Openreach appoints former TUC head to independent board Openreach has appointed former general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Sir Brendan Barber to its independent board. The creation of the board is part of BT's voluntary efforts to set up an independent Openreach entity. By doing so it hopes to avoid Ofcom winning approval from Europe for a legal separation of the …
Ofcom's architects designed the single entrance to the Pub for a metaphoric drunken 'BT' to piss, sit in, obstruct and be abusive to any other provider that care to try and pass through that door.
As reward for such "good abusive behaviour", the CMA decided it would block the toilet door inside the Pub by allowing BT to takeover/control of EE.
Is there any wonder there is shit all over the floor.
BT haven't changed a bit. This doesn't change anything. With areas of the BT now being shown to be corrupt, you'd be naive to assume BT UK (especially as the regulator) has no such problems, whatever BT say in public.
Ofcom need to be strong for once, just split Openreach, get the drunk out the doorway, cut this stale Italian Pizza down into reasonable sizes, give most customers true choice at the doorstep outwith BT, that means defaulting to FTTP rollout, putting G.fast on the back burner as much as possible (G.fast is not a good technology to be basing Britain's future on).
The thing that's been said so many times (by me and others) is that structural separation where Openreach is a separate legal entity isn't the same as compelling BT group to sell Openreach (which will not only be a much bigger legal fight but it will almost certainly get picked up by some foreign raider for buttons to be milked for profit until the pips squeak). It can still be a part of BT Group just as a wholly owned subsidiary rather than as a division. BT will still get the profits from Openreach and it'll still have the muscle from being part of the larger group but it will no longer be able to act as if BT Retail is the only customer that matters. If it does it should be more obvious from the accounts than at present.
That BT are fighting structural separation as if it's the same as forced divestiture tells us all we need to know about the underhand shenanigans going on between BT Retail and BT Openreach that they know will be stopped by Legal separation.
I think that means I agree with you, AC :) OFCOM need to be strong in pursuing their Legal separation remedy, even if it doesn't rectify all the errors of the past.
Openreach must be split away from the BT monopoly conglomerate so it can be judged as a stand-alone-consumer-service. Its simply about all that technology being managed for the benefit of individual customers and currently thats not the case. Generally, the internet strength is better in France for instance. Openreach can get away with investing less in the UK because it is practically a monopoly. The UK needs (now more than ever) the fastest wireless service right across the country. Btw, how is a trade union congress guy going to deliver better customer service ?
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