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Will BT go fully mobile now Verwaayen is gone?

One of the things outgoing British Telecom chairman Ben Verwaayen was acclaimed for, was the way he spun off BT's mobile operations ... but since then, BT has discovered it can't manage without a mobile operation of some sort. How far will Ian Livingstone reverse his decision, now he's in charge?

It's not a question many are asking in today's news stories, most of which read more like Ben's obituary, than a serious attempt to predict Livingstone's actions.

Livingstone was one of the first execs hired by Verwaayen, and he is an accountant (got his degree in economics at the age of 19!) through and through. His previous job at Dixons was as CFO of the US operation - a money-man job, not a technology one.

But even though Cellnet was hived off BT into O2 and the comms giant was turned into an IT services provider, the provision of mobile phones has been increasing inside BT.

Some of the experiments have been plain disasters; the Bluephone, for one, frightened senior BT managers off the idea of "convergence" for a while.

Sound fiduciary leadership has been shown to be vital in big comms business. At O2, for example, Erskine turned himself into a hero simply by insisting on making profitability and stability - good book-keeping! - basic to the way the company was run.

Livingstone is credited with a similar "stockholder value" approach. As Lilly Peel wrote: "Within his first three years, the Glaswegian improved operating cashflow from £88 million in the red to £2.1 billion and reduced debt by £6 billion."

His plans for the mainstream BT business will be "more of the same" no doubt - but in the mobile sector, BT is certain to become more of a player over the next two years.