Ofcom orders legal separation of Openreach from BT

[HEXUS]

After BT fails to volunteer alternative proposals to address competition concerns.

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[tomthum]

Time we got rid of land lines and used the 5G wireless internet or somethin better
but they drag there feet were landlines are concerned that's there main CASH COW

Tom G

[cptwhite_uk]

Cellular speeds, once the 5G network are rolled out, are largely going to make poor landline speeds irrelevant. I expect they knew the infrastructure renovation required wasn't cost effective in the long run, hence the neglected state of our phone lines.

[KrisWragg]

Just get rid of the copper and give me fibre to my house.

[3dcandy]

All of the above are nearly irrelevant given the state of 5g and our current infrastructure. We have a problem in the UK that most people are now wanting fast tinternet but not the high prices. This legal ruling goes a small way to making prices lower for the majority. Many people on these forums and website are NOT the majority

[DanceswithUnix]

Cellular speeds, once the 5G network are rolled out, are largely going to make poor landline speeds irrelevant. I expect they knew the infrastructure renovation required wasn't cost effective in the long run, hence the neglected state of our phone lines.

I thought most of the cellular masts were on DSL lines, making the DSL and backhaul network just as important as ever.

[crossy]

Hmm, I'm not getting at all the "oh, we're waiting for 5G", but doesn't that just move you from relying on the beneficence of BT to the even less trustworthy hands of the mobile operators? Remember these are the selfsame vendors who will happily allow you to buy a contract with a data allowance that you can blow in minutes. And then there's the small issue of coverage, fine if you're in London or "the Northern Powerhouse", but nowt much good in the middle of Yorkshire or somewhere in Norfolk.

Mobile rant over, personally I would have thought it best if Openreach was either a totally separate company or, failing that, some kind of cartel that the line operators like BT, TalkTalk, Sky etc could buy a share of. Anything short of that is always going to leave the suspicion that BT are "rigging the game" to their own benefit.

Normally I wouldn't be bothered about this, but my beloved Virgin Media broadband has been suffering (comparatively) a lot of outages recently so I may be looking for an alternate supplier soon.

[Unique]

it's probably better for all, but I don't agree that a company should have to be forced to supply other businesses and have capped pricing etc and then be forced to split like this. even if it used to be a government owned business, it was sold off years ago

same applies to sky having to supply other businesses, and I don't agree that the likes of Microsoft being forced to change software for anti competitive reasons

[3dcandy]

it's probably better for all, but I don't agree that a company should have to be forced to supply other businesses and have capped pricing etc and then be forced to split like this. even if it used to be a government owned business, it was sold off years ago

same applies to sky having to supply other businesses, and I don't agree that the likes of Microsoft being forced to change software for anti competitive reasons

Biggest reason this has been forced is that openreach actively hamper other networks and prioritise their own network towards BT. This is rather unfair and *should* bring prices down. We have an awful system at moment but it is slowly moving in the right direction

[siu99spj]

I thought most of the cellular masts were on DSL lines, making the DSL and backhaul network just as important as ever.

OK, the cellular network doesn't use DSL but there is a backbone/backhaul network which they are connected to and this needs cables of some sort. No 5G, 6G or XX-Maxi-G network will ever remove the need for cables and that's where Openreach will be useful.

For most 'home' users, what they can get over a wireless signal will be sufficient, but for 'big' data or lots and lots of users, or even getting a signal around a multi-story building, cables still rule.

And having a separate, independent company doing the backbone cabling across the UK can only be a good thing, with every Telco and such having equal access to it.

[Dashers]

I'd be more interested to hear from what smaller ISPs thought of BT rather than their direct competitors.

[shaithis]

My prediction: All broadband will get more expensive.

Whenever anything gets "broken up" due to fairness, the prices always rise.

[theleader]

I can see my BT pension slowly going up in smoke!

[explicitlyrics]

My prediction: All broadband will get more expensive.

Whenever anything gets "broken up" due to fairness, the prices always rise.

This, exactly this! Openreach was FAR from perfect and was generally pretty useless. There may have been some favouring towards BT (I dont know anything about it as I havent worked from either BT or Sky - you need both I think to comment fairly). There is no way this can do anything but make broadband more expensive for everybody, even if the service is more fair. That said broadband in the UK is and has been for a long time 'too cheap', many other countries are more expensive and this is hugely counterproductive for investment (e.g. cheap 2mbps broadband in France will still cost 45 EUR inc a landline).

[Unique]

Biggest reason this has been forced is that openreach actively hamper other networks and prioritise their own network towards BT. This is rather unfair and *should* bring prices down. We have an awful system at moment but it is slowly moving in the right direction

it's only your opinion it's unfair. if you had your own business would you want to let competitors you are forced to deal with have the same level of service as you give your own customers, if you had the choice not to? those competitors who are using all your facilities and at times providing to customers exactly what you are providing, but undercutting you?

i don't think it will bring prices down, it will be the opposite, they will all rise

[3dcandy]

Perhaps they will rise, in fact the current pound situation means they possibly will. But the idea is to make them fall but more so give parity to some of the other suppliers. It's a difficult situation as Openreach have had a monopoly on the dsl network for so long and being a part of BT under the same management etc. gives them an advantage. Whether that advantage is fair or not is what Ofcom are trying to address. Whichever it is a step in the right direction to more transparency which is a good thing