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Openreach Calls on Virgin Media to Open UK Cable Ducts to Rivals UPDATE

Friday, Sep 6th, 2024 (12:51 pm) - Score 19,080
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The CEO of Openreach (BT), Clive Selley, has today set out their position with respect to Ofcom’s forthcoming Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR), which amongst other things sees the UK operator call for the regulator and Government to push Virgin Media (O2) and others into opening up access to their cable ducts to help reduce the number of broadband poles being built.

The regulator’s Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR) is a wide-ranging market study, which is typically only conducted every 5-years and will usually look to make changes that “promote competition and investment” in gigabit broadband and business connectivity. Such things are always easier said than done, with vested interests frequently clashing.

NOTE: Openreach’s 1.8Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network covers well over 15 million premises and they’re investing up to £15bn to hit 25m by December 2026 (here), before reaching up to 30 million by 2030.

The outcome of the last review, which was published in March 2021 (here), introduced a variety of key changes, such as regulation of Openreach that varied by geography, a new Dark Fibre Access (DFA) product, measures to help retire legacy copper-based networks, restrictions on broadband discounts and new Quality of Service (QoS) standards.

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Reviews like this have historically tended to expend most of their energy on demanding changes of the market incumbents (i.e. Openreach across the UK and KCOM in Hull), such as requiring them to open up access to their own cable ducts and poles (Physical Infrastructure Access) so that rivals could more easily deploy gigabit-capable broadband networks (usually via FTTP technology).

However, the last review was arguably a bit softer on Openreach in order to give them a “fair bet” in rolling out full fibre networks across the UK. The dramatic increase in competitive FTTP builds since 2021 may similarly have an impact on Ofcom’s thinking in the next review. So far we’ve already seen some of Openreach’s rivals calling for improvements to PIA and related pricing (here), but today it was Openreach’s turn to set out their stall.

Clive Selley said:

“Ofcom’s Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review (WFTMR), which took effect on 1 April 2021, delivered a five-year package of rules that the regulator said would endure for at least ten, assuming the outcomes were as expected. It also made clear that “full fibre must be a fair bet” for investors over the longer term.[2] This was crucial, given the risk and long paybacks involved in big infrastructure investments.

Fast-forward to today and more than 150 companies are now using our ducts and poles to build competing networks and we’ve made full fibre available to more than 15 million premises nationwide off our own back. We’re reaching a further one million properties every three months, and we’re on track with our ambition to reach 25 million by the end of 2026. In fact, Ofcom expects 96 per cent of the UK could have access to full fibre by 2027, compared with just two per cent in 2016.

In a nutshell: the WFTMR isn’t just working, it’s working better than expected for the UK. But the job’s not done yet. And investors are yet to see if their big bets will pay off.

Investment in full fibre needs to continue for the rest of the decade as the build extends to the more challenging and costly parts of the UK and the industry connects customers to the new networks. And for our part, we’re confident that we can reach 30 million premises by the end of 2030, assuming the right regulatory and investment environment exists.”

Selley goes on to state that Ofcom should “reject self-interested calls from some parts of the industry to restrict how Openreach competes … Because it’s clear that would lead to higher prices, weaker competition and a dilution of choice for consumers and businesses.”

Openreach’s boss also wants the regulator to address the “challenges of moving to a full fibre world“, such as by “supporting a drive for efficiency and enabling Openreach to retire legacy buildings and services where modern alternatives exist. Quality of Service (QoS) standards must also evolve to reflect the positive shift from copper to fibre.” But rivals will be hoping that “evolving” QoS standards doesn’t lead to weaker performance.

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Openreach’s Ambitions for 2026 and Beyond (TAR)

✓ Maintaining certainty and stability on price regulation for at least the rest of the decade – as was envisaged back in 2021 – continuing to only set direct charge controls on legacy services, with caps kept flat in real terms, and with the same regulation applied across the country

✓ Sustaining an approach that allows us to compete fairly and introduce offers that support full fibre adoption

✓ Reducing regulation where entry has occurred, and competition is effective

✓ Supporting exchange exit and other efforts to improve long-term efficiency

✓ Evolving Quality of Service standards to reflect the changing mix of services used by customers

The operator’s full report also echoes the CEO of BT Group, Allison Kirkby, who called for various improvements to planning laws (something the government are looking at) and support for flexi-permits (i.e. a single permit can cover a wide geographical area instead of numerous separate street applications). But Selley’s most interesting remark is one of his last.

Ofcom and Government should also require Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) and others to open up their duct and pole networks on the same transparent terms including price as Openreach’s duct and poles product,” said Openreach’s CEO, Clive Selley. Openreach argues that this would help to support the government’s current drive to increase infrastructure sharing and thus reduce the number of new poles being deployed (here).

Ofcom has previously rejected this idea, which is partly because Virgin Media’s closed network has largely stayed under the coverage level that would otherwise deem them to have Significant Market Power (they have over 16 million premises). This may be partly why some of the operator’s parents (Liberty Global and Telefonica) have sought to continue their network expansion, albeit via an open access model, under a new company – nexfibre.

Just to recap. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners originally setup the new £4.5bn nexfibre joint venture in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin Media’s network. The two networks, combined, could thus conceivably end up covering 23m premises (nexfibre has so far reached 1.3m).

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Virgin Media are of course due to split off their own network of 16m+ premises into a new NetCo next year, which will open it up to wholesale. Quite how Ofcom will view all of this is a complex matter, but at present we wouldn’t be at all surprised if the regulator chose to wait until the 2031 review to make a decision, rather than the one for 2026. But by then most of the fibre build will be done. Tricky.

Right now, there are still many unknowns with how the market and company structures may evolve, while nexfibre’s coverage is still low and semi-separate from Virgin Media. In addition, none of Openreach’s smaller rivals in the alternative network space are even close to having SMP. Forcing PIA upon smaller operators in a weaker and higher risk position, particularly in this climate, would not be without negative consequences.

As always, we expect a lively debate to flow around Ofcom’s major market review.

UPDATE 2:50pm

We’ve received a comment from Virgin Media, which notes that it’s already possible to use their ducts on a “commercial basis“, but making that attractive enough for wide adoption is often another matter entirely (Openreach above are talking more about a PIA style regulated solution).

A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said:

“The ability to use Virgin Media’s ducts on a commercial basis already exists, but Openreach has significant market power in the UK and a footprint that covers almost all of the country, so it is right that it remains appropriately regulated to ensure it cannot use its monopolistic muscle to constrain emerging competition.

Virgin Media O2 and others are building fibre to increase network choice in the UK and it’s important that Ofcom supports these investments so that truly scaled competition can be realised in future. Calling for regulatory intervention on others who are building alternative networks is a worrying and diversionary tactic that Openreach has used before with no success.”

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and .
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57 Responses

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  1. Avatar photo Ivor says:

    it feels a bit tongue in cheek for OR (I wonder if they’d ever become a Virgin “PIA” customer) but I can understand why they’d suggest it.

    VM’s predecessors all had government granted regional monopolies. It seems reasonable that their duct network needs to be opened up in the same way Openreach has with theirs.

    I’d go further and suggest that any subsidised altnet should do the same, as well as the power companies who have the exact same history as OR in that they were formerly state owned monopolies.

    1. Avatar photo Lee says:

      Re power companies. Majority of power cable back then was direct buried. I don’t think it’s a good idea to let telecoms companies have access to power ducts that may contain 132kv cables!

      Some of the DNOs have fibre, a lot overhead but some underground. This would have been built in the period they were private.

    2. Avatar photo Ivor says:

      there are however lots of poles, especially in older urban and in rural areas, which might be shareable and which carry rather more pedestrian voltages

      and in some cases are already used by OR – my parents’ line was rerouted following minor network surgery to accomodate a new estate, it now goes to a DNO owned pole and then across the road to the Openreach pole which has the DP.

      Like you say, some DNOs have telecoms businesses of their own, such as National Grid Telecommunications (not to be confused with the former Energis business. this is the former WPD Telecoms / Surf Telecoms). I’m surprised they never joined the alt-net gold rush.

    3. Avatar photo Lee says:

      You are correct in regards to using DNO poles, Openreach certainly do use them, and I know of an Altnet that uses them. I believe they can use the LV poles, but when you get to 11kv there may be issues with safety clearances. Also having a fibre on the pole also affects the ability to install a pole mounted transformer, and vice versa if the PMT is already in place, you can’t add the fibre after.

      My guess is 99% of the time it makes sense to use BT poles as it interconnects with their duct network at some point.

      Going back to the above, the Altnet I am aware of using DNO poles I believe has stopped using them for new builds since PIA became a solution.

  2. Avatar photo Lee says:

    If he knew how congested a lot of the VM ducts are, he would know it’s pointless. Possible when all the coax (including drop cables) are out the ground, but that is at least a decade away

    1. Avatar photo Crotchety says:

      In my area, the virgin ducts do not exist, they buried their cables under tarmac about 6 inches underground.

    2. Avatar photo Lee says:

      Yeah that will be the microtrench installs, they have spare tubes to blow extra fibre down when needed. I’m referring to the original duct builds from the cable days

    3. Avatar photo Nigel Jones says:

      I know a friend lost fibre recently as Virgin were doing a clear out of main ducts in the town, ripping out old co-ax, presumably a bit too vigorously (capturing some toob fibres)

    4. Avatar photo Lee says:

      Nigel, unless toob take backhaul services from VM, and that went down, they wouldn’t have damaged their fibre as it wouldn’t be in VMs ducts. And VMs coax wouldn’t be in Openreach ducts. So either unrelated, or toob take a service such as dark fibre or Ethernet services from VM

    5. Avatar photo Witcher says:

      Coax shouldn’t be in the same duct as fibre either.

    6. Avatar photo clive peters says:

      Presumably they would remove that property’s coax each time fibre is installed, which is thinner. Still, VM must be having problems as the PON fibre cabinets were installed in our street two years ago and the FTTP service still isn’t viable.

  3. Avatar photo Big Dave says:

    All PIA should be opened up at an agreed price set by Ofcom. It might even help some of the altnets make few quid extra renting their infrastructure to Openreach and others. It might help end the never ending “Battle Of The Poles”.

    1. Avatar photo Ribble says:

      Can’t see a situation where openreach would use anyone else’s duct or poles, but they would be happy for altnets to use each others .

    2. Avatar photo Witcher says:

      If altnets thought they could make a few quid out of PIA they would be offering it already. It isn’t cheap to build the systems and processes.

  4. Avatar photo Joseph Abram says:

    Virgin and 02 dropping cables in Southport.Not in ducts so Bt will pole the area.

  5. Avatar photo Si says:

    If OR is forced to open their ducts and poles, so should everyone else, IMO

    Also it’s hilarious to see VM making themselves out to be some plucky underdog in their response.

    1. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      OR had the infrastructure for pittance, over providers have not had the same thing, even Virgin. They all had to build from Scratch, maybe not Virgin as such as they grabbed stuff from Telewest and NTL, but I doubt they were more or less given the infrastructure.

      Our phone system as it was then, was sold off too cheap.

      I know that BT have to move with the time and update, but for too long they were raking in money as they had no competition or very little. I am not a fan of Virgin either, I hope they never come here, not that I expect they will.
      I am all for Openreach using Virgin Ducts, it is a large company and cover a fair bit of the UK, but for the smaller Alt nets, no. For a start, a lot of the ducts are no doubt only large enough for the cables they need, so no space for more cables.
      Looking at the ones up my road, they are very narrow, I don’t think you will get much in them.
      The other thing is, give them a chance to expand, start making some money and then look at the idea, if there is space in the ducts.
      I doubt the money Openreach will give them for using the ducts would be much.

      I would like more networks here than two, more choice, but I know that it would not work here, not a large enough city.

    2. Avatar photo Big Dave says:

      @Ad47uk

      The size of the city you live in has nothing to do with the number of networks that get built. If I remember rightly you’re in Hereford (population 192,000) and you can only get Zzoomm and Openreach.

      In Banbury (population 52,000 – not even a city) we have Openreach, Swish (All Points), F&W (Hey Broadband), VMO2 and OFNL have a new estate as well and if you don’t think Hereford can support more than 2 networks then we certainly can’t.

    3. Avatar photo Witcher says:

      Ad.

      Quote:They all had to build from Scratch, maybe not Virgin as such as they grabbed stuff from Telewest and NTL, but I doubt they were more or less given the infrastructure.

      End of quote.

      ntl and Telewest merged. Then they bought Virgin Mobile and as part of the deal get to use the Virgin name for a period and rebranded. Then were bought by Liberty Global. They were then merged with O2 to form Virgin Media O2.

      You thought Virgin Media grabbed things from ntl and Telewest. ntl and Telewest grabbed a mobile company and branding from Virgin Group.

      Your opinions here probably need a lot more than a pinch of salt.

    4. Avatar photo Si says:

      OR have poles and ducts covering the vast majority of the country, very few places are served by others and not OR. Forcing everyone to open their ducts and poles to each other in a PIA type agreement will primarily serve altnets sharing with each rather than OR using their infra.

    5. Avatar photo Witcher says:

      Hereford is no good for backhaul. It’s in the back end of nowhere as far as fibre networks go. I think Openreach are the only option. No Virgin Media, no Neos.

    6. Avatar photo Fastman says:

      adk47 virgin media got the ex cable networks for pittance as well if you remember — but that doesnt fit with your plucky virgin media underdog — baloney

    7. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      @Witcher, just been reading a bit more about it and it is complex, it seems like NTL and Telewest licensed the Virgin name, so it really had nothing to do with Virgin as such, It is Liberty Global that grabs Virgin media.

      How complex. 🙂

      Not that it makes any difference to me who owns it, as I will never use it.

    8. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      @Witcher, so you think we only have Openreach here? You are wrong, if we only had Openreach for Fibre here then I would not have moved to fibre and would have stayed on FTTC.

      We have Zzoomm here, not sure why, and it sure shocked me when I heard they were coming here, but they are here and that is what I am using and have been for over 12 months.

    9. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      @Big Dave, a bit of a surprise that a small place like Banbury have so much choice. Even so, I don’t think that many would survive in Hereford for long. People here tend not to venture to new things, they like to stay with what they have or with companies they know, for some reason they trust these large companies like BT and British Gas.

      I can’t see a third network coming here, I am not going to say never, because never is a long time, but I will be surprised if one came in the next 10 years, but then I was shocked when Zzoomm came here, I wondered how much money they were paid to come here., I even wondered if they even heard of this place.

    10. Avatar photo Big Dave says:

      Ad47uk

      “People here tend not to venture to new things, they like to stay with what they have or with companies they know, for some reason they trust these large companies like BT and British Gas.”

      I think you will find that’s true of most of the country. Actually I am not against altnets at all, just the ridiculous free-for-all roll out we have which leaves some areas oversaturated with networks some of which could never hope to become profitable and fibre deserts where people will be waiting for years to get connected.

  6. Avatar photo Kelam says:

    In my area specfically Nexfibre are already using openreach infrastructure for their distribitution of cables and ducting.

    One thing I would like addressing is what will happen with all the older copper cables as more homes switch over. Will OR remove them free of charge or are we going to be looking at a mass jungle of wires for many years to come.

  7. Avatar photo AndyC says:

    Do virgin use openreach’s poles at all? i ask as shortly after openreach fibred up our street we started getting flyers saying virgin was available up to 2gig but they have never dug up our road and virgin was never available before.

    Only ground work we had done was grain connect (one of there customer support team said they don’t share infrastructure with anyone at this time.) and netomita who installed one small cab at the end of the road after grain had finished.

    Also how would openreach install fibre to a property that has “Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG partial Direct In Ground.” would they insist on laying conduit?

    1. Avatar photo Ribble says:

      Yes they do

    2. Avatar photo Big Dave says:

      Yes they do. They have recently been installing in part of Banbury and have been using Openreach’s poles.

  8. Avatar photo Pete fenney says:

    Will not make a difference to my road if VM let them use there ducting as we don’t have VM here.OR don’t even give us full fibre only cooper wire we get fibre to cabinet only it’s crap

    1. Avatar photo Witcher says:

      Well if it won’t make a difference to you let’s forget the whole thing for the other 60 million people in the country too.

    2. Avatar photo Big Dave says:

      Openreach will be rolling out FTTP until 2030. Unfortunately someone is going to be the one who is last to get it.

  9. Avatar photo Elvis says:

    It’s only fair that ALL companies open up and share their poles and ducts.
    Putting BT poles up next to Alt net poles is not only disrupting for the customers in that area, it’s a waste of money and looks ridiculous!!
    With regards to the box and duct space, that’s getting out of hand too, Alt nets can fill up underground boxes and ducts to the extent that BT would have to build a new box next to an Alt net box so that OR can put their own cables and equipment in them!

    1. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      Poles yes I can understand sharing, but I would think in most places that don’t have poles at the moment and Alt nets are looking at poles, Openreach have their cables already in ducts and will not use Poles.

  10. Avatar photo Alex says:

    Finally someone cottoned onto the fact that Virgin get a free ride. They’ve been sweating DOCSIS longer than BT ever did with fibre to the cabinet. Awful company that couldn’t care less about it’s customers. Pitiful response too.

    1. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      Sound like Openreach, the only difference is I doubt Virgin paid pittance for the infrastructure from the government. Virgin grabbed the network from another company.

    2. Avatar photo Ex Telecom Engineer says:

      Ad47uk, why do you keep saying BT was sold for a pittance? Apparently the UK Government sold off BT shares in 3 tranches, adding up to a total of nearly £14 Billion.
      https://www.bt.com/bt-plc/assets/documents/about-bt/our-history/bt-archives/information-sheets-and-timelines/privatisation.pdf
      The current market cap is around £14.3 Billion, and was recently significantly less only 6 months ago when the share price was ranging less than 110p, currently 143p. If, as you say, BT shareholders picked up the infrastructure for a pittance, why has the share price barely moved in 30 years? You’d at least expect a higher price in inflationary terms, if shareholders had got a bargain when the Government sold the company.

    3. Avatar photo Witcher says:

      Cable networks get upgraded constantly through fibre being moved closer to customers or other equipment being upgraded to allow more bandwidth. I must have missed where Openreach were building new FTTC cabinets closer to customers to increase speeds and reach or replacing cabling with new cable that can carry more bandwidth further out.

      You’d be talking about Openreach pulling out all the aluminium and building tons of all in ones all over the place to make lines shorter and more capable to get an equivalent. FTTC was the equivalent of a few years of business as usual upgrade on cable networks.

    4. Avatar photo Ad47uk says:

      @Ex Telecom Engineer, it don’t matter what the shares are worth now, they were still sold for pittance, it should never have been sold in the first place, but what do you expect from the Tories, they would sell their own grandmother if it made them money, not that Labour is any better these days. Tories in disguise.

      All BT is about is making money for their shareholders, they don’t care about anything else, they only update the network because they have no choice, because it is falling apart, but then it has been doing that for years and Openreach/BT have dragged their heals.

      The copper cables from the pole to my house were supposed to have been replaced 20 years ago, and yet they never were, now they are hanging down so low it is a good job they don’t go across the road

      Useless Openreach,, they really are.

    5. Avatar photo Witcher says:

      Investors paid just under £34 billion in today’s money for BT.

      Privatisation happening at all is a political thing, the amount paid for it I don’t think anyone here is qualified to give an educated opinion on.

      BT are required to make money for their shareholders. Good spot. Fixing your drop cable because you don’t like how it looks and think it should have been replaced 20 years ago doesn’t come into it. If it’s low enough that it’s outside the rules get rid of it. They can pull another one if you decide you want copper again.

  11. Avatar photo John says:

    OFNL and persimmon should be subjected to the same rules

    1. Avatar photo Meadmodj says:

      Agree.

      Ofcom stated wishes are to have competition at network level.

      Some OR areas are directly buried or part buried. A solution is required and if there is already another duct infrastructure available then why can it not be accessed on the same terms as OR PIA.

      This is not just OR its also access by Altnets.

    2. Avatar photo Witcher says:

      Are you paying the development and other costs to produce a PIA system for every operator to provide access on the same terms as Openreach Meadmodj?

      It isn’t free. Openreach took it on voluntarily to avoid separation. VM are already separating a NetCo. B4RN going to have to build a digital API and plans for their ducts?

  12. Avatar photo Gavin says:

    I think VM, at least the customers, have suffered without regulation in my opinion.

    Bringing VM into the mainstream regulation hopefully will improve the service and availability.

  13. Avatar photo bob says:

    Given, my basic knowledge, openreach have to provide access to all their equipment and network, why should it not work the other way, especially when Virgin have 15+ million customers

  14. Avatar photo Rik says:

    I’m not sure how Virgin duct their cables other than the Nexfibre stuff in my street. There is two microduts per toby box so unless they’re going go be forced to allow altnets to blow their own fibres through the ducts, it means nothing.

    1. Avatar photo Roger_Gooner says:

      A lot of VM’s ducts are jammed with coaxial cables, so not exactly suitable for sharing. These cables won’t all get removed until VM has migrated all HFC customers to XGS-PON, and that likely won’t be completed until 2040.

    2. Avatar photo Witcher says:

      You can see how it is supposed to look at https://www.virginmedia.com/content/dam/virginmedia/dotcom/images/shop/downloads/New-Build-Handbook-v1-63.pdf

      How it looks in the field is different. VM have had to go to some effort to get their own new fibre cabling into the ducts and some of the duct is very busy. It would be good for spine routes sometimes but not so good for reaching individual properties. VM can and would often have to use the existing coax to pull the fibre and to feed a property there would have to be agreement that others can remove the coax too which would be painful to organise and regulate.

  15. Avatar photo Scott says:

    The VM network ex Ntl & Telewest and before that all the different cable companies was built with private investors money. This is one reason why they have not been forced to open up the network. Would any of the altnets do the same ? I wonder you just have to look at KCOM and the issues there with the other companies building in there back yard and not allowing PIA . But the local ductwork on VM is congested with the residential side Siamese cable is a lot bigger than fibre and be interesting how VM overlap the new with the old . As VM turn off the telco network this will free up space and fibre and cabinets. As all of VM network is buried this will be interesting to watch and with the recent Netco announcement this could make them some more money but they might open up the network to others . They did it years ago with AOL

    1. Avatar photo Mark Smith says:

      Not only that but ultimately it was debt and these companies carried and serviced this huge debt for decades.
      The point is that it takes a very long time to get an ROI on these investments.
      VMO2 already allow others to pay to use their ducts, the story here is that Openreach and some are saying it should be at the same perppercorn rates as Openreach PIA.
      Why should companies load themselves with debt which takes year to pay off as they service the debt, only to be forced to allow competitors to use their infrastructure for next to nothing.
      Im no fan of VMO2 or their owners, but just can’t understand the argument against them here.

  16. Avatar photo anon says:

    All ducts/poles should be available for all to use. It’s only fair.

  17. Avatar photo Clive says:

    Virgin Medias reply is a nice burn to Openreach.

  18. Avatar photo Mike says:

    The anti -monopoly laws don’t work when it comes to network infastructure. As an ex-openreach employee, I strongly feel that openreach should have been detached from BT entirely and put under government control. It should then be the only company that deals with infrastructure because what we now have is the wild west of infrastructure companies all competing only for the most profitable areas. Whilst OR is forced to supply everywhere, cable damages has gone up as other companies are virtually unregulated and some companies are putting up poles in areas that are historically underground, to suite their bottom line, which no customers are happy with. Infrastructure is being over built which means overfilled duct lines and many pathments being dug up multiple times. It is clear that offcom is clueless and this current situation will bite us all in the years to come.

    1. Avatar photo Witcher says:

      BT Group chose to keep hold of Openreach and the network. They could’ve spun it off but instead gave a bunch of concessions voluntarily to regulator and government to avoid Openreach and network being separated from the group.

      Cable damage nothing to do with regulation. Openreach can remove accreditation if PIA work isn’t up to scratch and cable damage otherwise is a private matter. When one company damages another company’s plant the company damaged may demand compensation and sue if necessary. This applies to water, gas, electricity and fibre.

      Openreach and BT Group could have made overbuilding redundant but asked for and got changes from Ofcom that let them build the fibre network in a way to make sure it couldn’t be unbundled.

      Ofcom can’t nationalise things only government can do that.

    2. Avatar photo Roger_Gooner says:

      @Mike: Virgin Media and nexfibre are busy installing fibre all over the country and in many places are overbuilding Openreach. Would you want them to be nationalised under Openreach’s management also and, if so, then why would anyone bother busting their guts to build infrastructure?

    3. Avatar photo Elvis says:

      I’m a Fibre planner with OR at the moment, and I’m having to plan to put up BT poles next to Alt net poles just so we can serve our customers and they can have FTTP. It’s shocking, a waste of money, and pointless disruption to all customers too.

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