Positive potential for ‘ultrafast’ copper broadband

Just when we thought we’d pushed copper as far as it could go, we’re excited to unveil the results of new field trials. Until now, it was thought that getting ‘ultrafast’ broadband speeds needed a dedicated business line or a fibre connection all the way from the exchange.

But, ‘copper load’ of this (you’ll see what we did there in a minute), as the latest trials show ‘ultrafast’ broadband with combined speeds of up to a massive one Gigabit per second (1000Mbps), can be delivered via a mix of fibre and copper cables.

During the trials we used a 19m length of copper, and recorded huge downstream speeds of around 800Mbps and upstream speeds of more than 200Mbps.

Because we can roll out this technology to telephone poles or junction boxes, close to homes and business it has some big advantages over other more disruptive options.

Firstly, the G.Fast FTTDP technology might be cheaper and easier to install. Because less fibre and less engineering is needed, ‘ultrafast’ broadband could even be installed by your customers themselves, avoiding the need for any home engineering visits.

These results have come through just when we’re about to open a new ultrafast broadband lab at our Adastral Park R&D centre in Ipswich. Over the coming months, our researchers will be based here while they study the full technical capabilities of G.Fast hardware.

You can read the full press release here

Fibre island projects making waves

As the superfast fibre broadband rollout heads into the home straight, we’re moving into new territory – in every sense. It was always going to be the case that connecting rural and difficult to reach communities to the fibre network would be the most challenging aspect of the roll-out.

Recently we saw two pioneering subsea cabling projects hit the headlines as they aim to connect remote island communities off the coast both north and south of the UK.

Off the West Coast of Scotland, we saw the start of the biggest fibre cable laying project ever undertaken in the UK.  This will deliver superfast broadband to some of the country’s most remote island communities and, as it progresses, will see around 400km of cable being laid.

There’s obviously a huge amount to consider with a project like this, not least the impact on the environment and users of the sea. Early routes where subsea cables are being deployed include Largs, Cumbrae, Cowal, Mull, Oban, Ardgour and Corran. This is part of a three-year project to bring superfast broadband to the region.

In a similar vein, a major month-long operation is currently underway to divert a fibre optic cable between the UK and Spain to the Isles of Scilly, in a pioneering scheme to give the islanders much faster fibre broadband.

The 939 kilometre cable between Porthcurno, Cornwall, and Santander, Spain, has remained unused on the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean since it was taken out of service in 2006 after 11 years of handling high-speed international communications.

The cable has been cut at two points in the Atlantic and a section diverted to the Isles of Scilly. And it’s expected that the islanders will be able to order high-speed fibre broadband before the end of the year.

Until now, the 2,200 residents of the Isles of Scilly have relied upon a broadband service provided by a radio link between Lands End and the islands.

Ethernet price reductions make this the perfect time to invest

With the Ethernet price review coming to a conclusion, there is now a whole new range of reductions on rental and connection prices – and that’s on top of our year-long migration offer if you move from WES, BES or WEES.

Ethernet Access Direct offers some terrific advantages over WES, BES and WEES products. And you can take advantage of a connection charge of just £585 when you transfer your legacy WES/WEES circuits to EAD 100.

The offer runs from 1 April 2014 to 30 March 2015 and you can get more information on our migration website.

Ethernet portfolio price drop

We’re also pleased to announce substantial price reductions across our Ethernet portfolio, including up to:

• 16% off EAD 1Gbit/s rental prices
• 35% off Ethernet Backhaul Direct 

And there’s a reduction on EAD connection charges to offset the launch of the ECC flat rate charge on 1 June 2014, improving the proportion of EAD orders without variable ECCs from 70% to 92%!

You can get all the details on this and other offers in the Ethernet pages of the Openreach website.

Superfast love: from white wedding to underground cabling

A husband and wife have discovered the secret to being happily married - by working together underground! Openreach engineers David and Laura Gainsford work in all weathers to lay new fibre optic cabling as part of the multi-million pound Superfast Surrey broadband project.

The sometimes wet and muddy conditions are a far cry from the sunny day 19 years ago when Laura walked up the aisle at Holy Trinity Church, Wallington, in a pure white dress to marry David. But Laura, said: “Moving from an office based job to working outside, was the best thing I ever did. It sounds corny but I love working with my husband.”

As part of the partnership between BT, Surrey County Council and BDUK, David and Laura work on extending faster broadband throughout Surrey including the village of Puttenham where fibre broadband has just ‘gone live’.

David, said: “Every day is different and with this job I’m able to work on a project from start to finish. I enjoy the challenge, it’s very satisfying and working with Laura is an added bonus.

The new fibre based broadband services have now started to become available in Puttenham and by the time the roll-out is complete around 1,300 homes and businesses in the village will have access.

Superfast Surrey builds on BT’s own commercial roll-out of fibre broadband in the county, which has already made the technology available to more than 380,000 Surrey homes and businesses. The partnership is working mainly in the more rural, difficult to reach areas, aiming to bring fibre broadband to more than 99 per cent of the county’s homes and businesses by the end of 2014. Superfast Surrey’s ‘programme area’ will provide fibre access to an additional 84,000 premises, which fall outside the private sector’s commercial plans.

The new fibre-based network is open to all broadband service providers on an equal basis. Households and businesses in Surrey will therefore benefit from a highly competitive market, bringing greater choice and affordable prices from a wide range of internet service providers.

Jurassic Parking for Openreach engineers

It might not be the kind of winter warning you’d expect, but if you’re out and about in the next few weeks, watch out for dinosaurs. Yes, dinosaurs. With 400 vans being added to the fleet to help with our superfast fibre roll-out we wanted something eye-catching on the side...

The first of our three new designs to promote the power of fibre features a roaring T-Rex "For TV services with bite".

Next up is the slightly less scary "No more humdrum TV" hummingbird

And an astronaut promoting “Stellar TV on demand’ will complete the trio.

So remember to keep an eye out for our new vans in your area.

Fibre broadband: the invisible hero

What's the best thing about fibre broadband? Well it's not TV on demand, not even HD movie streaming, and definitely not video calls with your granny. The best thing about fibre is never having to think about your internet connection again. Programmer Darryl Clark lifts the lid on life in the fast lane...

The first rule of fibre club is: you do not talk about fibre club (or at least not after the first month of having it). Why? Well, do you remember when you had dial-up? You couldn't use the phone at the same time as browsing the internet! You had to plan downloads in advance. You didn't stop thinking about your connection speed - or lack of it.

Then you moved to ADSL and were overcome by the dizzying speeds. Along came YouTube, Flash websites and possibly children to drag your connection back to a crawl. Now there are tablets, smart phones, interactive televisions, iPlayer, games consoles and a myriad of other connected devices all sucking the life out of your national average 6Mbit/s ADSL broadband speed (Ofcom Nov 2012). And you're back to thinking about your connection speed again.

Make the move to fibre optic and the connection speed average is 41.0Mbit/s. During the first month you'll shout this from the rooftops. You'll lose on average 12.4 friends on Facebook who will be bored to tears by your constant bandwidth boasting. Then suddenly your fibre optic connection will no longer be the first thing you think about in the morning. Why? A falling out? No need for it? No, because it will become like everything else useful, a stalwart, a silent hero, the 4th emergency service.

Nobody yearns for a faster electricity connection or ten times more gas pressure. If I want to turn all of the lights on in my house then I'll do it without thinking. It's the same with fibre broadband. If all four members of my house want to be connected on a device whilst we also watch Paul and Mary mock lopsided Victoria sponges on iPlayer then it will just happen.

The only time I think about my connection now is when it's cruelly robbed from me by a cursed technical glitch (less likely as fibre optic is more stable than full copper broadband). It's only then that I realise how much I need/want/depend on/demand/can't live without my fibre broadband connection.

My name is Darryl Clark. I have "up to 40Mbit/s" fibre optic broadband and the last time I checked my download speed was 38Mbit/s. Unfriend me if you want but I am superfast and proud.

Darryl is a programmer for Westhill Communications

Mission Impossible: getting into the BT Tower

In a list compiled by Time Out magazine this week, the top of the BT Tower was named as one of "London's top 10 impossible places to get into". In fact, at number 2 in the list, only the christening of the latest member of the royal family, Prince George, was seen as more of a challenge for the capital's gatecrashers.

Standing at 189m tall the BT Tower has become an iconic feature of London’s skyline. And the 47-year-old building's super-charged lifts can whisk visitors up to the 34th floor at 400ft per second. Once there, you’ll find yourself on a rotating viewing platform with breathtaking 360 panoramic view of London.

The Tower has evolved with the times. Even at the grand old age of 47 ‘he’, The Tower, can be found tweeting on Twitter - complaining about the pigeons or pointing out things to the ‘ant-like’ Londoners on the ground.

"Hello. I'm the BT Tower. I'm a really tall (189m) 47 year-old male (obviously... have you never read Freud?). follow me if you would. @bttowerlondon"

Unfortunately, the famous 34th floor revolving restaurant and viewing platform has been closed to the public since 1980, and on the rare occasion there's a tour it's almost impossible to nab a place.

So if you ever find yourself invited to an Openreach event the top of the BT Tower, cancel all your other plans (unless you've been invited to the Royal Christening) and make sure you go. You might never get another chance.

From HD to 3D to 4K – how TV is changing broadband, and vice versa

The way we watch TV is changing. Before it was all quite simple: TV in the living room for broadcast programmes, computer (whether laptop or PC) somewhere else for the internet. Smart TVs and online video content began to blur the boundaries, and now television and the internet are becoming even more entwined.

A whole range of new media streaming services, such as Netflix, NowTV and LoveFilm, are taking off on the back of increased broadband speeds. Now set top boxes come bundled with browsers to integrate catch up, real-time and on demand content, like BBC iPlayer and 4OD. And this content is increasingly available in high definition.

But as we start to take control of when and how we watch TV – and the content gets bigger and bigger in terms of HD and 3D – it starts to squeeze our broadband capacity. Something has to give. So you either go back to scheduling who can get online when, or you step up to fibre broadband, to let everyone get on with it without groaning about buffering – and still have plenty of bandwidth in reserve.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Remember when flatscreen TVs were the stuff of science fiction, available to a few wealthy individuals to hang from their ceilings (for some reason)? Now they’re commonplace. They used to cost thousands of pounds – not any more.

And remember when TVs were HD ready? The numbers of channels and programmes shown in HD has rocketed recently and some people will now refuse to slum it with standard def!

The first generation of 4K TVs are now being showcased in shiny department stores. The screens these TVs use are four times the resolution of full HD (4096 x 2160 pixels compared to 1920 x 1080). In layman’s terms, it means you can get a massive TV in your home, sit closer to it and still be blown away by the level of detail on display. They cost thousands just now, but they’ll quickly come down in price. And the BBC is already filming programmes in this new ultra HD standard.

But all this data to produce all these pictures needs bandwidth. And that means beefing up your broadband so it doesn't hamper the potential for everyone in the home to get online and stream what they want, when they want.

Superfast broadband: life's number one 'bare necessity'

It was interesting to see the results of a fun survey conducted by Disney recently, which asked people to name the "bare necessities" of modern life. Top of the list, ahead of central heating, a car, TV and even a best friend, was internet access.

The survey quizzed 2,000 British adults aged between 18 and 65, to mark Blu-ray release of The Jungle Book. And paw-paws and prickly pears were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the top 20 bare necessities of modern life included a pint, a full English breakfast and an occasional "I love you".

The result hints at just how important broadband access has become. It's now seen as a utility rather than a luxury and something people can't do without.

The top five things that helped people forget about their worries and their strife were:

1. an internet connection
2. television
3. a cuddle
4. a trustworthy best friend 
5. daily shower

We just need a budding entrepreneur to bring all of these together and we'll be in paradise...

You can see the full list at metro.co.uk.

Digging into the details

In the third and final round-up of the resources available from Openreach, we’re going to look at where you’ll find our business process documentation and B2B XML definitions and take a quick tour round the customer information zone.

We’ve already covered getting started and moving around the website, as well as showing you how to personalise the portal and use its search engine. Now it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty.

Using the business process models

These essential tools are now available for every single product. They’re also interactive, meaning you can drill right down into the supporting documents from within the diagrams themselves.

To find the business process documents you need to click into Products on the Openreach website (after logging in) and choose the process view.

Every product has a business process model for both orders and faults. And each business process page includes a table of contents to the left, enabling you to dive into the exact section you need.

You can also zoom into the diagrams to focus on certain sections within the overall process and click on interactive links to dig a bit deeper into the documents that underpin the diagrams.

Find out more about business process models and how to access and use them

Finding the B2B XML definitions

If you switch from the process view to the technical view while you’re in the Products section of the website you’ll get access to XML definitions for every product.

All XML definitions for each function area within a product are included in a zip file so you can download them to review offline.

Watch a video to see how to access the B2B XML definitions

The customer information zone

We have a comprehensive website, but with over 800 pages it’s not always easy to jump straight to the info that’s needed. So we’ve created the customer information zone to provide a quick and easy way for our customers (and others) to gain access to the latest news and briefings. It also incorporates a range of social media tools – keeping us bang up to date.

Our communications provider customers will benefit from having:

• a single point of reference for news and briefings
• increased levels of accessibility
• links to multimedia content and social media tools
• and less email traffic. 

This is not to say that we’re changing everything – the info zone complements rather than replaces our established forms of communication. So briefing-based material will still be found on the website in the usual place, and certain types of emails will still be sent.

What does it contain? 

Latest articles and press releases  
These sections focus on everything from new product launches to the progression of the superfast broadband roll out.

Recent briefings
The top twenty briefings are presented in date order. Product types are displayed for each briefing so you can easily pinpoint what’s of interest to you. And each briefing can be clicked on and read in full on the Openreach website. A separate RSS feed can be subscribed to just for briefings.

Events calendar
We’ll regularly be posting dates for upcoming roadshows and industry forums on the Events calendar, along with information on Openreach/industry meetings, such as design and collaborate sessions.

Twitter
We already use a Twitter feed to inform people of the latest places up and down the country that have, or are about to gain, access to superfast fibre broadband, and this facility is now visible on the info zone too.

Video channel
We have our own Openreach-branded channel on YouTube. Our most recent video, or the one we feel is currently most important, is displayed on the info zone, while a link provides easy access to our other videos.

Check out the customer info zone now

It's snow time to stop

The weather may have de-railed train companies, grounded airlines and put the skids on commuters, but it took more than a bit of snow to stop our engineers – with one or two even stripping off for work, despite the Arctic conditions.

Engineers prove they
have "the white stuff"

Amid heavy snow across the UK, our engineering teams pulled out all the stops to ensure that, wherever it was safe enough to do so, they maintained services – dealing with customer faults in the sub-zero temperatures.

Conditions were so severe in many areas – particularly in Wales – that major disruption was caused to airports, railways and roads.

But special snow socks for the wheels of Openreach vans proved vital in ensuring the vehicles were able to drive along icy roads. Some crews also used 4x4 vehicles to get around in the worst of the weather.

Howard Pugh, Openreach senior operations manager for Mid Wales and Shrewsbury said: “The snow plan we put in place has worked really well and the troops have been fantastic as we put more customers back into service than I ever thought we would have done. And, above all, we have had no accidents reported.

“The snow socks made a huge difference, keeping the fleet as mobile as possible. I’m very proud of the team.”

Giving a whole new meaning to the term "ice pole"

Engineers Paul Thompson and Jim Parry from the Network Delivery South West team proved they're made of stern stuff as they carried on working in the snow – and stripped to the waist after building up a sweat locating and digging out manholes.

Openreach chief executive Liv Garfield praised teams for doing “an amazing job”. She said: “It’s a huge step forward from previous winters.  The work we have done on the last few months planning for the snow has been massively beneficial.”

Why you might need to upgrade your 100Mb circuits sooner than you think

How things change. I can remember when owning a Walkman was cool; when mobile phones were just for making phone calls and the unmistakable sound of the dial-up modem. Well it wasn’t that long ago was it?

You only have to go back a few years when transmitting data at 300 bits per second over PSTN was considered state-of-the-art. Today, our Ethernet networks run over 3 million times faster.

The impressive bandwidth 1Gb offers is the natural choice for network backbones, but with traffic growing rapidly on networks across the UK, 1Gb Ethernet will soon become the preferred high-speed network solution. Despite the inherent benefits of upgrading to 1Gb, however, many don’t think it’s worth the cost or trouble.

Some are worried about the cost of adopting new technology. Others don’t feel there’s any need to rush, and that they’re actually saving money by postponing their upgrade until they’re entirely sure they need it, or a specific application requires it.

But are you really saving money by postponing your upgrade to 1Gb EAD? The answer is probably not; in fact, not upgrading may actually be costing your business.

So why aren't you using 1Gb EAD?

Being frank, there isn’t a reason to rush to upgrade your network immediately if you’re not experiencing any performance issues. But, if you’re in the early throes of setting up a network backbone, you’ll be seriously hampering your network and thus your business’ growth by continuing to use 100Mb Ethernet. You’ll probably end up spending more money and expending more effort when you eventually upgrade.

Sometimes a lack of funds gets in the way; budgets may not be able to stretch to accommodate a full upgrade. There’s always the option of using Ethernet switches with combinations of both 100Mb and 1Gb. It depends on what applications you need to support and you may be able to meet some of your present and future needs.

Whatever approach you believe is best, one thing is clear: there has never been a better time to upgrade your Ethernet circuits.

The Openreach EAD 1Gb upgrade offer is a great way to reclaim some of your investment costs, with rebates of up to 75 per cent of the upgrade connection fee. But you’ll need to hurry as the offer expires on 31 March 2013.

If you’re interested in taking advantage of this offer you'll need to opt-in by adding your details in our opt-in form. This will ensure that any 100Mb to 1Gb upgrades you make in the special offer period between 1 October 2012 to 31 March 2013 are eligible for the rebates.

Don’t forget that EAD 1Gb rental prices have been reduced by up to 42 per cent, so it’s a great opportunity to make 1Gb Ethernet part of your network development plans. Even if you don't think you need 1Gb Ethernet now, you need to make sure you’re prepared. The time to upgrade will come sooner than you think.

It’s funny how quickly things change.

If you have any questions, please speak to your Sales & Relationship Manager.

Juwon Adenyin

Helping you to help yourself

Just before Christmas, we outlined some of the resources available on our website to help you get more out of it. Now that the tinsel has been packed away it’s time to delve a little bit further and show you how you can set up the portal in the way that suits you best and get everything you need right at your fingertips.

Last time, we focused on getting started and moving around the website. This time we’ll give you some tips on personalising the portal, searching generally and locating pricing documents in particular.

First you need to go to our website homepage, where you’ll see a Help & Support tab in the top menu. In this section there’s lots of advice and guidance, but the best place to start might be the computer based training modules as you’ll get top tips in short, easy-to-digest video presentations.

Personalising the portal

It's definitely worth taking a few minutes to personalise the portal to suit your needs. This is really easy to do. The ‘My Dashboard’ homepage you see immediately after logging in offers three main ways to tailor things:

1. My Tools 
You’ll find the My Tools section on the top left of the page. By clicking ‘other tools’ you’ll be able to access pricing, dialogue services, fault tracking and order tracking tools, among a whole host of options.

2. My View
This tool enables you to set up defaults for your preferred products (Ethernet, WLR) and view (eg business process or technical). You can even set the default for the release number you’re most interested in so that these appear at the top of any search results.

3. My Favourites
Any time you’re logged in and you see the My Favourites star icon in the top right corner of a page, just click on it to add the page to your list of favourites so it’ll always be just one click away from the pages you use most.

Find out more about personalising the portal

Searching the portal

The search button at the top of every page is a really quick way to find what you need. A powerful, intelligent search engine sits beneath the portal with two main choices:

1. Simple search
Just type a word or phrase for a list of results sorted by relevance. Then refine the results to drill into things and home in on the info you need – for example, narrowing results by type or finding related content.

2. Advanced search
The advanced search enables you to set parameters before starting to search – rather than doing a simple search and then digging down. With a more comprehensive starting point you’re refining the results before you search.

Don’t forget we also have an extensive glossary so if you ever need to know your ALK from your ETSI, it’s all spelled out right here.

See how to make the most of the search function

Where do I find pricing information?

One of the most frequently asked questions, and one of the most important parts of the website. The pricing information is stored in the products section, within the Business View.

This short presentation shows you how to access pricing information

Next time we’ll show you how to access and use the business process documents, find the B2B XML definitions and stay on top of the latest updates through the Customer Information Zone.

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.