UK Land Owners Warn Ofcom NOT to Split Openreach from BT

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents thousands of landowners across England and Wales, has given BT a bit of unexpected support by warning Ofcom not to split the telco from control of their national network (Openreach) as it would create too much of a “distraction“.

Most of the time the CLA has to walk a very difficult line. On the one hand they often call for more action to bring faster broadband into rural areas, while on the other they remain bitterly opposed to any reduction in land access charges that could make the delivery of such infrastructure significantly more viable (here).

In that sense it’s hard to know which side of the fence the CLA would come down on in the seemingly endless debate over Ofcom’s Strategic Review, which is currently trying to decide whether or not BT’s network access division, Openreach, should be split out into a completely separate business.

Today we learn that the CLA does have significant concerns about rural broadband and Openreach’s performance, although they fear that the potential infrastructure upgrade delays that could stem from a BT split might ultimately be the bigger threat.

Henry Robinson, CLA President, said:

“Having poor or non-existent broadband is a catastrophe for rural businesses. There are big frustrations and shortcomings in Openreach’s performance to date and we expect Government to be more demanding. However we want BT to be focused on delivering more connections at a faster pace, not distracted fighting legal battles over whether their company should or should not be legally broken up.

Rural businesses do not care how they get fast reliable broadband; they just need it as soon as possible. Every day that passes without broadband is another day of being held back from achieving their potential.”

So far most of the commentary that we’ve seen on this debate has been entirely predictable, with the bulk of BT’s arch rivals (e.g. Sky Broadband, Vodafone and TalkTalk) calling for a split because it would perhaps benefit them the most and then the Government suggesting that this might not be the best approach (here).

Meanwhile Ofcom must also consider what would be in the best interests of consumers, which is harder to judge given that BT’s rivals have yet to state precisely what plans and or investment they’d be willing to make into a newly separated Openreach.

So it’s good to see an opinion coming from what might be construed as the middle ground, although we’re not sure how much sway the CLA will actually have in this debate.