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