BT should be forced to sell Openreach service, report says

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35388756

BT should be forced to sell the country's leading broadband provider because of poor performance, a report backed by 121 cross-party MPs has said.
The report, commissioned by ex-Tory chairman Grant Shapps, said BT's Openreach service had only partially extended superfast broadband despite £1.7bn of government money.
It should be sold off to increase competition, the report added.

Mr Shapps's report suggested 400,000 small and medium sized companies still did not have access to superfast broadband, and more than five million people were receiving unacceptable download speeds.
It said "little" would change unless BT and Openreach were formally separated, as at present Openreach "makes vast profits and finds little reason to invest in the network, install new lines or even fix faults in a properly timely manner".

Is this likely to happen?

[denphone]

It would be nice if they were forced to sell it but l will be surprised if anything happens at all.

[nomadking]

How would selling it make any difference? It takes planning and use of fixed resources(eg personnel) to implement. It can't be all done overnight.

[dave6x]

I feel sorry for the people in the nearby small town of Whitchurch in Hampshire, a victim of BT OpenReach's many failures. The residents and businesses worked hard to be one of the winners of the high profile "Race To Infinity" campaign in 2010 and were promised full coverage by late 2012. Recently I was chatting to friends who live there and large areas of the town and business sites are still awaiting connection, well over 3 years late and still waiting!

[Ignitionnet]

Unsure what Shapps personally has to gain from this but there's probably something there.

The report has numerous inaccuracies and mischaracterisations.

Openreach have achieved the coverage targets required according to their contracts. At no point was full coverage expected as a result of the contracts and the funding provided. It was nowhere near enough.

There is no indication that separating Openreach from the rest of BT will achieve anything positive in the short or medium term.

Perhaps Mr Murdoch worked his magic. Both Sky and Shapps have a record of profiting from others' work, with Sky being somewhat better in that they actually paid to use it.

---------- Post added at 17:18 ---------- Previous post was at 15:50 ----------

Responded to BBC story. http://telcotorment.blogspot.co.uk/2...-suddenly.html

[j52c]

It said "little" would change unless BT and Openreach were formally separated, as at present Openreach "makes vast profits and finds little reason to invest in the network, install new lines or even fix faults in a properly timely manner".

If they do sell Openreach then it is more than likely it will be sold to a foreign company who will put up the prices for the customer and ship all the profits to improve their own service in their own country.

[Ignitionnet]

I've had the time to have a full read, and write a full rebuttal.

http://telcotorment.blogspot.co.uk/2...-just-bad.html

Is it just me or when a politician calls for something to be sold I immediately wonder how they benefit from it's sale.

[rhyds]

Out here in the sticks the problem isn't so much broadband speeds, but rather Openreach's atrocious record when it comes to fault repairs.

We're not talking a few days delay here, we're talking whole villages cut off for weeks because Openreach either can't or won't repair damaged line plant in a timely manner.

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

I've had the time to have a full read, and write a full rebuttal.

http://telcotorment.blogspot.co.uk/2...-just-bad.html

Are you one of the people Shapps is moaning about in the papers today, for saying rude things about his report in an answerphone message?

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Chris

Are you one of the people Shapps is moaning about in the papers today, for saying rude things about his report in an answerphone message?

No. I'd have had far more colourful things to say than were in that message.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...-services.html

---------- Post added at 15:19 ---------- Previous post was at 15:12 ----------

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35399030

I think you have made your point Ignitionnet

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35388756

Is this likely to happen?

In the past I would have said no. But now, yes, very likely.

Too much public money has been thrown at OPenreach and their performance has been too poor in regards to fibre rollouts especially in hard to reach rural areas.

I imagine some form of "Network Rail" style company (gulp..) will be created with the government as a majority shareholder.. But perhaps Sky, Talktalk and others will be invited to become shareholders too.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Horizon

In the past I would have said no. But now, yes, very likely.

Too much public money has been thrown at OPenreach and their performance has been too poor in regards to fibre rollouts especially in hard to reach rural areas.

I imagine some form of "Network Rail" style company (gulp..) will be created with the government as a majority shareholder.. But perhaps Sky, Talktalk and others will be invited to become shareholders too.

Their performance in the BDUK programme hasn't been bad; they've been achieving the targets the contracts have set them and, indeed, exceeded them in some cases. They aren't a charity and are no more likely than anyone else to throw money down the drain where there's no prospect of a return.

Blame the contracts not Openreach if you consider their performance 'poor'.

Regarding your last paragraph that's insane. Openreach if it were separated would be private property and seizure or compulsory purchase by the state would be illegal on several levels, from human rights legislation downwards.

Railtrack required huge amounts of state funding on a constant basis and was insolvent for a while before it was acquired by Network Rail Ltd, the same could certainly not be said of Openreach. It would need, under law, to be a private business and the state if it wanted to acquire would have to pay market value.

May I politely recommend you read some of the articles I've written, alongside the reams other material on this.

That said it wouldn't surprise me if it happened, largely because Ofcom need to justify their bloated existence in one way or another. This would be nice and headline grabbing. Far more effective than, perish the thought, deregulation and incentives for competitors to invest in infrastructure.

---------- Post added at 23:00 ---------- Previous post was at 22:59 ----------

Originally Posted by Maggy J

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...-services.html

---------- Post added at 15:19 ---------- Previous post was at 15:12 ----------

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35399030

I think you have made your point Ignitionnet

Going by the abuse I've received online since seems I rattled a few cages.

Back to worshipping at my BT shrine on that note. Will wear my promotional Virgin Media Project Lightning lanyard and Cable My Street badges just for a little rebellion.

Just for a little off-topic devil's advocacy, Railtrack was indeed technically bankrupt, but only because the government withheld funding which Railtrack had been banking on (literally). The government then used the excuse of bankruptcy, which it had precipitated, as the pretext to nationalise it (though they never actually called it that, that's exactly what it was).