NTL: Big debts in the boardroom, poor morale on the shop floor

NTL, with its trans-Atlantic corporate identity and charming CEO, has never been the most straightforward of companies, but recent months have amounted to what some might kindly refer to as 'a funny old period' for the company.

On a macro level, NTL is still known as the company that owes $16bn. And the reasons for the debt are understandable. Cable networks, transmission equipment and making acquisitions over several years don't come cheaply.

What few people know, however, is that such a level of indebtedness costs around $350m per quarter in interest payments, a point made in The Bloor Perspective on silicon.com (see: http://www.silicon.com/a49020).

That's a worry, but just this morning, chief executive Barclay Knapp was at pains to explain to The Wall Street Journal that his baby would not face a funding gap before it turns cash positive in 2003, and that, even now, it has a cash flow many firms would die for.

Whatever. He has clearly done some sums. But has he been to the shop floor recently?

There is the argument that as a major cable player, which is at the forefront of digital TV developments and up against what are often hamstrung competitors in the guise of former monopoly telecoms providers, it should be making a killing.

Only it isn't. It's not difficult to work out that blistering success will never happen while NTL has such poor customer-facing operations. We rarely write a story about the company that doesn't garner several tales of woe, mostly from home users and small businesses. The recent saga of what will happen to some former CWC internet subscribers is a notable case in point.

Most of the big guys at NTL will know that any long-term success will depend on treating customers properly and communicating its integrated communications and broadband messages clearly.

Will that happen? Part of the reason it is in a mess compared to, say, fellow cableco Telewest, is that it has shoved together a few too many businesses, with all the attendant operational difficulties. Now it is scaling back somewhat we can only hope a more straightforward, customer-oriented organisation emerges.