- BT Group
Next Generation Broadband
What we’re doing and how you could benefit
BT's history
We're the oldest tele-
communications company in the world
Connected Earth
Online museum of communication
Inside Out
BT's corporate blog
- Responsible business
Better World Magazine
Latest issue
Case studies
Highlighting our responsible business activities all over the world
Search the Sustainability Report - BT careers around the world
Next steps
Job search and apply
Where next?
Find out about
what the future
might hold
Meet our people
Find out what
its like from the
people who work here
Overview
EAB Overview
13 August 2007
Undertakings delivery update
BT asserts delivery of two milestones
BT asserted on 3 July that it had delivered two significant Undertakings milestones: Wholesale Line Rental Ready for Service (WLR RFS) and the implementation of Operational Support Systems (OSS) user access controls in Openreach for certain EoI products. The EAB has begun its validation of both milestones and will report the outcome in a future Overview.
WLR RFS
Despite some challenges, BT nevertheless believes it achieved the WLR RFS milestone. The EAB noted that BT would be making payments during July 2007 to the relevant CPs in case it needed to revert to fallback systems in the month. BT notified the EAB that it had used this fallback option during July and had been in breach as a result (see the final breach notification below). However, since 1 August BT states that it has returned to an EoI service in compliance with the Undertakings requirements. The EAB will continue to monitor this situation on an ongoing basis as well as completing its usual validation process.
OSS variation
Following a consultation, on 21 June 2007 Ofcom published a variation to the Undertakings regarding the separation of Openreach's OSS from the rest of BT. The variation commits BT to meet milestones on the way to full physical separation in 2010. In the interim, BT is required to put in place user access controls for specified key EoI products supported on shared systems during 2007/08, which it asserted that it had delivered from 30 June 2007. The EAB is validating BT's delivery of these interim measures, and it is also required to commission an internal audit on BT's progress towards delivery of full physical separation in 2010.
EAB validations
The EAB's validation work on a number of other milestones continues:
- The EAB has validated that BT delivered Wholesale Extension Services/Backhaul Extension Services (WES/BES) Installed Base Migration Complete (IBMC) on 31 March 2007.
- The EAB has validated allowance payments to CPs which BT offered following the trivial breach of Local Loop Unbundling RFS identified by the EAB in December 2006.
- The EAB has confirmed that BT provided a roadmap setting out its plans to implement Level 2 system separation for Management Information Systems (MIS) by 30 June 2010. The EAB's validation noted that Ofcom has requested a further version of the roadmap after April 2008.
- The EAB is not yet in a position to confirm delivery of IPStream consuming LLU IBMC because of a small number of outstanding records. These are associated with the ISDN/Highway conversion breach reported in the last Overview and until the EAB has been able to validate that this breach has been remedied, the EAB will be unable to reach a conclusion on IPStream consuming LLU IBMC.
Complaints
Complaint from a CP
On 11 May 2007, the EAB received a complaint from a CP ”which requested to remain anonymous ”alleging that Openreach supplied dark fibre to BT CPs in contravention of the Undertakings provisions regarding Openreach's product portfolio. The EAO found that since the downstream product offered by BT Global Services was covered by a variation of the Undertakings (pending the outcome of discussions with Ofcom in relation to a requested exemption from EoI), no breach had occurred. As a result, the EAB did not uphold the complaint.
Breaches
Six breaches of the Undertakings reported
BT reported six breaches of the Undertakings to the EAB at its July meeting. This brings the total number of breach notifications that the EAB has received from BT to 17 since the Undertakings were agreed. The EAB assesses BT's classification of breaches and monitors any remedial action taken by BT following a breach of the Undertakings.
One of the breaches reported at the EAB's July meeting was non-trivial, three were trivial and two are still to be classified.
The non-trivial breach was:
- Inappropriate information sharing of Openreach Customer Confidential Information within BT Wholesale. BT has put in place remedial action including further training for BT Wholesale employees and scrutiny of information within BT Wholesale.
The trivial breaches were:
- Non-equivalent provision of Openreach Network Backhaul Service circuits for 21CN/BT Wholesale in the
West Midlands. The EAB found that only a small number of circuits were prioritised in this way and the breach was therefore trivial. To remedy the breach, Openreach is developing a new procedure to enable all CPs to request prioritised delivery of circuits within certain parameters. - As a result of historic task allocation, a team of BT Global Services team of technical consultants occasionally carried out advanced fault investigation and diagnostics on the Openreach access network without Openreach's knowledge. The practice was stopped in April 2007.
- Advanced Diagnostics for PSTN and ISDN2 were not operated in a way that was compliant with the Undertakings. This was the result of a historic process that remained unchanged following the creation of Openreach. BT has stated that it will resolve the issue by transferring part of BT Retail's Test and Diagnostics team to Openreach.
The breaches yet to be classified were:
- Non-equivalent operation by Openreach engineers of Openreach's special faults investigation product in relation to LLU lines. Going forward, the non-equivalent operation will be resolved by CPs gaining access to the more manual investigation process for specific types of MPF faults currently open to BT Wholesale only. It will also be resolved by Openreach engineers using the same process for BT Wholesale as for other CPs to carry out live testing and access parametric diagnostics data. Given the recent reporting of this breach by BT, the EAB is still in the process of classifying its status.
- On 13 July BT reported that BT Retail reverted back to using non-EoI systems to process orders from some new end users in order to maintain service levels. BT has not yet determined whether the breach is trivial or non-trivial.
Other news
Virgin Media attends July EAB meeting
Andy King, Director of Regulation and Compliance at Virgin Media, attended the EAB's July meeting to discuss next generation networks and BT's Consult 21 programme. Further industry attendees are planned for EAB meetings during the rest of 2007.
Glossary
BES: Backhaul Extension Services
CCI: Customer Confidential Information
Consult21: BT's consultation on its next generation network plans
CPs: Communications Providers
EoI: Equivalence of Inputs
IBMC: Installed Base Migration Complete
ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network
LLU: Local Loop Unbundling
OSS: Operational Support Systems
PSTN: Public Switched Telephony Network
RFS: Ready for Service
WES: Wholesale Extension Services
WLR: Wholesale Line Rental
Links
