Openreach reaching for more cash

Ofcom has opened a second consultation on increasing the amount that BT Openreach, the company that manages the UK's telephony infrastructure, can charge for access to phone lines. Back in 2006, when BT Openreach was set up, Ofcom agreed caps on the amount that the company could charge for access to the network. But those …

[Richard]

Less is surely more

"This isn't nearly as much as Openreach wanted, but is _less_ than competitors argued for"

[Michael Fremlins]

Make the exchanges neutral

The BT exchanges should be (forcibly) sold off and become entirely neutral and non or little-profit making.

Then any network operator wishing to buy a service will pay the same price, with discounts for bulk purchases. At the moment we are in the ridiculous position whereby BT says what it thinks is "fair" price, Ofcom does some complex sums and says yes or no.

Never forget that BT was a state monopoly and it is still a near monopoly. It got a very good deal for a very good price. The jiggery-pokery of Openreach being somehow independent is fallacious. I, a member of the public, cannot buy any Openreach shares.

BT is the reason why we have expensive and slow broadband in comparison to a lot of other countries. And Ofcom lets them do it.

[Andy Barber]

BT Exchanges

BT Openreach DO NOT run the Exchanges. This is done by BT Wholesale (or whatever it's now called.) Openreach only do the wiring (copper/aluminium/fibre,) between the exchange & the customers & between Ehchanges. Openreach don't touch the kit in the Exchange, just the line-plant.

[pctechxp]

@Andy Barber

Sorry mate but BT is still BT and will act as one company when all is said and done, Wholesale, Openreach, Retail are just different departments in BT set up as a PR exercise to avoid ofcom taking a chainsaw to the company.

Time for this dinosaur to become extinct

[Anonymous Coward]

Level Playing Field

As stated above, Openreach are only responsible for the copper(or Ali) wires to the end users. This being a mash up of various standards/types of connection methods (TPON anyone ?).

Lets get a real level playing field and force Virgin (or whatever they are called this week) to open up their network in the the same way that Openreach has to. Oh and lets get the ASA to have a look at the 'fibre optic' claims they advertise with.

Meh, I would be cynical but I cant be arsed.

[Markie Dussard]

@pctechxp

"BT is still BT and will act as one company when all is said and done"

There's nothing like the assertive dogmatism of the clueless. Get some sort of understanding of the realities numbnuts.

I love the idea that BT is somehow evil just because some of the fucktards on this site don't get everything they want instantly, for free.

Sell off the infrastructure to someone (who?) that will magically run it all better for you (how?). Yeah, the last person who tried that was John Major, and look what a shitpile our railways turned into. And how do we want to solve that mess? We want to renationalise.

Turdspurts!