BT Group officially transferred 31,000 employees to Openreach, the final step in establishing Openreach as a legally separate business.
“This is an on ongoing process, and success requires continued commitment to the right behaviours, as well as transparency on how the arrangements are working in practice. We are committed to working with the regulator and industry to ensure customers up and down the country get the connectivity and customer service they deserve,” stated BT Group Chief Executive Gavin Patterson.
In addition, as of today, BT’s ‘Northern Ireland Networks’ division will be rebranded ‘Openreach Northern Ireland’.
Openreach commits to “Fibre First” for the UK
Openreach announced plans to accelerate its rollout of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) across the UK.
The new “Fibre First Programme” represents a strategic shift in the way that Openreach thinks about last mile infrastructure. Going forward, the company will seek to deploy “fibre first” wherever possible, including in rural areas.
Openreach said its new goal is to reach three million homes and businesses by the end of 2020. The programme will start in a few months in an initial eight cities – Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London, and Manchester.
Reaching an all-fibre network across the UK is a massive and Openreach said the full rollout may take decades.
