Openreach hits the road

By Steve Malone

Posted on 11 Jan 2006 at 10:09

Today, BT is officially spinning off its local engineering business as a separate entity. The new company Openreach, will employ the company's 25,000 field engineers.

BT says that the new company's 22,000 resprayed vans will become a familiar sight on Britain's roads.

The company's primary focus will be the 'last mile' of the local BT network. These are the wires that connect homes and business to BT exchanges across the UK. Over the past few years Ofcom, the telecoms watchdog and its predecessor Oftel, have been pushing BT to 'unbundle' that last mile or local loop and open it up to competition from other companies who might wish to offer domestic services for the so-called 'triple play' of phone, TV and broadband.

The regulator became concerned that BT was falling behind in LLU (local loop unbundling), which put potential BT competitors, such as AOL and Wanadoo, at a disadvantage.

Following discussions with Ofcom, Openreach has been set up by BT and should offer its resources and expertise fairly to all suppliers whether it is BT Retail or AOL.

In order to ensure that pricing and service of Openreach is equal to all, the company is to be overseen by an Equality of Access Board, chaired by BT Chief Executive Ben Verywaayen, which has two independent members chosen in consultation with Ofcom

The CEO of Openreach is Steve Robertson who joined BT Wholesale in October 2002 as Managing Director Wholesale Operations from COLT Telecommunications.