Openreach’s Director of Fibre Build Talks Scotland’s R100 Rollout

7. At the time of writing, there are around 90 alternative network providers that are building gigabit-capable fibre networks for consumers across the UK, including several that operate specifically in Scotland. How does Openreach approach such competition, particularly in remote rural areas, where viable economic models are much harder to achieve. Do you generally avoid them, or is it better to try and directly compete via overbuild?

Andrew’s Answer:

In honesty, we see very little investment by alternative network providers, including the bigger builders, in much of rural and remote Scotland because it’s so difficult to make the numbers add up. So there’s limited scope for extensive overbuild in those parts of Scotland where we’re going to invest as part of our balanced build. With smaller alt-nets, the fact that we’ve extended our backhaul capabilities means they have access to higher bandwidth to offer their own services and obviously our poles and ducts are open for business.

There will be occasions where rural residents have access to more than one network – and that means more choice and more options, more in line with urban areas – which is great. And of course we’ve announced c.300 locations across Scotland where we’re going to build, which provides more clarity and certainty for everyone.

8. Speaking of gigabit networks and the eventual withdrawal of copper lines, which reflects a new migration process that starts once an exchange area reaches 75% coverage by FTTP. Even after R100 and Project Gigabit have completed, it seems likely that there might still be a few very remote areas that can only connect via copper lines.

Will Openreach commit to continuing to serve these areas until FTTP arrives (if ever), or does there come a point where maintaining the old copper lines for such few premises is no longer viable? If so, what will happen in such areas?

Andrew’s Answer:

The availability of copper products (LLU-MPF and SOTAP) won’t be affected by the withdrawal of WLR products and closure of the PSTN at the end of 2025. These will continue to provide access for customers outside our fibre coverage areas.

In stop sell exchange areas, premises enabled for full fibre will only be able to order a full fibre product from the point of stop sell (ie when 75% of an exchange has coverage), though there’s an exception for FTTC-based 40/10 products. Any premises not enabled for full fibre can continue to order copper-based products either until it becomes enabled for full fibre or, in the case of WLR products, until the national stop sell (September 2023) is triggered.

Regarding copper product withdrawal in these exchange areas, we’re working with Ofcom to determine at what point regulation will move from copper-based products to fibre-based products – which is likely to be based on fibre coverage and take-up triggers. Ofcom will hold further consultations on this.

9. Speaking of very remote rural areas, the BT Group recently signed an agreement with OneWeb to explore how their constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites could be used to help deliver faster broadband speeds into such communities.

We’re aware that there could be a number of different deployment scenarios for this, such as a satellite fed wireless (WiFi etc.) style network, or providing backhaul for FTTC/P connectivity etc. What do you think is the most feasible approach when it comes to harnessing OneWeb’s platform for broadband delivery into a very remote rural community in Scotland, or should the focus be fibre?

Andrew’s Answer:

We’re massive advocates of fibre first wherever it’s practically and economically viable, but we’ve always been clear that the challenges in some parts of Scotland are so significant that alternatives may need to be part of the answer.

We’re continually looking at new technologies that can help us go further and faster. We think LEO-sats have good potential as part of the innovation portfolio – particularly, for example, for useful applications like emergency services in remote glens where 4/5G isn’t an option – and we’ll be exploring this in more detail… watch this space!

10. Before concluding, I wanted to touch on the endlessly complicated issue of wayleaves and Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) in Scotland. Some alternative network (altnet) providers, such as CityFibre, have previously noted that many of Openreach’s PIA assets (poles etc.) in Scotland are located on private land. As a result, altnets would require a wayleave of their own to access that infrastructure (i.e. essentially, multiple wayleaves to harness the same infrastructure, which is not an ideal solution and discourages use of PIA).

Realistically, we recognise that this may not be within Openreach’s power to fully resolve itself (legal issues), but I wonder if there had been any progress made on finding a solution to this in order to help expand FTTP coverage north of the border?

Andrew’s Answer:

PIA is working well and uptake is continuing to grow significantly, although we’re always looking to improve the service. The interaction between wayleaves and PIA is a complex, law of the land issue. It’s important to be clear these are not our rights to give, but those of the owner of the private land. Like Openreach already does, all network operators need to work with landowners to find a way forward.

11. Finally, over the past couple of years there has been a lot of concern about a lack of skilled labour (experienced fibre engineers) in the UK market, which hasn’t been helped by Brexit, COVID-19 or the rise in competitive network deployments – all seeking to rollout FTTP ever deeper into the market.

Openreach perhaps understands this challenge better than most as you’re obviously home to a huge in-house engineering team, as well as working with various contractors. Have you witnessed any improvements on this front or does it remain a problem, and if so, what more needs to change in order to resolve it?

Andrew’s Answer:

Demand remains high for skilled labour and there’s plenty of competition for people, so it’s definitely a good time to be in this line of work! As the biggest network provider with the most ambitious build plans, we offer our build partners steady, sustainable work and revenue streams for the next several years.

Around 700 people are working on our Scottish full fibre build in the supply chain currently, and our Scotland build partners – Morrison Telecom Services (MTS), Kier Utilities and KN Circet – are still growing.

We’ve invested hugely in training centres, including £500,000 in Scotland, as well as developing award-winning virtual training over the last few months, so we can skill up the next generation of fibre engineers ready for the future.

Openreach offers trainees a fantastic, long term career path so, despite demand from elsewhere in the market, we still receive around 10 Scottish applications for every job we need to fill.

12. Anything else you’d like to add?

Andrew’s Answer:

It’s good to get the chance to talk about Scotland and the specific engineering and practical challenges posed by the terrain. It’s easy to forget the great strides the nation has made, with 95 per cent of households and businesses able to get a superfast service today, and we’re committed to extending full fibre as widely as possible.

It is absolutely vital that people adopt and move to the fibre services – both FTTC and FTTP – that are available to support Scotland’s digital journey. Better connectivity enables big societal shifts like smart cities, the advancement of online public services, IoT and other incubating innovations in the future.

R100 is a very complex and hugely important part of what I need to deliver for Scotland and the UK. It’s close to my heart, as it will bring fantastic connectivity to those on the periphery who, for all the reasons discussed above, have had to wait the longest – and who, arguably, can potentially benefit most.

Full fibre provides a social and economic boost which has the potential to address big issues like depopulation and help Scotland recover from the pandemic and ultimately, make it a better place to live and work where people have equal opportunities regardless of location. If that isn’t a great reason to get to work in the morning, I don’t know what is.

We’d just like to thank Andrew for taking the time to respond to our questions and being so informative in his replies. We look forward to monitoring R100’s progress over the next few years.