ITSPA, the voice of the next generation communications industry in the UK, today welcomed Ofcom’s proposals for an increasingly independent Openreach, but called for further focus on measures to ensure Openreach’s performance improves to a level that the communications industry and the UK needs.
Reacting to the news, Eli Katz, Chair of ITSPA stated “Members of ITSPA are pleased that Ofcom has proposed an increasingly independent Openreach, but has avoided full structural separation of Openreach from BT. In ITSPA’s opinion, full separation would have been unlikely to address our key concerns around performance and could have created more difficulties than it would have solved. “
Continuing, Katz said “It is now essential that Ofcom continues to work on tough performance rules for Openreach, setting out minimum requirements on fault repairs and line installation. We look forward to further details on performance requirements being published later this year and to improved measures for closely monitoring Openreach’s performance”.
Commenting on Ofcom’s update on its other ongoing work streams, Katz stated “ITSPA has already expressed concerns on Ofcom’s proposals around a scheme for automatic compensation for customers of telecoms companies and has highlighted the need for very careful implementation of this system to ensure that the competitiveness of the UK telecoms industry, and the presence of smaller communications providers in the market, is preserved. Additionally, we eagerly look forward to the publication of Ofcom’s proposals on landline switching and urge Ofcom to include reform of the system for fixed number porting as part of this”.
