years on any one of his
or her lines.
The number of BT payphones in the UK has grown to
just over 138,000.
Regulation
Since August 1997, BT has operated under a price cap
formula – agreed with Oftel – of the Retail Price Index
(RPI) minus 4.5, covering the services used by those
residential customers whose bill size was in the lowest
80 per cent. Under the formula, the price cap applies to
less than 20 per cent of BT’s total revenues, in contrast
to the previous formula of RPI minus 7.5 which ran for
the four years until the end of July 1997 and applied to
about 50 per cent of revenues.
In March 1998, Oftel instigated a Monopolies and
Mergers Commission (MMC) reference on the issue of
the pricing of calls made to mobile phones. The enquiry is
still underway and will report to Oftel in early September.
BT believes that the prices of its services reflect the
competitive nature of the UK market and are fully
justified. However, we acknowledge the objective
approach that an MMC referral will bring and we are
co-operating fully with the MMC’s investigation.
We are making constructive progress in obtaining
regulatory approval for the British Interactive
Broadcasting venture, which we are seeking to launch in
conjunction with BSkyB, Matsushita and Midland Bank.
Scheduled to be launched later in 1998, it will provide
a range of services, including home shopping, home
banking, home education and information services, as
well as Internet, e-mail access and computer games,
through a television set-top box.
Internet
The Internet is a key market for BT – our Internet
business is currently growing faster than 100 per cent
per annum and BT Internet is one of the largest
UK Internet service providers.
In March 1998, United News & Media joined BT and
News International as an equal partner in LineOne, the
Internet-based information and entertainment service for
residential customers. LineOne brings customers news,
sport, entertainment, business information and home
shopping and is the only UK-focused on-line service of
its kind.
For businesses, BT WebWorld is a quick, easy and
cost-effective web hosting service for creating and
operating Internet sites. BT WebWorld offers a full range
of web hosting functions, together with web site design
packages. Customer support is available seven days a
week by e-mail, fax or telephone. Features include high
availability systems, regular back-ups and high capacity
connections to the Internet.
In addition to the Internet, private corporate intranets
have emerged as a source of new business. For example,
BT Intranet Complete is a “ready-to-go” solution for
companies keen to get started on their own intranet.
And BT Intranet Builder offers a “one-stop-shop” for
companies wishing to develop their own intranets,
providing a comprehensive range of the best components
and support services.
Multimedia
In the last 12 months, BT has stepped up its research into,
and trials of, interactive multimedia services. Multimedia
embraces the Internet, interactive television, and video
and audio material delivered over networks to the home
or office.