Ofcom is keeping schtum over BT Openreach plans until end of year

Telecoms regulator Ofcom will not release details of its proposals for greater structural separation of Openreach and BT until the end of the year. In February the regulator stopped short of recommending a full separation of BT and Openreach in its Digital Communications Review. Ofcom will now draft its "proposals for …

[Steve Davies 3]

Ofcom - hoping that

we vote to leave the EU so thay don't have to ask permission to open a new packet of biscuits from Burssels.

Honeslty, the sooner that the current team at Ofcom are given the boot the better. They are (IMHO) about as useful as wings are to a pig.

[anthonyhegedus]

I've seen the unfairness that BT Openreach affords to BT retail. For example, trying to get a simultaneous provide done is next to impossible, but BT retail do it. We've seen cases where the BT Openreach engineer will supply a BT Router (not the modem, an actual router) to a customer with a dead one. We've seen BT Openreach engineers talk about getting BT TV services. I personally have seen situations where a customer has a broadband problem which won't get fixed, but then they move to BT retail and it magically gets fixed within a day. At worst, I've seen BT Openreach engineers pull pairs used by Non-BT companies. Whether it's deliberate or not isn't know of course.

[Icarus5000]

Openreach replacing faulty BT Routers. If you'd have actually checked Openreach supplying them is completing legitimate.

Openreach have 3 types Broadband Repair Services ISP's can request. An SFI2 Exchange Only. That's where they ask Openreach to only check the ADSL/LLU Equipment in the Exchange.

An SFI2 Customer Visit, that is where they will investigate faults on the Network and within the end users home but they can't replace any faulty end user equipment, no matter who the ISP is, be it BT Retail, Sky or TALKTALK.

Then there is the Broadband Boost, this is a pre paid job where the ISP pays Openreach to optimise the line and the end users internal wiring, i.e. Openreach will install a Cat5e data extension if it improves the broadband connection. On these jobs the ISP also supply Openreach with their Router and ask them to replace the end users if it's faulty.

BT Retail is currently the only ISP who order the Broadband Boost option as others prefer to either use their own Internal Techs or just post their customer a replacement if the Openreach a Engineer proves that's what the problem is.

Also very interested to know how you know Openreach Engineers have taken working pairs for other Service Providers. I assume you've noted down the routing of the pair they've taken and then been given access to Openreaches fault reporting system where you can see the customer on that pair has reported a fault. Also for the Openreach Engineer to identify that pair belongs to another Service Provider they'd have to go to the trouble of signing onto their laptop and accessing CSS to identify who owns the number, that would leave an audit trail. I suspect your just making it up.

[PaulAb]

Family favourites....

The metrics by which you can find the point at which BT went downhill:

1. Family Favourites last broadcast

2. The end of the Bakealite phone

3. You couldn't call 'Chelsea 45, please operator' anymore.

Just like Dark matter, their support is untraceble. Get gone, will you!

[offaxis]

OFCOM are pathetic

they chickened-out of forcing BT to get its grubby paws off of OpenReach. now they're off to Brussels to absolve themselves of further responsibility. meanwhile huge swathes of the UK are stuck in the internet slow-lane and BT continue to throw their billions at football rights. idiocy abounds.

[Roland6]

Re: OFCOM are pathetic

Actually Ofcom are pathetic not for the reasons you give, but because their competition strategy has failed to deliver. Hence what Ofcom should be doing is to go back to government and say we want a change of our remit. It is obvious that after ~30 years there isn't going to be a competitor to BT anytime soon; perhaps Virgin might edge closer in another 20+ years, but Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone? And likewise, 'competition' isn't going to deliver FTTP to every home in any reasonable timeframe, mainly because of the cost of money.

[Alan Brown]

Re: OFCOM are pathetic

"they chickened-out of forcing BT to get its grubby paws off of OpenReach."

People should be lobbying the Competition and Markets authority, not Ofcom.

Ofcom is composed of people who come from the telco industry and who will go back to the telco industry. They have a vested interest in not rocking the boat too much.

The comparable case to BT/Openreach in New Zealand was forced by their ministry of commerce, not by their version of Ofcom. Once you start quantifying the damage to the economy caused by market abuse you have a strong case that Ofcom can't ignore.

[Luke 11]

Craziness

All this moaning and complaining about opening up infrastructure to competitors will essentially allow foreign owned companies to come in and interfere with our telecoms infrastructure. It's absolutely crazy to try and force BT and Openreach to separate. The should just enforce a level playing field and force Openreach to take the other BT competitors seriously.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pull the other one

"Regulator will then beg for EU permission to act"

Fifty quid says that just in the nick of time they miraculously discover action is unnecessary on this occasion, but promise to revisit the issue and come up with some really tough proposals around the time Halleys Comet makes its next appearance.

[Anonymous Coward]

When I got my infinity service the router that arrived in the post was faulty, the openreach engineer gave me a router from his van when installing the line. I have no complaints about that, it was very convenient for me, but had I been getting Sky Fibre I would have had to wait for them to send me a replacement and it would have impacted negatively on my experience... I imagine Openreach engineers don't carry spare Sky routers with them.

[Roland6]

I imagine Openreach engineers don't carry spare Sky routers with them.

Bet they would if Sky paid them to...

[Icarus5000]

No, because Sky have specifically said they don't want Openreach to carry them on their van stock... TALKTALK used to supply Openreach with them but they stopped a year or so ago and also Openreach no longer supply BT Routers on Fibre Installs anymore, if the Engineer arrives and the Router hasn't or is faulty all they do now is prove the circuit working with their hand held tester and refer the end user to their ISP. The only time Openreach will now supply a replacement a Router for BT is on a Broadband Boost.

[Anonymous Coward]

Narcissistic Regulators

If you think @ofcom are bad, just try dealing with @ofgem regards energy suppliers such as @CoopEnergy which are a complete and utter shambles and have been for 14 months now, with no improvement. Not a single sanction against them, all swept under the carpet. (Just see the historical @CoopEnergy twitter feed)

The fundamental problem with regulators in the UK, is (like the South Yorkshire Police force with regards Hillsborough) are narcissistic organisations that actually care more about their own reputation and funding, than actually dealing with inherent problems/issues, that really need dealing with.

Because dealing with it, brings the problem into the mainstream/public domain, along with the bad publicity that also brings. So if they can fob you off, pretend they are doing a good job-keep the status quo, they will, everytime.

Basically it reflects badly on the regulator, so they prefer the sweep under the carpet method, kick the ball into the long grass. The cross employment opportunities between Regulator @ofcom and BT really needs to be severely curtailed too.

Could we be in a worse situation regards future FTTP/Mobile mast rollout in the UK if @ofcom didn't exist, I doubt it.