Well if we chaps on here are confused by how it will finally look, it seems most of the media don't seem to understand it either. Prominent headline runner on the bottom of BBC News last night referred to Openreach as 'the company responsible for the UK's broadband infrastructure'. They conveniently forget that they also supply most of our landlines, the associated exchanges, and that a lot of the broadband infrastructure is independently provided by LLU providers and Virgin. But of course slow broadband is the flavour of the month...

In reply to a post by dsergeant:

But of course slow broadband is the flavour of the month...

Even though most people now have more speed than they want.

Post deleted by MrSaffron

I agree with your first, third and to some extent fourth lines.

That Ofcom continue to remain a very weak organisation in the face of BT Group I accept. A big problem is that it's head took the post with little to zero knowledge of broadband in particular and telecoms in general.

She is clearly a highly competent operator in other fields, but I don't think that is enough. For something so complex and so politically sensitive it seemed a strange appointment at the time, and so it has proved so far.
_{Edit: Quote of the post replied to removed, following what happened to it.}

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 11-Mar-17 10:40:10)

The problem for OFCOM was that its hands were ultimately tied. In the eyes of experts, they would have failed to force the legal separation of Openreach with the European Commission.

A good point. But a decent commercial/corporate EU lawyer wanting to rubbish this pseudo-separation would have no problem whatsoever in doing so.

BT Group already has many subsidiary companies - some fully owned and some majority owned, this will not really be much different.

In reply to a post by MHC:

BT Group already has many subsidiary companies - some fully owned and some majority owned, this will not really be much different.

Yep, and some of them are major suppliers to Openreach such as BT Cables and BT Fleet which is probably another reason why BT resisted full separation.

If the poster has proof of their accusations then they should take it to appropriate authorities, otherwise it just reads as random musings that could land the poster with libel claims.

That post seems to be the best summary for how I feel about it.

Compared to a few months ago, when Ofcom announced it was going to seek approval from the EU, and BT announced what the independent board would look like, it feels like almost nothing has changed.

I can understand why Ofcom have accepted it, but I don't see why Sky and TalkTalk aren't complaining. There is no gain in them *ever* agreeing.

G.Fast = Value Accretive
FTTH = Value Destructive

is some interesting terminology. Cue B4RN members using the better known "sweat the copper assets".