Once the agreement is implemented around 32,000 employees will transfer to the new Openreach Limited following TUPE consultation, and once pension arrangements are in place.

Openreach Limited will have its own branding, which will not feature the BT logo.

The Openreach CEO will report to the Openreach Chairman with accountability to the BT Group Chief Executive with regards to certain legal and fiduciary duties that are consistent with BT’s responsibilities as a listed company.

Gavin Patterson, BT Chief Executive, said: “I believe this agreement will serve the long-term interests of millions of UK households, businesses and service providers that rely on our infrastructure. It will also end a period of uncertainty for our people and support further investment in the UK’s digital infrastructure.

“This has been a long and challenging review where we have been balancing a number of competing interests. We have listened to criticism of our business and as a result are willing to make fundamental changes to the way Openreach will work in the future.”

The transfer of around 32,000 employees, under TUPE regulations, will be one of the largest such transfers in UK corporate history. It will take place once the agreement has been implemented and pension arrangements are in place for these employees. Under the agreement, Openreach will manage and operate its assets and trading but ownership of those assets and trading will remain with BT.

The agreement builds on changes that BT has already made to the governance of Openreach in recent months. These include the creation of an Openreach Board with a majority of independent members.

This Board will set Openreach’s medium term and annual operating plans and determine which technologies are deployed, within a strategic and financial framework defined by BT. Openreach will be free to explore alternative co-investment models in private with third parties.

The post BT and Ofcom agree deal to legally separate Openreach appeared first on United Networks.

The devices are fitted with small mobile sites that include a base station and an antenna.

They could also be used to connect remote parts of the UK where coverage is thin.

EE said it planned to deploy such a network in a UK rural area this year.

The drones can stay airborne for up to an hour at a time and the “helikite” balloons for several weeks as they have a tethered power source.

The drone was designed to give short-term targeted coverage to aid search and rescue situations, EE said.

“Innovation is essential for us to go further than we’ve ever gone, and deliver a network that’s more reliable than ever before,” said EE chief executive Marc Allera.

“Rural parts of the UK provide more challenges to mobile coverage than anywhere else, so we have to work harder there – developing these technologies will ultimately help our customers, even in the most hard to reach areas.”

It was the first time this had been tried out in the UK, said Kester Mann, analyst at CCS Insight.

“Everyone immediately thinks of disruptive players like Facebook and Google when it come to things like balloon-based networks. The traditional networks need to step up so they don’t get left behind,” he told the BBC.

Google is developing a network of huge balloons to provide connectivity to rural areas around the world, known as Project Loon.

Last month the tech giant confirmed it had closed its internet drone project, Titan, which was designed to bring the internet to remote rural areas.

Facebook’s Project Aquila involves building solar-powered aircraft which will fly for months at a time above remote places, beaming down an internet connection.

The post EE shows off helium balloon mobile masts appeared first on United Networks.

He reports to Executive Vice Principal Stephen Long and will be responsible for the direction, development and management of the sales organisation.

Long said: “Our sales team is focused on helping organisations to deliver their overall customer experience rather than just new technology. Phil’s vision for the development and evolution of an enterprise sales function that listens more than it talks is a perfect fit for us.”

Offord added: “Companies are looking for partners that are large enough to make the difference but small enough to be agile and KCOM fits that need.”

He joins KCOM from CORETX (previously Selection Services and C4L) where he served as Group Sales & Marketing Director for over two years. Prior to this role he served as Sales and Marketing Director for Logicalis UK.

The post KCOM appoints Offord as new Enterprise Sales Director appeared first on United Networks.

“Due to the large number of channels we support across multiple data centres, the conventional recording equipment wasn’t man enough for the job,” said Paul Taylor, Sales Director.

Taylor also noted that call recording has become a de facto must-have within many sectors, a requirement that has been triggered by what he described as a prevailing ‘culture of blame’.

“Employees and customers need protection,” added Taylor. “The only way to protect verbal communication is via call recording.”

Voiceflex’s SIP trunk call recording solution is hosted in the cloud and offers free set-up with no fixed monthly commitment. Customers pay only for why they use, and they have the option of deleting recordings and downloading them to be stored locally.

“Our call recording application is designed for partners selling cloud or on premise-based telephony to businesses wanting to record both incoming as well as outgoing SIP calls,” added Taylor.

The post Voiceflex set to launch FCA compliant SIP call recording appeared first on United Networks.

Denk moves into the new role from his previous position as vice president of Avaya Germany’s Small and Medium Business Group.

Prior to Avaya, Denk held positions in Sales and Marketing at a number of global technology companies, including Deutsche Telekom, IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The post Avaya appoints Denk as Worldwide Channel Leader appeared first on United Networks.

The selected companies include Boosh 365, CCS MPW, Comm-Tech Voice & Data, Connected Telecom, DRC, Excalibur Communications, Pescado, PMGC Technology Group, Pure Business Services, Olive Communications, Onecom, Redsquid Communications, Trinsic and Vohkus.

Phil Mottram, Enterprise Director of Vodafone UK, said: “Over 100 Partners have achieved new Status accreditation in the first phase of our programme, which has been designed to specifically recognise capabilities and specialisms.”

Pictured: Vodafone UK’s elite grouping, with Phil Mottram (front centre).

The post Vodafone UK gives key partners Total Communications Status appeared first on United Networks.

The cloud-based CFMS has been delivered in BT Wholesale’s data centre to provide real-time fraud detection and protection of the hosted platform.

The CFMS monitors call trends, implements rules and triggers alerts to protect resellers’ and their customers from illegal usage and ‘bill shock’; and the credit management element of the solution constrains legitimate spend in order to manage ‘risky’ customers.

Fraud and credit management is a powerful combination. Each call must pass through four rigorous gates including a risk register of continents, countries and regions, a blacklisted destinations register, followed by rule profiling before adhering to spend limits.

Live dashboards, reports and notifications keep BT informed in real-time, enabling fraudulent calls to be terminated and destinations blocked to prevent further fraud from happening.

Dave Axam, Director Hosted Communications at BT Wholesale, describes fraud as one of the key challenges in the marketplace.

He said: “We are seeing that fraudsters are becoming increasingly astute, making more frequent, smaller hits, which render the ‘capping’ approach insufficient in the battle against fraud.

“So BT is taking a completely different approach by looking at the analytical capabilities within the network, customer data and trends, and taking a proactive stance by anticipating what might happen.

“We believe Intelligent analytics is the only way to stop the next type of fraud. By embedding Tollring’s intelligence and analytics tools into the network for hosted communications, we are providing our partners and their customers with a whole new level of security.”

Tony Martino, Managing Director of Tollring, added: “We have taken major steps to tackle the key issues of fraud and credit management in cloud telephony. We believe that the adoption of this new product provides BT with a competitive differentiator to partners and resellers and most importantly a more secure service to customers.”

The post BT combats fraud with Tollring’s Credit and Fraud Management System appeared first on United Networks.

Colt reported strong top line growth in 2016 and a new executive leadership team has pledged to continue this trend having implemented a strategic and cultural shift in the organisation.

Colt’s operations have been segmented into the core areas of innovation, the Colt IQ Network and improving the customer experience.

There has also been an increase in investment in sales and marketing.

To help deliver the increased network capacity and reach, Colt has appointed a new Chief Commercial Officer, Tom Regent. The company will hire hundreds more staff to support customers.

CEO Carl Grivner (pictured) said: “We are fortunate to not have many of the distractions of our peers, such as wireless, consumer and content.

“This means we can focus on building an intelligent network to meet the businesses requirements of today’s demanding enterprises.

“In fact, we believe our customers, and indeed all our competitors’ customers, should be more demanding of the industry. We are up for the challenge and we are confident we will deliver.”

Grivner added that investing in the Colt IQ Network is vital. It currently spans 24,500 buildings and 700 data centres, and serves, in the main, enterprises with an increasingly global reach while retaining a local presence.

Colt’s investment this year will triple the number of sites across the Colt IQ Network capable of providing 100G enabled Ethernet and IP connectivity, and optical services up to 9.6Tbps capacity per site.

According to Grivner the customer experience matters now more than ever. So Colt will roll out On Demand network services, and also redesign its internal processes and systems to bring service delivery times down from weeks to days and put customers in control. The revamp is critical to managing growth in customer acquisitions, which amounted to 1,700 new customers worldwide in 2016.

“Almost 25 years ago, we emerged as a disruptive challenger in the market, and our mission for 2017 is to increase this challenger status as a digital enabler with global reach and local presence and agility,” added Grivner.

The post Colt pledges to deliver €500m investment in three year expansion plan appeared first on United Networks.

Openreach was setup a decade ago after Ofcom’s original review in 2005, which among other things forced BT to open part of their network to competition (“functional separation“) and introduced Local Loop Unbundling (i.e. allowing rival ISPs to install their own kit in BT’s telephone exchanges, giving them more control over ADSL broadband and phone).

Since then the market has evolved and the new “fibre broadband” (FTTC) services don’t offer the same kind of control or price flexibility as the older LLU ADSL solutions. Meanwhile many of BT’s rivals feel as if the operator still has too much control over Openreach and aren’t investing enough in their infrastructure, which they claim has damaged competition and performance.

By comparison BT say they’ve invested billions into the national infrastructure, are delivering a good level of service (i.e. meeting Ofcom’s targets) and claim that their rivals seek a free ride off the back of all their hard work. BT has also warned that splitting Openreach could damage their plans to invest in future “ultrafast” G.fast broadband upgrades and the 10Mbps USO (details).

Furthermore there were also fears about the risk from a protracted legal battle, concerns over how BT’s huge pension deficit and group debt would be split and uncertainty over who would provide Openreach’s future investment. On the other hand BT’s rivals believe that an independent Openreach could have fostered investment into superior FTTH/P technology and made the market more open and fair for everybody.

Ofcom’s job in all this was to navigate the maze of conflicting claims and decide what the market should look like for the next 10 years. The result is a compromise rather than total separation. Not that the outcome is good news for BT and indeed some of the measures look like painful medicine.

Ofcom’s Decision

In the end Ofcom’s review did find “evidence” to show that Openreach “still has an incentive to make decisions in the interests of BT, rather than BT’s competitors, which can lead to competition problems“. It also said that “other telecoms companies have not been consulted sufficiently on investment plans that affect them“, which they believe is something that needs to change.

Summary of Key Changes (inc. non BT areas)

* A new strategy has been proposed to promote the large-scale roll-out of new ultrafast broadband networks, based on cable and fibre optic lines, as an “alternative to the partly copper-based technologies” (e.g. FTTC). Openreach will be required to open up its telegraph poles and cable ducts, which must also be made “much easier for competitors to access.”

* Openreach must provide comprehensive data on the nature and location of its ducts and poles. Using these, rival ISPs will be able to build their own fibre networks, connected directly to homes and offices.

* Ofcom claims that Openreach’s governance lacks independence from BT Group and as a result they will overhaul it, which should allow Openreach to take its own decisions on budget, investment and strategy. The new management would be required to “serve all wholesale customers equally, and consult them on its investment plans“. There will also be greater transparency over how costs and assets are allocated between Openreach and the rest of BT.

* Ofcom will introduce even tougher minimum service requirements to push Openreach into repairing faults and install new lines more quickly.

* The regulator will also introduce new performance tables on quality of service, identifying the best and worst operators on a range of performance measures “so that customers can shop around with confidence“.

* Consumer broadband, phone and mobile operators will also have to introduce “automatic compensation” when things go wrong, such as due to a “loss or reduction of service” (this is a feature that used to only be offered alongside business products).

* Future auctions of radio spectrum, specifically those that will go to mobile network operators, will include new obligations to help improve rural mobile coverage.

* Ofcom will also work to make switching mobile operators easier and will soon publish a new consultation.

* Ofcom also said they would work to help the Government design a 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation for broadband, but then we already knew they would.

The regulator claims that the new model of Openreach governance (detailed proposals on this are expected to surface later in the year) might require the company to “become a ring-fenced, ‘wholly-owned subsidiary’ of BT Group, with its own purpose and board members“.

Ofcom also said that they would reserve the right to “spin-off” Openreach “as an entirely separate legal entity, with its own shareholders,” albeit only if BT doesn’t play ball with their proposals. But first the regulator will need to address this proposal with the European Commission (EC) and no doubt BT will object.

Sharon White, Ofcom Chief Executive, said:

“People across the UK today need affordable, reliable phone and broadband services. Coverage and quality are improving, but not fast enough to meet the growing expectations of consumers and businesses.

So today we’ve announced fundamental reform of the telecoms market – more competition, a new structure for Openreach, tougher performance targets, and a range of measures to boost service quality.

Together, this means a better deal for telecoms users, which will improve the services and networks that underpin how we live and work.”

The result is unlikely to please everybody and indeed we could well be back here again in the future because the issue of BT’s status in the market is a bit like the playground pinata; every now and then a group gets together to take a bite out of the seemingly unmovable object, such is the reality of being an incumbent Telco in today’s market.

Meanwhile there’s the question of what impact Ofcom’s changes will have upon the market, assuming all of their proposals survive the inevitable bickering match between warring operators. History tends to show that big changes need a year or so to solidify before ISPs start to take advantage of them, but some (e.g. greater access to Openreach’s network) may simply be too attractive to go unused for that long; assuming they can get the prices right (that’s a big question).

At this point we’d say that BT can already grant access to their cable ducts and poles through thePhysical Infrastructure Access (PIA) solution, but this can’t be used for connecting businesses and suffers from other limitations that have limited its uptake. Hence Ofcom are proposing something much more significant.

Similarly there’s the other question of how all this will affect the price that consumers pay, particularly in regards to the impact of Ofcom’s new quality standards and a move towards automatic compensation. Both could add extra costs on to both ISPs and Openreach, which may end up being passed on to consumers (it will be difficult to do this on the cheapest ISPs without raising prices). No doubt ISPs will also want Openreach to help cover the cost of compensating for any related service outage, which in the past has often been a big bone of contention.

At this point we’ve only had a chance to glance at the report and will come back to highlight other details as the day continues. In the meantime the big question mark is over how BT will react and indeed whether or not they might find the adjustment so tough as to prefer a spin-off, but we view the latter outcome as being very unlikely. We expect their response to come at around 9am.

Finally, it’s worth saying that the changes will all be introduced gradually through Ofcom’s periodic reviews (e.g. the next Wholesale Local Access and Wholesale Broadband Market Reviews) and not in one big bang. In other words it could take a couple of years before all of today’s proposed changes are fleshed out and become real for the market.

Ofcom’s Strategic Review (Initial Conclusions)
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/policy/digital-comms-review/dcr-feb-16/

UPDATE 8:13am

Reading through the document we note that Ofcom are not yet proposing to make any firm changes to the pricing of Openreach’s FTTC (VDSL) “fibre broadband” service, which will disappoint TalkTalk andSky Broadband. Ofcom reasons that this could happen in the future, but it also wants to encourage rival ISPs to build their own alternatives.

“Competing providers should be incentivised to build their own networks where this is viable. It must not be too ‘easy’ for competitors to rely on ‘buying’ access to another’s network when there is the potential to invest in their own,” said Ofcom’s report.

However Ofcom’s notes that their position may change, particularly when they come to begin their next wholesale local access review that will cover the 2017-2020 period. “By 2020 superfast broadband services are predicted to account for the vast majority of broadband connections. Pricing flexibility will have been applied to BT’s FTTC investment for 10 years. For this market review, there will be a variety of arguments in favour of reduced pricing flexibility, including potentially reaching the original date for expected payback. In this context, we may be coming toward the end of the fair bet, which could result in a transition to some form of charge controls,” concluded Ofcom.

The post Ofcom Confirm NO Openreach Split from BT, But Big Change is Coming appeared first on United Networks.

Reports at the weekend suggested that Ofcom would not move to separate BT (here) from control of their national UK phone and broadband network (Openreach), although they might keep that option on the table. Never the less Patterson cannot afford to trust in leaks to the media, not least because BT will officially learn of its fate at the same time as everybody else.. tomorrow.

Gavin Patterson said:

“There’s a significant investment that we are ready to make now in the next generation of technology, more Fibre-to-the-Premise [FTTP], G.fast (and) Fibre-to-the-Cabinet [FTTC] … That’s a big decision, we are ready to make it if we get some regulatory certainty coming out of the Ofcom review.

Openreach is the only national player and it is very heavily regulated. We believe having Openreach as a unit within the BT group is good for investment and for research and development, and insures you get a national service at competitive prices. If it’s ever separated, would you see the same investments being made? I very much doubt you would.”

According to a related report on the FT, that “significant” investment would see BT spend £1 billion+on improving UK broadband connectivity. But the commitment lacks key information, such as whether or not this actually reflects an existing pledge or even if it has separated out Capex (capital expenditure) from Opex (operating expenditure).

Readers may recall that BT made a big commitment last September towards improving national broadband connectivity (here) and the bulk of that is focused on their G.fast deployment. BT intends to begin the commercial roll-out of G.fast in 2017 (here and here) and they’ve pledged to make the new service available to 10 million premises by 2020, with “most of the UK” likely to be done by 2025. Initially the service will only offer speeds of up to 300Mbps, before later increasing to 500Mbps.

At this point readers may recall that BT’s original £2.5bn commercial commitment to roll-out superfast broadband (FTTC/P) also intended to deploy significantly more ultrafast fibre optic 330Mbps FTTPbroadband (around 2.5 million premises passed), but the operator ended up dramatically scaling that back in order to focus on cheaper, but slower, 40-80Mbps FTTC. A fair bit of that £2.5bn didn’t get spent, which they’d say is good value for money.

However BT already spends around £300-400m per annum on “fibre” (so we were told last year) and broadly expect that to continue for the next 5 years until 2020, with the majority of future investment likely to support the G.fast roll-out. But BT also told us that G.fast could be done within the original £2.5bn commercial commitment and that begs the question, is the new promise of “significant” investment largely just a re-announcement?

We did shoot off a quick message in the hope of some clarity, although a BT spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk, “Ofcom will release their provisional findings on Thursday morning and we will respond then. We made it clear in September that we are keen to invest large additional sums in the UK ‘s infrastructure and that has not changed. Regulatory certainty is required however as Gavin made clear yesterday.”

Lest we not forget BT’s other commitment, which originally (2010/11) promised to match the £830mstate aid allocation through the Broadband Delivery UK programme (this is separate to the £2.5bn commercial commitment). At this point it’s becoming hard to distinguish new commitments from old. In any case we might get a clearer answer after tomorrow.

Meanwhile Vodafone’s CEO, Vittorio Colao, also used the MWC event to take a last ditch shot at BT: “A model which was supposed to be neutral and separated has actually been creating extra profits for the company that owns it. It’s a model that allows equal access but a price higher than most European countries. I hope [Ofcom’s CEO] is going to say either that she really supports considering the split of Openreach or at least that she will put much tighter obligations on Openreach, both in terms of performance and pricing.”

We suspect that Vodafone will get at least part of what they want.

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