Britain's Most Admired Companies 2011: Telecommunications sector
In a globalised world, telecommunications have never been more important. Nor has the sector ever been more competitive, as these Most Admired rankings demonstrate.
Telefónica 02 is now Europe’s second-largest mobile operator. It’s growing at a rate of knots, anticipating 340 million users by 2013. There’s nothing between it and second-placed Vodafone, which now connects 391 million customers and made a first-half profit of £6bn, despite a £450m writedown on its Greek business. Virgin Media is a minnow by comparison, but has had a storming year, capitalising on demand for its super-fast broadband and digital TV offerings. Top last year, satellite comms outfit Inmarsat is fourth, the subject of much take-over talk recently. It’s fifth place again for BT, whose £2.5bn fibre broadband network promises bumper times ahead. ‘We are investing when others are merely talking about it,’ says CEO Ian Livingston.
BMAC 2011 by sector: Telecommunications
| QMan | Rank | FS | Rank | QG&S | Rank | AAT | Rank | |
| BT Group | 7.3 | 4 | 6.5 | 4 | 6.6 | 5 | 5.9 | 5 |
| Cable & Wireless Communications | 4.0 | 8 | 3.4 | 9 | 4.6 | 9 | 4.1 | 8 |
| Cable & Wireless Worldwide | 3.9 | 9 | 4.1 | 8 | 5.8 | 7 | 4.0 | 9 |
| Colt | 5.1 | 7 | 5.9 | 6 | 6.1 | 6 | 4.6 | 7 |
| Inmarsat | 6.3 | 6 | 6.8 | 3 | 7.2 | 3 | 6.5 | 4 |
| Talk Talk | 6.4 | 5 | 5.8 | 7 | 5.1 | 8 | 5.6 | 6 |
| Telefónica 02 (UK) | 8.0 | 2 | 7.4 | 2 | 7.4 | 2 | 7.6 | 1 |
| Virgin Media | 7.6 | 3 | 6.1 | 5 | 7.5 | 1 | 6.6 | 3 |
| Vodafone | 8.2 | 1 | 8.2 | 1 | 7.1 | 4 | 7.6 | 1 |
| 6.3 | 6.0 | 6.4 | 5.8 |
(Continued)