Having welcomed plans announced by Ofcom to make Openreach a legally separate company within BT Group, with its own board and its own brand, Entanet has said that it remains to be seen what really happens over the coming months.
The wholesale communications provider is sceptical about the chances of improvements being achieved and says the structural change does not go far enough, it wants Openreach to be completely independent.
Neil Watson, Entanet's Head of Service said, "if there are improvements to responsiveness and service levels, it will be most welcome. But that's a big 'if' in our view. For years, ISPs, CPs and customers have had to endure poor service levels from Openreach. Until it is completely outside and independent of BT, we don't believe it can ever deliver truly fair and balanced service levels to the industry and to the UK's businesses and consumers."
Sharon White, Ofcom's Chief Executive added, "(the plans) could bring about significant change. It will mean you have faster, more reliable broadband. It will mean engineers turning up on time and getting the job done first time. And crucially for the UK it will mean more investment in fast fibre to the doorstep."
Entanet's Neil Watson believes there is too much emphasis on building out the network infrastructure as more investment in the network is urgently needed. He dismissed the claim that it would take too long and be too complicated to divest Openreach from BT due to land and pension arrangements. He also dismissed the regulator's message that Openreach will be obliged to consult formally with customers such as Sky and TalkTalk on large-scale investments.
He said, "the attention always seems to be focused on the roll-out of infrastructure because it is not focused on what the UK and the industry needs, it's focused on what BT needs. We need to see wholesale cultural change at Openreach with the organisation putting the customer first, instead of always hiding behind the need to extend availability and improve speeds.
"Ofcom's Chief Executive, Sharon White, said that splitting Openreach off from BT completely, as we and many others in the industry have called for because we believe it's the only way to ensure free and fair competition, would take too long. This sounds like a bit of a cop-out. It remains to be seen just how 'independent' Openreach becomes while it is still a division within the BT Group."
Neil is now concerned that the problems Entanet, other services providers, and customers experience will continue. He says that the main challenge communications providers, ISPs and resellers face is meeting the needs and expectations of customers, whilst always being dependent on Openreach delivering services on time and in accordance with its responsibilities.
He concluded, "communications providers constantly experience problems with the delivery of broadband and dedicated Ethernet connectivity. Despite recent claims, in our experience, service has not improved since Ofcom published its initial Strategic Review conclusions in March. We believe this will remain the case until there is either a true level of competition or fundamental improvement in service levels at Openreach."