Just to clarify the question comes from here:

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2016/10/21/h...

"If Openreach looks after the trunk network as well as "local" circuits (which the Wikipedia article suggests they don't) then splitting off Openreach as it currently exists could have unintended consequences. And if Openreach doesn't look after trunk routes then who does?"

Andre

We can now see the context of your enquiry.

This gets messy!!

Due to the complexities of trying to do what was required back in 2005 by the BT undertakings All BT fibre Cables and ducts are taken to be OR responsibility. Thus regardless or which BT divisions utilise each fibre within them OR maintain them.

(Asset wise they are accounted to the division that uses them, thus Access fibres are OR, Trunk fibres are TSO. Internal trading covers Retail Business and Wholesale.)

IF OR is split off in theory nothing changes, in practice all BTs services are provided by OR and the accounting and communications chains get messier, ( This also happens with Dark Fibre and Duct leasing) as there will be more players shouting at OR all wanting to pay less. Depending on the Dark fibre prices BT divisions may well be better off and OR worse off than at present!

BT would have to split all its Fibre ( and Duct space) assets into sub products internally so that TSO would pay real rent to OR for the assets it uses in each class. This must all be happening under the radar to meet the non discriminartory requirements for Dark fibre and Duct sharing.

The real messy part is the OSS ( computer systems) which would all have to be changed and cost tens of £m each time you redesign a system. eg; Incident management is pan BT at present so that all CPs ( internal and external) get a total view of what service is down in any incident ( What they do with the info is a different matter!) This allows OR to prioritise the recovery of fibres/Cu circuits depending on SLA AND government requirements.( Emergency users over paying customers!)

This all costs and is part of the regulatory cost BT has to pay to meet OFCOMs wants. BUT doesn't make it cheaper for you and I and takes a long time to change when it is a live system. ( BTs computer people regularly do the equivalent of changing the engines on a jet whilst in flight without a major failure.) This is where the real difficulty splitting OR from BT will arise. along with the pension deficit and debt ( It will be like bad divorce and will make everybody poorer except the accountants).

Same goes for buildings!!

I don't want to think about the mess when Network rail break a duct with duct sharing in, engineers may fight to be first/last in the hole!

For those wondering how it takes up to a week to fix. ( practically all lines affected would be Access lines)

Approx time order
The emergency lines affected will be restored first, Hospitals / Police/ Fire.
and critical Residential lines ( Kidney dialysis etc)

At the same time, if they can get at them together, the fibres will be rejointed in priority order. ( Trunk ones will usualy be rerouted where capacity exists by electronic switching) .

Where customers paid for resilience they should not be affected (but may if the resilience was not route based but duct or fibre based)

Then it is a case of working through the rest of the access circuits with 30k+ joints to be remade.

All the above depend on whether the contractors just cut or completely destroyed the ducts and cables and in the latter where they have to cut back to to replace the section. The closness to the railway may make this further than optimum!

I've also noticed that 'bml utilities' have been installing cable in underground distribution points, and also at the cabinets in my area?

What are their responsibilities?

Contractor working on behalf of Openreach.

In reference to www.bizdb.co.uk/company/bml-utility-contractors-ltd-06579615/:

On Monday 15th December 2014, it started searching for new employees for a Telecom Jointers E & D side for PCP/DSLAM work.

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Just to clarify the question comes from here:

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2016/10/21/h...

"If Openreach looks after the trunk network as well as "local" circuits (which the Wikipedia article suggests they don't) then splitting off Openreach as it currently exists could have unintended consequences. And if Openreach doesn't look after trunk routes then who does?"

It's interesting isn't it? As you say it's not just the local loop they look after. It would be so much more officially to split off OR than many people (and maybe even Ofcom) realise. Even down to establishing things like ownership of the actual buildings. Absolute nightmare!

Kitcat, thank you for that and to others for their in-depth explanations. I think that addresses the gist of my question. Until I saw that comment on Wikipedia I assumed that openreach 'owned' all the physical cabling and switches (in effect that openreach was the 'real' BT I suppose) and that the other divisions just attached their own routers and paid rental to them. Clearly it's a lot more complicated than that (not a great surprise to me). And would certainly be yet another problem if OR were to be separated off.

BT wholesale.

Openreach do own fibre outside of the local loop which is even rented out by companies like sky to get traffic from exchanges to their own network.