3G datacards slot into laptops to provide Internet connectivity when on the move. They make good use of the current patchy 3G networks: demand is likely to be concentrated in areas that are currently covered, while GPRS is a good back-up outside these areas and the ‘bursty’ nature of their usage does not put an unsustainable load on the 3G networks. However, they are far more expensive and much slower than fixed line broadband, and they are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, leaving their appeal as a ‘last resort’ rather than a genuine alternative.

The resulting outlook for C&W UK’s performance in the short term is uncomfortable

Longer term, the strategy looks feasible, but better implemented under private ownership

Bulldog’s strategy is unchanged and remains dubious

The liberalised ownership provisions in the Communications Act 2003 have facilitated consolidation of the commercial radio sector in the past year. Two top-tier groups have emerged in GCap Media and Emap, following its acquisition of Scottish Radio Holdings. The pressures for consolidation have become more acute in the past year due to the structural problems of the commercial radio sector and the advertising downturn. But assets have become more difficult to value due to the uncertain timing of the recovery in advertising and the prospect that radio will be edged out of national budgets by online. UK radio groups are increasingly cautious to buy and anxious to sell, and we also discount the prospect of a bid from a major US group, expecting instead keen competition for the 35 new licences Ofcom will be allocating in the next few years.

Mobile TV is being hailed as the next killer consumer mobile data application, and is already credited with being the most popular 3G service where it is offered.

This report examines recent developments in Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) in the UK and their implications for market structure and BT’s revenue from residential customers.

BT and other industry players have announced plans to upgrade their fixed telecommunications networks to Next Generation Networks (NGNs). In the UK, BT’s ‘21st Century Network’ plans are the most ambitious. BT intends to rationalise all its existing network platforms, bringing all services and applications onto a single IP-based platform, using the same equipment for handling and routing traffic over one transmission network. The new network also has the potential to support new services.

The decline in underlying Group EBITDA is continuing to decelerate

Local loop unbundling volumes are set to explode, but the impact of LLU on BT Group revenue will be lower than expected

Television's old world of analogue scarcity produced a clutch of big names in free-to-air (FTA) commercial broadcasting: ITV1, TF1, Mediaset, RTL and Sat.1/Pro7 being among the most prominent in Europe - companies grown rich and powerful through advertising demand and lack of competition. Today, they face the common challenge of making a successful transition into the new world of digital plenty. Can they prosper? Or must they disappear like dinosaurs in a whirl of audience fragmentation, ad avoidance, on demand, downloading, video-streaming, convergence, piracy and whatever else the future holds?

The new UK management team, led by former Energis CEO John Pluthero, still has the opportunity to improve C&W UK’s longer-term position

Rapid implementation of a Next Generation Network to cut costs and refocusing Bulldog remain critical

After ten years of top line decline, the total recorded music market stabilised in 2004 at $34.4 billion, but our view remains that specific factors rather than fundamental change in the key market and economic drivers explain this stabilisation. These specific factors included a 9% average retail price decline in the US leading to a 1.4% unit sales increase, a creative resurgence, and the adoption of digital sales by iPod enthusiasts. However, the CD format resumed its long-term decline in the second half of 2004 and we expect this decline to continue.

This price increase brings H3G much more into the fold of UK prepay pricing, putting its outgoing call prices on a par with Virgin Mobile, at a premium to easyMobile/Fresh, and at a much reduced discount to the larger operators.

Recruitment ad spend has led the growth of ad revenues of regional newspapers in recent years. Declining recruitment ad volumes in Q2 2005 and weak outlook for H2 2005 will significantly reduce ad revenue growth in 2005 from the 4.9% of 2004. This outlook will adversely impact groups that are more heavily reliant on recruitment ad spend, such as Northcliffe Newspaper Group and Trinity Mirror Group, and both have confirmed the challenging nature of the current trading environment in their results.

This report examines the impact on alternative communications service providers - unbundlers, resellers, altnets and the cable companies - of BT's proposed settlement of the Telecoms Strategic Review (TSR) conducted by Ofcom, completing the coverage of our recently published Telecoms Strategic Review [2004-14].

Ofcom, BT and the industry are getting closer to completing the Telecoms Strategic Review (TSR), currently in its Phase 3, and scheduled to complete in the Autumn. Ofcom's proposals and the supportive measures announced by BT offer some good news for virtually all players in the UK market, although clearly such judgements depend on what was expected prior to these announcements. We have always considered it unlikely that Ofcom would choose the option of investigating BT and possibly making a referral to the Competition Commission, which could have led to the break-up of BT. However the reaction of the financial markets suggests that at least some City analysts considered that BT has secured a major win by avoiding this outcome.

Strong growth in both online and mobile music revenues was not enough to compensate for the erosion of the core CD market

The competitive strength of Freeview is growing. Freeview is already in five million homes and increasing at the rate of about two million homes a year, far exceeding initial expectations at the time of its launch on 30th October 2002. At that time, there was muted demand for channel space on the digital terrestrial TV (DTT) platform carrying Freeview and no one except the BBC seemed to want to know. This was still the case a year later when Five sublet all its extra gifted capacity to the minipay service Top Up TV, which launched in April 2004.