Top BT exec wholesales himself to New Zealand

BT wholesale chief Dr Paul Reynolds, who had been tipped as a possible successor to CEO Ben Verwaayen, has quit the firm to become boss of Telecom New Zealand.

Reynolds has been at BT since graduating from university in 1983, and a board member since 2001. A recent shake up of the firm's structure saw responsibility for the next generation 21CN network backbone pass from Reynolds to Andy Green, another contender for the top executive job.

The blow will be softened by news he'll trouser a basic salary of about £670,000 at Telecom NZ from September onwards, and about double that again in performance-related bonuses.

Broader top-level changes at BT are expected later this year, when chairman Sir Christopher Bland will depart. Verwaayen has indicated he may not be far behind.

Today he praised Reynold's contribution in leading the development of 21CN. BT shareholders will also be grateful for his role in the conception of Openreach, which stopped the giant being broken up by Ofcom.

In other news, BT also said today that its 21CN all-IP voice trial would be stood down. It hailed the London-centric testing a success, as it prepares mass migrations to a converged voice/broadband IP infrastructure in South Wales trials.®