英國大東電報局

出自 MBA智库百科(https://wiki.mbalib.com/)

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英國大東電報局（Cable & Wireless Plc）

　　Cable & Wireless (LSE：CW.) is a British telecommunications company. In the mid-1980s, it became the first company in the UK to offer an alternative telephone service to British Telecom (via subsidiary Mercury Communications, merged into C&W in 1997). The company later offered cable television to its customers, but it sold its cable assets to NTL in 2000. It remains a significant player in the UK telecoms market and in certain overseas markets, especially in the former British colonies of the Caribbean, where it was formerly the monopoly incumbent. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It is also the main supplier of communication in the British South Atlantic, including Saint Helena and the Falkland Islands.

　　大東電報局(Cable & Wireless)(LSE：CW.) 是英國一間老牌電訊公司，曾擁有香港最大電訊網路供應商香港電訊。大東電報局也是澳門電訊股東之一。

　　英國大東電報局（Cable& W ireless Plc）成立於1872年，世界500強企業之一。它為商業用戶和個人消費者提供語音、數據和IP業務，為其他電信運營商、移動通信運營商以及內容、應用和互聯網服務提供商提供服務。業務遍及80多個國家，擁有130多年的電信服務經驗，占有世界長途電話通訊市場1/4的份額。

　　2002年11月，大東電報局宣佈，公司虧損擴大，需裁員3500名，並收縮海外業務。

　　2006年1月31日，大東電報局宣佈執行長Francesco Caio將於3月底離任，並且對集團進行大規模的重組，分為英國本土和國際業務兩個部分。2月，又宣稱他們正在尋找機會賣掉其在巴林電信持有的20％股權。3月初再度傳出大東電報局將出售其海外業務和運營機構，在全球範圍內裁員3000人、終止合約客戶達90%，進一步撤出海外的運營投資。

　　大東電報局的常務董事 John Pluthero 表示，大東電報局目前約有3萬用戶，公司計劃將用戶群的規模由目前的3萬個縮減至3000個大型企業用戶。

　　至2005年3月為止的財政年度，大東電報局共有51億英鎊的凈虧損。

　　據瞭解，早在1983年，大東電報局曾與深圳市政府成立國內第一家合資電信運營企業——深圳深大電話有限公司，英方持股49%，然而這段姻緣卻在2004年“破裂”。目前除中信大東，大東電報局在國內還有一家大東電報局通信技術服務（上海）有限責任公司，這家全資子公司員工數量10多人。

年份　事件

1873　澳大利亞東方支線及中國電報公司(大東電報局前身)於倫敦成立

1882　澳大利亞東方支線及中國電報公司，與馬可尼屬下無線電報公司合併為大東電報局

1918　第一次世界大戰結束，大英帝國領土占地球四分之一面積，大東電報成為帝國通訊中樞

1939　第二次世界大戰爆發，大東肩負戰場通訊及破壞敵國通訊之責任

1947　英聯邦成立通訊委員會後，將大東收歸國有

1979　信奉自由市場的保守黨新政府上臺，兩年後將大東私有化

1982　大東成立水星通訊(Mercury Communications)，在英國本土經營電訊服務

1990　全球業務擴展，職員總數達37681人

1999　業務重心由電訊轉向企業IP及數據服務，但遇上科網和電訊熱潮退卻，招致重大虧損，財政狀況惡化

2002　債券被降為垃圾級，剔出富時100指數

Cable and Wireless traces its history back to a number of British telegraph companies founded in the 1860s, and cites Sir John Pender as the founder.In 1869, Pender founded the Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta Cable Company and the British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company, which connected the Ango-Mediterranean cable (linking Malta to Alexandria using a cable manufactured by one of Pender's companies) to Britain and India, respectively. The London to Bombay telegraph line was completed in 1870, and in 1872 the three companies were merged with the Marseilles, Algiers and Malta Telegraph Company to form the Eastern Telegraph Company, with Pender as chairman.

The Eastern Telegraph Company expanded the cable length from 8,860 miles on its founding to 22,400 miles just 15 years later. The Company steadily took over a number of companies founded to connect the West Indies and South America, leading to a name change to The Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies.

With increasing competition from companies using radio communications such as Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company, it was decided in 1928 to merge the communications methods of the British Empire into one operating company, initially known as the Imperial and International Communications Ltd, and changed to Cable and Wireless Limited in 1934.

Following the Labour Party (UK)'s victory in the 1945 general elections, the government announced its intention to nationalise Cable and Wireless, which was carried out in 1947.^[1] While the company would remain in being as a government-owned company, continuing to own assets and operating telecommunication services outside the UK, all assets in the UK were integrated with those of the Post Office, which operated the UK's domestic telecommunications monopoly.

In 1979 the Conservative Party (UK) government led by Margaret Thatcher began privatising the nationalised industries, and the history as a private company made Cable and Wireless an early candidate. Privatisation was announced in 1980, with Cable and Wireless privatised in November 1981.

Part of the privatisation included the granting of a licence for a UK telecommunications network, Mercury Communications Ltd, as a rival to British Telecom. It was established as a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless.

In 1986, the U.S. long distance industry was deregulated, and many new companies launched into the equal access market. A company called TDX Systems, based in Falls Church, VA, was one of these, with a footprint between Washington, DC and New York. TDX carried data (analog modem up to digital DS3), and built its own telephone switches at its engineering facility in Chantilly, VA. TDX voice switches, called "SSTs" (satellite switching terminal) were centrally controlled nationwide by Perkin-Elmer mainframes in Falls Church, VA, and were some of the first long distance switches to utilize least-cost routing, follow-on account codes and PINs. For a short time TDX touted a position of being one of the primary providers of phone and data service for the World Trade Center. By 1987 TDX was rapidly expanding its leased fiber network westward, and by mid 1987 Cable and Wireless Communications plc had completed it's purchase of the TDX network. For most of the late eighties, the long distance company was named Cable & Wireless Communications, Inc, and the fiber / data business was named Cable & Wireless Management Services, Inc., until the two divisions were merged. The CWCI U.S. network expanded nationwide throughout the late eighties and nineties, serving all major and some smaller markets.

In 1997, Mercury was merged with three cable operators in the UK (Vidéotron, Nynex, and Bell Cablemedia and renamed Cable & Wireless Communications.

Later that year Cable & Wireless bought a 49% of the Panamanian INTEL (Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicaciones): it is now the largest communications carrier in that country.

In 1998 MCI Communications and WorldCom merged to create MCI WorldCom, the company's existing US subsidiary Cable and Wireless USA, Inc. purchased the MCI tier 1 Internet backbone in the U.S.: prior to 1998 Cable & Wireless USA had merely operated a long distance telephone business and a small internet service.

The following year - in August 1999 - Cable & Wireless Global was formed to build global IP and IP MPLS networks with a strategy to sell global IP services to corporates.

In December 2000, Cable and Wireless purchased Hyperlink-Interactive.

In November 2001 Cable and Wireless USA purchased bankrupt Colocation centre provider Exodus Communications for $800 million dollars, the operations were merged with the previously acquired Digital Island and renamed Cable and Wireless America.

In May 2002 Cable and Wireless purchased Guernsey Telecoms from the States of Guernsey

In March 2004 SAVVIS Communications Corporation purchased Cable and Wireless America for $155 million US Dollars via the Chapter 11 creditor protection process, and assumed liabilities of about $12.5 million US Dollars and assets including the former MCI IP backbone AS3561.

In August 2005 Cable & Wireless bought Energis for ￡674m as a reverse takeover in terms of management: John Pluthero was appointed from Energis to head the UK business with Francesco Ciao departing by April 2006.

In December 2005 Cable & Wireless cancelled its American Depositary Receipts programme, voluntarily delisting from the New York Stock Exchange.

In February 2007 Cable & Wireless sold its web arm which focussed on systems for the UK government, the Web Technology Group

In October 2008 Cable & Wireless completed the purchase of Thus plc which is now known as "Thus, a Cable&Wireless business".

Cable & Wireless remains the 3rd biggest supplier of IP services to FTSE350 customers behind BT plc and MCI/Verizon. However, with recent cable company consolidation it can no longer claim its position as the second largest UK fixed player. The fortunes of the international wholesale telecoms division of C&W UK is significant - accounting for over one third of UK revenues. Indeed, its international wholesale voice operation and European IP (AS1273) remain sizable, but commercially struggling.

Following acquisition of Energis in August 2005, C&W strengthened its UK position but still have only half the Internet Access corporate market share of former incumbent (BT). Former CEO Francesco Caio publicly stated the aim of making C&W the preferred alternative to BT in the UK. John Pluthero, on his accession in the Energis management takeover, modified this to be the leading UK IP services company.

C&W also bought Bulldog Communications in the UK, providing it with an Local loop unbundling network as well as a consumer broadband Internet service provider. During aggressive expansion it gained a poor reputation for provisioning and customer service. Falling new sales and a strategy change led C&W to sell the brand and customer base to Pipex in September 2006. It continues to own, and wholesale on, the LLU capability.

Historically, Cable and Wireless has had a strong market presence in many current and former British colonies where it provided local telephone service. It was awarded the 1996 Worldaware Business Award for its long term commitment to developing Cable links in the Pacific region (especially Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga and the Solomon Islands). The company had a virtual monopoly amongst the colonies in the Caribbean region. In recent years, their market share has somewhat diminished with the dismantling of their regional monopoly and the introduction of more competition in the Caribbean, particularly from Irish-owned cellular multi-national, Digicel. The company was also the main fixed line operator in Hong Kong until the sale of Hong Kong Telecom to PCCW.

The company remains the main fixed-line provider in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Panama, Macau, Maldives, Monaco, Seychelles, the Falkland Islands, St. Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands, Anguilla and Guernsey (where it operates under its own brand name LIME, while in Bermuda it provides international communications only; local services are provided by the Bermuda Telephone Company.

Cable & Wireless HKT was the Hong Kong operations of British-based telecom firm Cable & Wireless and was established in the then British colony in 1934. It was not until 1981 that the unit formally registered as a Hong Kong company, Cable and Wireless (Hong Kong) Limited. In 1988 Cable and Wireless (Hong Kong) Limited merged with Hong Kong Telephone Company as Hong Kong Telecom. It was renamed as Cable and Wireless HKT International in 1998. CWHKT was acquired by Pacific Century Cyberworks in 2000.

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