Cloud Net Blog

Telecoms, Where Are They Now - Who Bought Whom?

In the telecoms world, knowing who was bought by whom is almost a mark of knowledge and experience, so if you speak to a telecoms professional they “know” when you say ‘Bulldog’ you mean ‘the company bought by Cable and Wireless’.

Until now there hasn’t been a simple list that you could use to pull the wool over their eyes and appear to be a true (telecoms) professional. Of course if you are a true professional you might not agree with my selection of memorable takeovers, so please let me know.

So here is my instant guide to who bought whom and when:

May 1998	Demon bought by Thus
1999	Racal bought by Global Crossing
January 2002	Global Crossing, by Hutchison Whampoa and Singapore Technologies Telemedia
November 2002	Opal Telecommunications bought by The Carphone Warehouse
March 2004	Uniworld Communications bought by Gamma Communications
May 2004	Bulldog bought by Cable & Wireless
August 2005	Energis bought by Cable and Wireless from administration
December 2005	Tele2, by The Carphone Warehouse
March 2006	Telewest, by NTL, now called Virgin Media
June 2006	Be Unlimited bought by O2
July 2006	Toucan bought by Pipex
July 2006	Bulldog (retail customer base) bought by  Pipex
August 2006	Video Networks bought by Tiscali
October 2006	AOL UK bought by Carphone Warehouse
July 2007	Pipex bought by Tiscali
June 2008	Thus bought by Cable and Wireless
June 2009	4Com customers bought by Daisy Group
July 2009	Tiscali bought by Carphone Warehouse
August 2009	Eurotel bought by Daisy Group
August 2009	Redstone Telecom telecom and mobile divisions bought by Daisy Group
June 2010	Kingston Communications changed name to KC

A Review of Cloud Net from Freelance Advisor

Cloud Net recently recieved this positive review from Freelance Advisor here it is as follows.

"I’ll be honest, I’ve never set up a VoIP phone before. So I decided to try out a Cloud Net telephonic solution which enables you to make calls via a broadband connection. The good news is, it was pretty simple to set up and provides an effective service for small businesses.

There was, however, one small problem which every prospective purchaser of a VoIP phone needs to keep in mind before they make the leap…

Getting started

I happily take the Cloud Net phone out of the box, chuck the instructions to one side and have a go at setting this thing up. And to be fair it was pretty simple. In fact, I couldn’t really hope for it to be any simpler. I connect the professional looking phone to my broadband router and activate the system online with the account codes I’d been given. The online dashboard isn’t particularly scary looking which is a good sign (though I’m unlikely to delve into most of the options anytime soon being an impatient technological type).

Very quickly I’m able to make calls which can only be a good sign. And the sound quality is pretty impressive.

Oh no, I’ve cut someone off!

One drawback: because of my broadband set-up where everything is running off the same connection – I did experience an abrupt halt to a conversation! Luckily it was a dull conversation and I now had a legitimate excuse for hanging up. But what caused this? The broadband connection? Or a problem with Cloud Net itself?

Of course, it turns out it’s the broadband connection that’s the problem. And this is an aspect which any prospective purchaser of a VoIP service needs to keep in mind. In this instance, because I’m running everything off the same router it means there’s naturally going to be interruptions on the line. This would be the same regardless of your VoIP provider.

To avoid this scenario you have to ensure your broadband set-up is able to handle and maintain a strong connection for telephonic purposes. The solution is often referred to as Quality of Service (QoS), which is something that Cloud Net can provide for an extra charge – they offer voice quality broadband for small offices at £22 a month plus set-up fee.

In summary

Cloud Net works on the same logic as the likes of Skype, i.e. if you phone someone also operating via the same service then the call is free. Naturally, Cloud Net users won’t be as numerous as those of the aforementioned Skype but the service is more business orientated.

The phone itself provides all the options you would expect of a professional business service. Fairly standard features include: 4 lines, call transfers, conference calls, put callers on hold, a call log, call diversion, phone-to-phone intercom and call recording.

If you’re a freelancer who often has to get on the phone to clients then having a professional business phone will be pretty important and Cloud Net provides a decent option. Just make sure your broadband set-up is suitable."

Written by Mel Dixon

Click here for the Article

A great review, it seems however that Mel would benefit from our specially designed voice broadband which helps prioritise voice over data.

Most of us have heard stories in the past about VoIP and they usually involve poor quality and broken conversations. This is very common because your internet connection is used to carry many different types of traffic including web pages, emails and documents - many of them consuming large amounts of bandwidth.

Now the problem is that these different types of traffic share the same connection without any levels of priority - they are all battling for the same bandwidth and as a result things inevitably get delayed. This is fine for most types of traffic but voice is very sensitive to delay and packet loss - each word in a conversation needs to be delivered on time and in the correct order.

Introducing Quality of Service

Quality of Service (QoS) is used to guarantee that certain types of traffic can travel from source to destination within a given time and enables the network to prioritise traffic depending on its class.

Most providers are either unable or unwilling to provide complete end-to-end QoS and as a result their connections are usually not optimised for VoIP.

Cloud Net on the other hand offers ADSL and SDSL high capacity broadband services which not only offer greater throughput, but also provide true end-to-end Quality of Service resulting in a much more enjoyable VoIP experience.

Why Are Telecoms Shares So Cheap?

Telecoms companies in the 1990s used to be regarded as high flying tech stocks. However, many have been badly run and most destroyed huge amounts of value by overpaying for acquisitions at the height of the dotcom boom. Added to these factors are rising capital expenditure costs, stricter regulation and new technologies such as VoIP destroying margins for traditional telecoms companies.

If that’s not enough new fibre networks represent another drain on company finances since they require heavy investment to ensure that these companies keep hold of their competitive positions.

That is why for example BT is doing all it can to make its cash position look more attractive to investors: from altering billing dates, to altering the cheap period for calls to simply raising prices.

It’s thanks to these billing moves that companies such as Cloud Net, which offer high quality VoIP business phone systems, become more appealing to small businesses looking for straightforward pricing.

Regulation has controlled many aspects of telecoms profits for years and the government can be seen to be improving the situation for consumers by leaning more heavily on the companies. The cuts imposed recently on mobile termination rates are a case in point.

Cable and Wireless recently announced a profit shortfall because of a reduction in government spending. The share price reacted with a 25% fall.

Brokers are regarding telecoms as utility companies sharing their high borrowings with strong cash flows which enable the debts to be serviced. However, regarding them as utilities does mean they are not stocks that need to be held in a portfolio. Indeed as a utility stock their profits are not as guaranteed as say, an electricity company. After all you need light at home you don't need to make that phone call in the same way.

The technology that drives the internet is both a blessing and a curse for the Telco’s. On the one hand the ever increasing demand for data is a positive thing requiring ever more fibre but on the other it does need more capital investment. The charging models are complex and there is a fragmentation of the network with some companies cherry picking parts of the network to develop and sell, which puts pressure on the large incumbents.

The bottom line is will I be investing in BT, Cable and Wireless, Talk Talk or Vodafone in the near future? The answer is that although the stocks are cheap - they are cheap for a reason.

Written by David Hill, Chairman, Cloud Net

Cloud Net reviews iPhone 4 Prices.

With the Apple iPhone 4 released today, Cloud Net's Chairman David Hill has reviewed the pricing of the latest must have mobile phone.

The tariff combinations are hugely complex. To try to simplify it a little I chose to compile the following tables.

600 UK minutes 16GB iPhone consumer tarriff 18 months.

Assume actual use 400 mins per month.

Network	Monthly	Phone	Total Cost	Cost per min pence	Data Inc
Orange	35	229	859	11.9	0.75GB
Vodafone	40	29	749	10.4	1GB
O2	40	119	839	11.7	0.5GB

1200 UK minutes 16GB iPhone consumer tarriff 18 months

Assume actual use 800 mins per month

Network	Monthly	Phone	Total Cost	Cost per min pence	Data Inc
Orange	45	129	939	6.5	.75GB
Vodafone	50	29	929	6.45	1GB
O2	50	179	1079	7.49	.75GB

600 UK minutes 16GB iPhone consumer tarriff 24 months.

Assume actual use 400 mins per month.

Network	Monthly	Phone	Total Cost	Cost per min pence	Data Inc
Orange	35	119	959	10.0	.75GB
Vodafone	35	29	869	9.1	1GB
O2	35	119	959	10.0	.5GB

1200 UK minutes 16GB iPhone consumer tarriff 24 months.

Assume actual use 800 mins per month.

Network	Monthly	Phone	Total Cost	Cost per min pence	Data Inc
Orange	45	29	1109	5.8	.75GB
Vodafone	45	29	1109	5.8	1GB
O2	45	29	1109	5.8	.75GB

From this you can see that Vodafone are cheapest on all combinations except the last where are all suppliers are the same.

However I could choose to stay on my current O2 simplicity tariff of £25 per month and pay £499 for the new phone. Over 18 months the cost is £949 compared to the Vodafone £749
Vodafone do the same tariff with the same option as O2 of reducing the price to £20 per month if you sign up for 12 months. So the cost is 390+499 - a total of £889 still £140 more than the best Vodafone deal.

So should you go for 18 or 24 months? With 24 months the supplier has longer to spread the cost and hence the price per minute declines. Choosing Vodafone and 600 mins assuming use of 400 mins a month with a 24 month contract you get to make an extra 40 hours of calls (400 mins * 6 months) for an extra (869-749) £120.00 - a marginal cost of £3.00 per hour or 5p per minute.

So what is one to do? In all combinations this is one seriously expensive phone. I am going to wait for Tesco to declare their hand before voting with my money.

Written by David Hill, Chairman, Cloud Net

What Can Telecoms Learn From the Worlds Richest Man?

Carlos Slim is the world's richest man; Bill Gates is now number two.

Mexican telecoms Carlos Slim is now the world's richest man, according to the latest Forbes Rich List pushing Bill Gates into second place.

Slim is now worth $53.5bn, thanks mainly to his stake in America Movil. Gates is second with $53bn in the bank - boosted by a 50 per cent rise in Microsoft's share price which added $13bn to his cash pile this year.

So Who Is Carlos Slim

Carlos Slim (born January 28, 1940), is a Mexican businessman largely focused on the telecommunications industry.

Slim has a substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and much of Latin America. He controls Teléfonos de México (Telmex), Telcel and América Móvil companies. Though he maintains an active involvement in his companies, his three sons-Carlos, Marco Antonio and Patrick Slim Domit-head them on a day-to-day basis.

Telecom leadership

Slim gained notoriety when he led a group of investors that included France Télécom and Southwestern Bell Corporation in buying Telmex and Telnor from the Mexican government in 1990 in a public tender during the presidency of Carlos Salinas. Telmex is the dominant telephone company in Mexico controlling 90 percent of the telephone lines The mobile company, Telcel, which Slim also controls, operates almost eighty percent of all the country's cellphones. These operations have financed Slim's expansion abroad.

America Movil was established in September 2000 as a spin-off from Telmex has expanded using acquisitions to compete in the Latin American wireless market.
Over the past five years, his wireless carrier América Móvil has bought cellphone companies across Latin America, and is now the region's dominant company, with more than 100 million subscribers. 55% of America Movil is owned by Carlos Slim and his family. Slim's son, Patrick Slim Domit, became chairman in 2004. In addition, AT&T (T) owns an additional 23% of the company. América Móvil (AMX), which is the fourth largest mobile network operator in the world and the largest corporation in Latin America.

The Mexican magnate's rising fortune has caused a controversy because it has been amassed in a developing country where per capita income does not surpass $14,500 a year, and nearly 17% of the population lives in poverty. Critics claim that Slim is a monopolist, pointing to Telmex's control of 90% of the Mexican landline telephone market. Telmex, which is 49.1% owned by Slim and his family, charges among the highest usage fees in the world.

Although he was rich before entering the Telecoms arena in 1990 it is telecoms that have driven his wealth and there is considerable heated debate about the manner of his entry. His supporters, who seem to be in the minority, claim that he simply went along with the corrupt president Salinas because he had no option whilst the majority hold that he bribed his way into the deal that made him. His reluctance to consider charitable donations to help the poor because he believes they should help themselves does nothing to improve his position.

What Can We Learn

Carlos Slim found himself facing a huge opportunity in 1990 and went for it in a big way. Having made the vital break through he has driven the business forward with acumen and ability. His one big bet has succeeded spectacularly and he has not faltered since.

If we compare his performance with that of BT who had a 7 year start with a virtual fixed line monopoly and a mobile company we see how Slim's clear strategy and vision have delivered whereas BT's muddle have lead to the destruction of value. Today Slim alone is worth two and half times the whole of BT.

So in the next big challenge for the telecoms industry - VoIP - who is going to succeed? It seems to me that the only thing that is going to stop Mr Slim embracing and profiting from the technology is the grim reaper himself and let us hope that event is some way off. In the mean time he is destined to make the world of telecoms a livelier and, for him at least, a richer place.