Timing of chief executive Allison Kirkby is good after ‘weaker non-UK trading’ blamed for soft revenue forecast

It feels like BT has been promising to simplify forever but here comes the newish chief executive, Allison Kirkby, with a plan that sounds more promising: rein in the foreign adventures and concentrate on the UK.

It makes sense because BT’s long-term fortunes ultimately rest on the progress in its home market of EE in mobile, Openreach in broadband, and the UK corporate business. Kirkby’s timing is also good. One of the explanations for Thursday’s soft revenue forecast that sent the shares down 4% was “weaker non-UK trading”.