[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Yes, that's very generous of BT. What % of BT Open Reach ducts actually go the home?

Given you appear very familiar with the BT network given your comment...

As mentioned the vast majority of BTs Access Network is still overhead. Series of poles fed by large count twisted pair copper cables.

You tell me?

Yes, well the company was floated so yes you are correct in a manner of speaking, but the private sector never made the initial investment. The Public made the initial investment and took the resultant hit for any subsequent depreciation. Floating a formally public company on the stock market is not the same as say NTL buying out CWC. It's not an apples v apples comparison.

The private sector took on all liabilities though, of which there were plenty. I am not comparing it to ntl buying out CWC.

what figure?

See the chart. Failing that its' source document.

Noteworthy is that no figures for using VM's duct network, past node level, are offered and the default figures assume no access to it at all.

NTL/Telewest paid what the market value for how those assets were valued at the time, the telecoms crash and the quick depreciation of new technology makes the deals look unattractive in hindsight, however if they had not been bought by NTL or Telewest they would have been bought by somebody else. The fact that NTL and Telewest survived is proof that the decision to acquire those companies was the right one.

On what planet is going through bankruptcy protection and debt for equity swap, almost entirely wiping out previous shareholders in favour of holders of debt accumulated with those purchases any kind of proof that making those acquisitions was the right decision? More a symptom of the mass hysteria at the time.

I don't see the point of the comparison. What are you suggesting? that BT should be given £8.2b? that we would have been better off without cable networks and that we should have stuck to one incumbent supplier and instead of all that wasted money it may have found it way to BT to improve their network?

Nope I'm merely suggesting that ntl grew too large too quickly, Telewest did exactly the same thing, and none of these reflected the actual costs of construction of the networks they purchased.

True, but my point is that at least I know that all properties serviced by VM have an access point direct into the U/G access network. BT doesn't

Yep, and VM's access ducting covers what % of the country? Their core ducting which most wouldn't be that interested in anyway covers what and how much of this coverage is replicated by BT ducting.

Are you really suggesting that VM would have less to gain from access to BT's ducting in areas where they have zero presence than BT would having access to ducting in areas where they already have a presence?

Superior ducting, but not always with lots of space, but with an access point to the boundary of all serviced properties, which may be needed for future expansion so uneconmical to sell

It would strike me as odd calling it 'superior ducting' for third parties to have access to if there's no practical use for this 'superior ducting' to third parties.