Matthew Howett, founder and chief executive of Assembly Research, said the regulator “now seems convinced that the remedies offered will address any competition concerns they had — while also still allowing for the benefits of the merger [to] play out”.

"Matthew Howett, chief executive of Assembly Research, says Kirkby has impressed investors by seeing through the cuts and focusing on BT’s core broadband and connectivity business. “It’s a return to basics and making sure the core parts work well and are profitable,” he adds. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw disposals of non-core assets.”

Howett says Kirkby, who was previously chief executive at Telia, the Swedish telecoms company, and has been on BT’s board since 2019, impressed with the speed at which she got to work fixing long-term issues and “bringing everyone on board for the journey”. “There is a lot of staff, and a lot of them are engineers working out of vans around the country, not people in offices in London,” Howett says. “She is out there visiting everyone everywhere.”

Matthew Howett, founder and chief executive of Assembly Research, said the companies’ willingness to address the regulator’s concerns, even if they did not regard them as substantial, showed that “they’re prepared to navigate the path the CMA has drawn to see the merger approved”. 

Grace Nelson appeared on BBC News Business Today to discuss the hearing today on the pending TikTok ban in the US

Matthew Howett, the founder and chief executive of Assembly Research, said: “A deal of this size and scale was alway going to face intense scrutiny from the CMA, and it was fanciful that it could have been approved without any sort of remedies.”

FTSE 100 group’s existing agreement with media company will remain but choice of rival ‘altnet’ puts it under pressure.

Matt Howett, founder and chief executive of Assembly Research, said he did not think there would be “huge cannibalisation” because CityFibre plans to focus on rural areas.

BT has resumed the transition after forming a new telecare action board alongside local authorities and healthcare providers. However, there is still uncertainty over how many vulnerable customers will be affected by the switchover.

Matthew Howett, founder and chief executive of Assembly Research, said: “Fibre does present resilience challenges itself, particularly in the context of power outages and device compatibility.”

But he added: “The more reliable, resilient and future-proof alternative of fibre and IP communications will ultimately mean fewer faults and outages over the longer term.”

Grace Nelson appeared on BBC News Business Today to discuss the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling on whether the European Commission was right to designate ByteDance as a gatekeeper under the DMA