Are you making the most of our resources?

We have a huge variety of processes, products and services – and they all change as technology evolves to meet new demands. The sheer volume of information sometimes makes it difficult to find what you need, when you need it. So we have a few tips on how to make sure you get the most out of the resources we have.

Over the next few blogs, we’ll outline some of the key support tools available, including how you can personalise the Openreach portal, and access business process documents and pricing information.

To kick things off, we’ll show you where to get guidance on the basics: a quick tour of the portal, using the navigation to find your way around – and how to set things up so you’re notified anytime something is updated in the sections that are of interest to you.

Getting started

First things first, on our website homepage you’ll see a Help & Support tab in the top menu. This will take you through to a page with jumping off points to various ‘How to...’ guides, computer-based training (CBT) modules and frequently asked questions (FAQs). More about them later!

For a quick introduction to the portal and how to use it, click on Using the portal in the left hand menu. This gives you it in a nutshell – and there’s also a downloadable quick start guide.

Alternatively, you can watch a presentation outlining the main features of the portal and how to use them (this may take a few moments to load and you’ll get more out of it if you can hear the presentation as well).

Moving around

Once you’ve got your bearings, you can begin to move about. The left-hand navigation pane and the product catalogue are the best places to start. We have a wealth of information and a comprehensive set of documentation for every product and it’s all structured consistently, regardless of product.

But not everyone needs to see all of this information all of the time – so, for example, if you're in a technical role then you probably don't need to see the business documents (and vice-versa). So, once you’ve logged in, you can easily switch between a Business View, a Process view, and a Technical View.

Watch the Product catalogue presentation to learn more.

Keeping up to date

It’s easy to keep up with changes to the portal, using RSS feeds. This means you don’t have to check back to keep track of changes – you’ll be notified automatically. Here’s how to set it up for your browser:

• If there’s an RSS icon directly below the navigation bar on the right-hand side, you'll know we have a news feed for it.
• Click on the icon and a pop-up window will display a short message and ask you if you want to subscribe to the feed
• Click on the words Subscribe to this feed in the pop-up window
• A second pop-up window will ask you if you want to give the feed an easy to remember name and add it your list of browser Favourites. Do that and you're done!

From then on, whenever we update subject matter on the website that you've indicated an interest in, a link will automatically be added to the Favourites list in your browser. Click on that link and you're there!

There’s also a short guide on setting up and using news feeds available to download.

Second crash drama for hero engineer

Engineer Scott Wavell sprang into action after an elderly woman was knocked down by a truck outside Dyserth telephone exchange in Wales, using first aid skills he gained in the army to tend to the victim.

And it was a case of déjà vu for Scott, as six years ago he tended another woman injured in a road accident.

Scott, who served in the army for nine years as a vehicle mechanic before joining Openreach in 1997, said: “In this latest incident I drove into the road and saw a woman waving her arms at the rear of the truck and realised something was wrong.

Hero engineer Scott Wavell

“I immediately stopped, grabbed my first aid kit and ran over and saw a woman aged about 65 lying face down on the ground and barely conscious.

“Some people were trying to move her to get her off the wet road but I realised this was the wrong thing to do so I kept them away from her and tried to ensure people remained calm.

“It took around 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive and, during that time, I kept a phone line open to the ambulance service and stayed by the woman’s side.

“She lost consciousness after about five minutes but we managed to rouse her.

“The police and ambulance crew arrived and took over and the paramedics spent more than an hour stabilising the woman at the scene before taking her to hospital.

“I didn’t do a lot – it was just a case of remaining calm, which wasn’t a problem for me after my military career, including serving in the Gulf War. But I must be jinxed for this to happen to me twice.”

New vans put engineers in the driving seat

The first of more than 300 brand new Ford Transit vans have been delivered to new engineers in Gloucester. The combination of more manpower and new wheels means we’ll have more engineers out and about getting our service delivery back on track for customers.

Rob Lee, Openreach marketing director, said: “This is great news for both us and our customers as our newly recruited engineering workforce, some of whom are ex-service personnel, can get out on the road to help meet the outstanding demand for our products and services.”

All the vans are kitted out in the latest superfast branding so they’ll also be acting as mobile adverts for our fibre broadband rollout – and hopefully encourage more people to ask about getting it.

Rob said: “The campaign continues to generate awareness and take-up of our fibre access products across the whole of the UK and we are now setting our sights on achieving the next million end user connections.”

Find out what’s involved in rolling out new van livery in a blog by Stewart Signs>

A simple kitty teaches a viral lesson or two…

When ‘Oscar, the meanest moggy in Britain’ shot to fame across national press last week our marketing team were somewhat amused and bemused! Why? Because his owner is none other than our very own head of marketing, Caroline Hughes.

Forgetting the subject matter, we were fascinated that such a small local story could go international, literally overnight. “How did it begin and how can we replicate this?” was our ‘ever-questioning’ marketing team’s first response.

It started local; a simple press release to local papers, just to find a missing cat. You’ve got to provide a hook of course so the fact that the cat had a run-in with a neighbour back in May and appeared on TV in 2010 had to be included!

Sure enough the local press picked it up. And that probably would’ve been the end. But then, an anonymous neighbour called the paper to express anger that Oscar was now back (after being found some 34 miles away… hmmm?). The journalist smelt a continuation story and quickly asked Caroline if he could run a nice “he’s back” story (with no mention of the deep local hatred felt for poor Oscar). A short photo shoot captured a few choice ‘scary’ images of Oscar and the story hit the local headlines again, with a far more venomous edge to it than expected.

Then came the endless stream of comments posted online… enough to rank the article so high that it ticked the boxes for a national press agency. Once it was ‘beefed up’ a little more and was circulated ‘on the wire’ from them, there was literally no stopping it!

The next day Oscar’s household was woken at first light by press, TV and radio in what seemed like a never ending stream of media folk requesting interview after interview. The story had already been picked up by the Metro, Daily Mail, Daily Express, BBC and Sky News and even an Arab paper plus many more. And by the next day it had hit France and Switzerland too where it featured on the front page, a street billboard and even a cartoon strip!

With so much engagement with their online article, the Daily Mail then asked to run a more balanced weekend feature. This included a full feline photo shoot, cat charity donation in Oscar’s honour and full hair and make-up (not for the cat though, in case you were wondering).

One thing’s for sure, it was a rich media training experience for Caroline! But why exactly did it go international?

Engagement, engagement, engagement is the answer. It’s not about what you push out there, it’s the reaction to it that sends it viral (be it laughter, disgust or anger). By using quotes that incited hatred towards a cat, the papers were able to stir enough feeling from the general public to make them post comments and even argue with each other online. Proof of that engagement turned a local story into one that would sell worldwide. Plus everyone loves a bit of cattitude too, apparently!

So, is he really that mean?  Of course not! He’s just a big pussy cat….

P.S. Oscar’s on Facebook too. Pawtographs available from Caroline on request (sorry, we couldn’t resist).

Magnificent seven take on epic Channel Challenge

Openreach Marketing Director Rob Lee faces many channel challenges daily, spending his time between the communications channel, the marketing channel and the sales channel. But his  biggest channel challenge came on a bright October day in Dover, as Rob explains...

Accompanied by my son, my future son-in-law, three work colleagues and a cox, we set off in an epic attempt to row the English Channel, all in aid of the fantastic AHOY charity.

The magnificent seven set off for the far away beaches of Calais, buoyed by the sunshine, enthused by the challenge and absolutely knackered from the 45-minute kerfuffle of dragging a traditional 19th Century Thames Cutter down a shingle slope to launch into the waves.

Our motto throughout the three months of training had always been: “How hard can it be?” We had 10 sessions planned on the Thames, the last three being 22-mile rows and some sea training around the Isle of Sheppey.

Needless to say, on the day we braved the channel, we had all done just 5 or 6 sessions on the Thames, our longest training run had been 11 miles and we’d got nowhere near the sea. How hard can it be?

"I thought you were in charge of the oars!"

It was bloody hard... over five hours of agony.  Our plan had been to cover 11 miles quickly, getting past half-way to eliminate the chance to turn around and come back. Sadly we rowed for over two hours, yet I could still see the registration of my car parked on the Dover seafront.

My wife and other family members crossed on the Ferry. They steamed past us cheering encouragement, waving flags, rushing to get to the beach in Calais to greet us. Sadly that was the last we saw of them until we returned to Kent.

Braving 6 ft waves, and some of the biggest tankers and cargo ships I have ever seen at such close quarters, we battled on. The first two hours were full of good humour and banter, the next hour was silent, the fourth and fifth hours became a bit like tired children snapping at each other, how hard can it be?

However, we did it and although we were far too shattered to enjoy the achievement that night, the following days allowed us the luxury of boring every person we met with “I rowed the Channel, you know”, and here I am telling all our customers.

So, I learned a few lessons: training is important, launching from a jetty is important, and never ever doing anything like this again is mandatory.

The Ahoy charity is brilliant, they help vulnerable and disadvantaged kids experience the pleasure of sailing, rowing and – critically – working as a team. We raised nearly £40k, and if you fancy throwing a few quid their way, you can still donate here.

From Semaphore to Smartphone

The 6th annual Manchester Science Festival ran until 4 November this year and included a special guest appearance from Openreach Ollie during an interactive communications technology event at MediaCityUK.

The nine-day, multi-venue Festival engages and inspires people with science, building their confidence in exploring and questioning science in the most creative ways possible. Events take place in cultural and unusual venues around the city, in Salford, Bolton and across Greater Manchester.

Openreach Ollie dials back in time 

At the centre of the Festival is a family programme including science shows and hands-on activities to keep the kids busy and entertained during half term.

One of these was ‘From Semaphore to Smartphone’, a free interactive exhibition which showed how people communicated before smartphones came along! So people could try their hands at sending messages using flags and Morse Code, among other things. Even Openreach Ollie got in on the act.

And as part of the University of Salford’s weekend of technology at MediaCityUK, there was also the ever popular Digital Retro event, showing computers through the ages. From the Dragon 32 and the Commodore 64 all the way to the Raspberry Pi, there was a range of vintage computers and software to try out.

Killer RABIT let loose by Openreach

We’re now three months into a customer trial of RABIT, known officially as the slightly less catchy 'Major Service Outage (MSO) proactive CP notification trial'. RABIT is an innovative new cable protection system which can detect when a cable has been cut or damaged and notify the police so they can be at the site of the incident within minutes.

The technology was piloted earlier this year and the current trial extends its use to interested communications providers.

As a new diagnostic tool, RABIT – the nickname derives from the original Rapid Assessment BT Incident Tracker technology the trial is based on – instantly notifies ISPs of any cable theft.

The information it sends out includes postcodes of the affected customers which can help manage faults and get customers back online faster. And the new tool might help nab a few more scrap metal thieves if they’re caught in the act.

RABIT is the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at tackling the problem of rising cable theft – mostly by organised gangs. We managed to recover 240 tonnes of stolen metal in an 11-month period through a combination of visits to scrap metal dealers and targeted Police operations.

You can see the official briefing here. And the original RABIT press release here.

A little taste of the Openreach Roadshow in Swindon

We were out and about last month, helping to spread the word about superfast fibre broadband. So if you were wandering around the Brunel shopping centre in Swindon on a Saturday afternoon in August, you might have bumped into the Openreach roadshow team.

In a trial run for other areas, we set up some new information stands and handed out flyers to raise awareness of superfast fibre availability in the area. Over three weekends we distributed thousands of leaflets and had a team in the Brunel shopping centre to answer any questions the locals might have had.

We had nearly 650 visitors on the first Saturday and almost double that a week later. We were able to demonstrate the differences between standard broadband fibre broadband using a ‘See the Difference’ presentation on a tablet device. The team also answered questions, showed which exchanges are enabled and gave advice on how to order superfast fibre broadband through a customer's preferred provider.

We learned a lot about the best way to approach these kinds of events from our experience in Swindon, and we’ll be looking to put this into practice in the future.

Double troubleshooters

With the focus very much on improving the current provision and repair situation, we’ve made some changes to help get things moving in the short term and to improve the customer experience in the longer term.

As part of this initiative, we’ve drafted in two specialists, Dan Moss and Steve Askew, to help get things back on track – and keep them there.

Dan may already be a familiar face to customers, as he previously worked as head of DSO and complaints. He’ll become operational GM for escalations and complaints, including the Director Service Office (DSO).  Customers can contact Dan for all ‘business as usual’ escalation issues related to day-to-day performance, both in terms of KCIs and customer updates.

Steve will become GM for root cause analysis and complaint reduction; He’ll focus on strategic change imperatives and will be working with customers and contacts across the industry to improve our service performance. He’s tasked with driving a reduction in customer issues to maximise effectiveness in the handling of remaining escalations.

These changes effectively double the focus on improving the current situation, but with an eye on the future as well. We want Openreach to be better able to address exceptional weather conditions and any unexpected ‘events’ going forward.

The changes are reflected in Customer Service Plans (CSP) and a new customer briefing.

How the cookies crumble

The first time you visit openreach.co.uk next week, you'll more than likely see a message about cookies. Don't worry, we've not branched out into catering; instead we're bringing our website in line with the latest online privacy guidelines.

Cookies are small files that allow a website to recognise and track users. They basically make the experience of using a website better.

We use different types of cookies on our site, based on the International Chamber of Commerce (ICO) cookie category guide:

• strictly necessary cookies enable services you have asked for on our site but the information isn't shared with any other site
• performance cookies collect anonymous information on the pages you visit. Again, this information is not used for advertising on other sites
• functional cookies remember choices you make to improve your experience and, as above, aren't used for advertising on other sites
• targeting cookies share information about your browsing habits with third parties to help make advertising relevant to you and your interests.

From next week you'll be able to control which type of cookies you accept from our site – and can change the settings easily at any time. You'll only get a message about cookies the first time you visit, so if you're happy with the way things are, you just accept the default settings and continue as normal.

Paralympians proving a point

Anyone worried that the Paralympics would be overshadowed by the Olympic Games must be delighted with the competition so far.

As we approach the final weekend, it’s clear from the crowds, the coverage and the reaction of the athletes themselves (including those who lost their rag!) that this has been a hugely successful event. Sixteen countries have taken part for the first time and over 4,000 athletes have been competing in the 500 events.

As the pre-eminent partner of Paralympic sport in the UK, our vision is for a fundamental shift in how disability, and disability in sport, is perceived following the Paralympics. Our aim is to help as many people as possible understand and get excited about Paralympic sport and to continue that momentum beyond London 2012.

Paralympics:10 things you need to know

Connecting the Games

With 4 billion TV viewers around the world and 16 million people watching on big screens across the UK, this has been the most connected Game ever. And it’s all been underpinned by one network.

The London 2012 network went live way back in April 2010. And long before that we had to design the communications infrastructure itself, which is basically the size of a large town.

In the lead up to the spectacular Opening Ceremony, there were 42 live test events as part of the London Prepares series, the official London 2012 sports testing programme.

Among the various technical challenges, the London 2012 website had to be engineered to withstand as much as one billion visits and 12 billion page views during the Games.

During the event itself, the network was managed from the London 2012 Technology Operation Centre (TOC) in Canary Wharf where over 90 BT people worked 12-hour shifts, with changeovers timed to avoid busy periods when events are taking place.

It’s just a shame there are no medals handed out for planning and engineering!

London 2012: communications fast facts

It's been compulsive viewing so far, and London 2012 is just as fascinating behind the scenes.

Here are a few facts about BT's communications network during the most connected Games ever:

• the accredited media and Games organisers have made over 250,000 telephone calls on BT's London 2012 network over the last week
• there was a 100 Gbit/s increase in internet traffic during the women's gymnastics when Team GB finished 6th and a similar increase when the men's team won a bronze medal
• when Andy Murray defeated Roger Federer in the men's tennis final there was a 25% increase in internet traffic over BT's national network 
• and there was a 30% increase in iPlayer traffic over BT's network when Usain Bolt retained his 100 metre title. At 9.63 seconds from start to finish, it's a moment when you really don't want buffering!

Service performance stats at your fingertips

We've just launched the first Openreach Service Pack, which pulls together all of the key performance indicators related to service across our portfolio.

We’re going to update the details every month and the first pack will focus on our performance up to the end of June 2012.

By having all of this information available in one place, we hope the pack will help make it easier for our customers to see how we’re doing in terms of provision and repair.

The pack will cover performance reporting for everything from Copper and Ethernet products to Infrastructure (including Plan and Build). We’ll also analyse the number of service escalations and associated performance.

You can get more information about the new Openreach Service Pack here.

North Yorkshire wins fibre broadband race

England’s largest rural county will be the first to deploy BDUK funds so that an incredible 90 per cent of homes and businesses in the area – some 365,000 premises – will have access to fibre broadband speeds of up to 80Mbit/s by the end of 2014.

The project is kicking off right away after the council signed a contract that will take the total amount invested in North Yorkshire fibre broadband to around £70 million.

Ultra-fast broadband speeds of up to 330Mbit/s will also be deployed in certain areas and made available ‘on demand’ throughout the entire fibre footprint. Compare that to a current average of 6.6Mbit/s across the county!

It’s great news for everyone involved and follows on from similar plans announced for Wales and Lancashire.

Engineer turns lifesaver

Frank Kearney went above and beyond the call of duty recently when he rushed to the aid of an elderly woman in Bellshill, Scotland.

Our engineers get up to a lot of stuff when they’re out and about on the job. Between them they climb the equivalent of Mount Everest every day, maintaining and repairing the country’s communications network. But one, Frank Kearney, went above and beyond the call of duty recently when he spotted an elderly woman slumped in a bus shelter as he drove through Bellshill in Scotland.

Frank immediately dived out of his van and ran to help. The woman, in her 80s, wasn’t breathing so Frank carried out CPR to get her breathing again and then kept her comfortable until an ambulance arrived.

Having been a medic with the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland, Frank described his heroics as “all in a day’s work”. He then got back in his van and carried on to his next appointment!

That’s the kind of guy you want sorting out your broadband connection…

Tales of the expected

I had to rewind an episode of supernatural thriller Bedlam recently when a warning, scrawled on the wall, was revealed by an Openreach van pulling away. It stole the show...

I didn’t expect to see it, but I suppose if you want to set your drama in the real world, there has to be an Openreach van – there are plenty of them around!

But the reality is that many people still don’t know who we are and what we do. And if engineers are refused entry because the person at home doesn’t expect an Openreach engineer to visit, it’s frustrating for everyone involved.

To help people understand our role – and hammer home the part CPs play in getting that message out to their customers, we’ve just refreshed our Expect Openreach site. Take a look and find out more about what we can and can’t do...

Superfast just got faster

The communications industry has been using the term “superfast fibre broadband” for quite a while now. But with our latest fibre to the premises (FTTP) products hitting top download speeds of 330MBit/s it’s clearly gone beyond superfast – we’re now talking about ultra-fast fibre broadband!

Our new ultra-fast fibre products will be available in 15 exchange areas where the FTTP infrastructure has been deployed. We’re also piloting FTTP on demand in eight fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) areas and aim to make this widely available from next spring (2013).

Our full set of fibre products, with download speeds ranging from 40Mbit/s to 330Mbit/s, is now available commercially. That means communications providers can start tailoring broadband packages to suit small and medium businesses as well as meeting the demands of increasingly bandwidth-hungry homes.

The most frightening thing is, we’re not stopping at 330Mbit/s. There are already 1Gbit/s tests underway in the labs, going beyond both super and ultra-fast. Answers on a postcard for what we call that one!

The gaming evolution: cassette, cartridge, disc... cloud

The spread of the internet and the power of fibre broadband is having a profound effect on a number of industries – not least video gaming.

Every major console can now connect to the internet and more and more games are available with online multiplayer options and downloadable extras. You can easily access new games from the various marketplaces to download and start playing immediately.

And this virtual trend is set to continue.

Rumours are that Sony is retaining an optical drive for a disc in its next Playstation release, but we’re not that far away from a time when physical discs – and even consoles – disappear completely.

Just as we can stream songs and movies to smart TVs and mobile devices, a number of TV manufacturers are starting to do the same – with console-quality video games streaming already being touted.

Find out more on this BBC video report.

98 exchanges added to fibre rollout

We've just announced that we’re going to make fibre broadband available to a further 98 exchange areas – covering more than 800,000 additional homes and businesses.

The new list covers exchanges all over the country – from Sandown on the Isle of Wight to Oban on the west coast of Scotland. If all goes to plan these exchanges should be ready for action by late 2013. Check out our where and when map to see if your exchange is one of the lucky ones.

Over 10 million homes already have access to fibre broadband and today's news brings us another step closer to our goal of making it available to two-thirds of the UK by the end of 2014. And hopefully we won't stop there. We're working with BDUK and local government and communities to try and give as many people as possible access to the benefits of fibre broadband.

Our fibre upload speeds are the fastest in the UK, meaning large video and data files can be sent almost instantly and hi-res photos posted online in seconds. It's a real game-changer and is set to revolutionise the way we use the internet.

Read the full press release here.

Broadband Labs pushing innovation out in the field

A new initiative, Superfast Cornwall Labs, is aiming to push the boundaries of what’s possible using superfast fibre broadband.

Labs is backed by the University College Falmouth (UCF) and other higher education establishments, Cornwall Development Company, BT and Cornish businesses. The project will investigate the ways in which university skills and education can be extended to rural communities using fibre broadband.

Among the initiatives already under way is a ‘University of the Village’, a project between UCF, University of Glamorgan, BT and rural communities in Cornwall and Wales.

Another project is Vconect – an EU-funded initiative carrying out field trials which goes beyond the traditional business use of advanced video conferencing systems. Experts believe this could open the doors to exciting developments in telecare and online learning.

Superfast Cornwall is a pioneering partnership between the EU, BT and Cornwall Council, which has already made fibre broadband available to about 100,000 Cornish homes and businesses.

New law aims to halt stolen scrap metal trade

Metal theft is something we've been banging on about for ages. Our network is one of the prime targets for thieves and we've been working with Crimestoppers and SmartWater to protect it.

Metal theft causes untold problems – and it can put people in real danger, as local communities find themselves cut off with no access to emergency services. It's a similar story for train companies who have had lines targeted.

It's obviously a lucrative trade, but things have hit a new low when you have people who would steal from graveyards and memorials to children for a quick buck. That's why we're totally behind plans to introduce a new law to better regulate the scrap metal trade.

In the meantime, we're still doing our bit with a three-pronged attack on cable thieves.

NGA deployment in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea halted due to large number of planning rejections

Openreach has ceased deployment of fibre broadband in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. This is unfortunate but we were left with no option after having the vast majority of our applications rejected by the council. Other councils, including those of neighbouring boroughs, have shown a greater eagerness to enjoy the benefits of fibre broadband. We will therefore re-focus our engineers' efforts in other areas where planning authorities have taken a positive approach and are keen to ensure their residents and businesses can benefit from this technology.

Coverage of this story appeared today in City AM, which reports the Borough's risk of becoming a 'technological backwater' as a result of this move.

Openreach has installed a small amount of network equipment in the Borough already, amounting to 12 cabinets. Currently one of these cabinets is Ready for Service. We intend for those end users already live to remain so and will continue to make the remaining 11 cabinets ready for service, as the work has already been done, and we do not believe it would be fair to residents for us to remove the equipment.

Quick-thinking engineers save customer's life

Two Openreach engineers helped save the life of an elderly customer when they arrived to fix a fault on his line and found him struggling to breathe.

The Good Samaritans – Manchester-based Paul Green and Mark Hutton – phoned for an ambulance and stayed with 90-year-old Thomas until he was whisked off to hospital.

“With his phone out of order, Thomas had been unable to call his doctor or the emergency services,” explained Paul.

Once Thomas was safely in the ambulance, the engineers got to work on the line. The circuit fault was compounded by worn internal cabling and an old, permanently wired circular-dial type phone, which was itself faulty.

Mark said: “Paul and I have agreed that we’ll pay for a new phone for Thomas ourselves, and then – when we can regain access – install it and renew all the internal wiring.”

Internet connected PC, phone, TV... fridge, washing machine?

A really interesting article appeared recently highlighting the growth of connectivity in the home.

People don’t think twice now about accessing the internet from home PCs or laptops. But a whole generation is growing up with smartphones keeping them connected 24/7 and smart TVs enabling them to ignore the TV schedule in favour of catch-up and video on demand services.

At the same time people can access millions of online radio stations and stream almost limitless tracks around the house using wi-fi.

There are even apps that let you control all of this – printers, TVs and music systems – using your mobile phone. And futurologists predict other home appliances, like fridges, washing machines and sprinkler systems are set to join the growing list of internet connected devices.

The key is connectivity – and your home broadband bandwidth. That’s why our fibre rollout is so important.

Rutland set to benefit from £3m fibre project

Rutland County Council has just signed a £3million deal to make fibre broadband available to 90 per cent of homes and businesses by 2013.

Despite being one of England’s most rural counties, the project will provide Rutland with some of the fastest available broadband speeds anywhere in the UK. As part of the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme, the deal follows hot on the heels of a similar project in Lancashire.

The council has revealed that it ultimately aims to extend fibre broadband to 97 per cent of premises in the county, to help boost the long-term prospects of the area and quality of life for everyone living and working there.

As well as speeds of up to 80Mbit/s, the county’s 17,000 homes and businesses will also have access to fibre broadband with up to 300Mbit/s available on an “on demand” basis.

Sorry if you’ve had problems getting through to us

We've been upgrading our call centre platform recently and, unfortunately, things haven’t gone as smoothly as planned.

If you had trouble getting through to us on 3, 4 or 10 May, we’re really sorry.

On these dates more than two-thirds of our agents couldn’t get incoming calls. This was partly due to a network outage, completely unrelated to the updates. But it obviously messed things up and meant people had to wait much longer than usual to get through.

Like everyone else in the world, we know how frustrating it is to be kept waiting to talk to someone, so we’ve been working hard to make sure it doesn't happen again.

We've made some tweaks to improve performance right away and put a freeze on any further updates until things get back to normal. Our technical teams are keeping a close eye on the system and we’ll be in touch to warn you when there are any further changes planned.

A teacher’s view on the Communication Triathlon

From Heather Green, Asst. Head Teacher at Liss Junior School, Hampshire:

We began our two-week Communication Triathlon with an opening ceremony at assembly, with banner bearers for Thinking, Talking, and Teamwork. We tried to learn a new word every day and each class completed several of the activities, sharing their favourite one with the rest of the school in our closing ceremony.

At the end, 45 children (including 11 with Moderate Learning Difficulties) signed the song 'Proud' by Heather Small of M People fame – and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house! The press came along to take photographs and we even made it on to the front page of the local paper.

If you have children aged between 4-11, their school could  benefit from the programme too. You can find out more here and there’s also a short video available to watch online.

The Openreach early warning system

We’ve just updated our Product Roadmaps for the first quarter of 2012.

The roadmaps give customers an early view of things we’ve got in the pipeline for our products over the next three months. And that could be anything from scheduled developments and product trials, to product launch/withdrawal details and price change information.

This early warning system enables our customers to see the changes coming in, and to gauge whether or not they offer an opportunity for their customers – so they can plan accordingly.

This quarter, we’ve made a number of changes; for example, the Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) and Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) sections have been merged into one Copper Products section.

All updates are documented in the “change summary” section for each product area and customers should check this area for changes. 

Check out the latest Product Roadmaps online (password required).

Eggs counted, and hatched...

Before Easter we told you how keen we were not to lose any momentum in our service and repair improvements over the holiday period. With less people and working hours, Easter is a time that often pushes our provision and repair work-stack up considerably. But not this year!

Our investment to stabilise service has really paid off. This is great news for all of us – especially with another Bank Holiday period and extended Jubilee celebrations on the way!

Many of you are also telling us how great the shorter lead times have been for you and your customers.  So much so that we’re looking to see if we can find a way to make these available at least on an order by order basis in the future.

In the meantime, rest assured, we’re keeping a close eye on things and our contingency plans are always waiting in the wings – ready to spring into action should they be needed.

More details about our Easter performance can be found in the latest customer briefing.

Double the speed, twice the fun

We mentioned recently that our superfast broadband speeds were about to double.

Well on 10 April we flicked the switch (it was obviously a little bit more complicated than that) and made 80MBit/s download and 20 MBit/s upload speeds available wherever we have 40MBit/s fibre to the cabinet set up.

There’s been quite a buzz about this already, with the news being picked up in mainstream media sources, technology sites and blogs.

To check if you’re in a superfast broadband area, visit our interactive fibre rollout map.

Ensuring a level playing field

We’re part of BT Group, but when Openreach was set up, we agreed with Ofcom to provide an equal service for all of our communications provider (CP) customers.

That means every CP, no matter how big or small, has access to exactly the same systems, processes, products and services.

Every Openreach engineer also has regular training to help them make the right impression when they visit people’s homes on behalf of our CP customers.

All of this is overseen by the Openreach Business Integrity team, which makes sure everyone in the organisation understands their regulatory obligations and that our processes and systems enable us to comply with them.

You can get more information on our commitment to equivalence – or give us feedback – on the Openreach website. 

The buck stops here. Or there. Or wherever you want...

Did you know that you can choose where to put the network termination point (NTP), the place where our network ends and your wiring begins?

In the past we had to stick to the “3 metre rule” which basically meant the NTP was restricted to a maximum of three metres into a property. Of course this didn't suit everybody – and our engineers often took the brunt of this frustration.

So we talked with various industry groups late last year and thrashed out an agreement on flexible demarcation. 

Introduced just before Christmas, this means that people can now decide where they’d like the demarcation point to be in their property (within reason). And the added flexibility has already helped to improve customer satisfaction and reduce complaints.

If you’re a communications provider, you can get the full details on our customer briefing.

Easter plan aims to maintain eggsellent service

With the Easter bank holidays just around the corner, we’re really keen not to lose any momentum in our service and repair improvements.

Through a combination of our winter and spring plans we’ve managed to get our appointment lead times down to four and a half working days, well ahead of our standard commitment.

We put a lot of hard work into getting service levels up, so we’ve come up with a plan for Easter that aims to maintain the recent high standards we’ve set.

Over Easter, the plan is to keep the focus on repair, so the provision appointment books will return to more normal levels, but still well within our stated lead times. And we have a contingency plan in the wings to cope with any surge in demand for repairs.

You can get more details in the customer briefing

Sport Relief – we're part of the team

Openreach people have gone the extra mile for this year’s Sport Relief, giving their time to raise money and organise events – from bake sales to fancy dress parades.

Our volunteers also helped the telethon run smoothly, as donations topped £50million, and were involved in the BT Celebrity Challenges.

First up was David Walliams vs The Thames, as the comedian battled the elements – and other dodgy stuff – to swim 140 miles along the river.

We then had John Bishop’s Week of Hell – cycling, running and rowing 90 miles in just five days from Paris to London.

And last but not least, Freddie Flintoff set 14 Guinness World Records in just 12 hours.

We talk about making Openreach a fun place to work and leaving a legacy. Everyone who took part in our Sport Relief activities has done just that, while helping change lives for the better.

And there’s still time to donate.

Flexible fibre drives broadband round the bend

The boffins at Adastral Park, BT’s research & development centre, have been working on a new bendy fibre cable.

Being much more flexible than a traditional cable, “bend insensitive fibre” makes it easier to get fibre into places that we just couldn’t reach before. This in turn is helping us give more people access to a pure fibre connection all the way from the exchange to their property.

Fibre to the premises, as it’s known, provides speeds of 100Mbit/s download and 30Mbit/s upload. But there’s already a 300Mbit/s download speed on the horizon – and rumours of a 1Gbit/s ultrafast variant being developed!

You can see a video of the new fibre being tested at Adastral Park here.

Welcome to the Customer News Centre!

After a lot of blood, sweat and tears behind the scenes we’re delighted to unveil our Customer News Centre. 

This new state of the art online resource (hey, it’s more than just a website) replaces our bi-monthly news e-zine, Access, and the weekly Round-up email that contained briefings.

By bringing everything together in one place, accessible via a whole range of devices, we’re putting you in complete control. No more digging around on the portal for the latest briefing or having to wait for a quarterly news email – now you’ll be able to get the information you want, when you want, wherever you are. And we’ve also added a range of social media tools – like a video channel, twitter feed and, ahem, blog – to keep us bang up to date. Anything you need to know is now just a click away.