Traffic may have decreased on roads and railways, but broadband and mobile phone networks have picked up the slack during the lockdown as consumers have worked, shopped and played online (Simon Duke writes). Investors in BT, Britain’s largest internet and phone provider, may have hoped, therefore, that the pandemic would prove its worth, but it was not to be. The shares have fallen by 10 per cent since the start of the year.
Philip Jansen, the company’s chief executive, is partly to blame. In a blow to its army of small investors, he suspended the dividend and warned that payouts would be far lower in future. To compound the misery, O2 and Virgin Media are merging, making for more robust competition. With little prospect of
