Openreach progress with Implementation of the new arrangements between Openreach and BT Report to Ofcom’s Openreach Monitoring Unit June 2019 Foreword Openreach is a wholesale network provider. We support more than 600 Communications Providers (CPs) to connect the 30 million UK homes and business to their networks. We sell our products and services to CPs so they can add their own products and provide their customers with bundled landline, mobile, broadband, TV and data services. Our services are available to everybody and our products have the same prices, terms and conditions, no matter who buys them. This report is provided by Openreach Limited1 to Ofcom’s Openreach Monitoring Unit as input to its forthcoming Commitments Implementation Report. 1 Openreach Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group Plc. Non-Confidential Version Page 2 of 52 Table of Contents Foreword ........................................................................................................ 2 I. Executive Summary ................................................................................. 5 II. Introduction ............................................................................................. 9 III. Implementation: Setting up Openreach Limited .................................... 10 IV. Openreach Rebranding .......................................................................... 12 ‘Scrub and Buff’ ........................................................................................................ 12 New van livery ......................................................................................................... 13 Openreach Website .................................................................................................. 15 V. Training .................................................................................................. 18 Computer based training (CBT) .................................................................................. 18 High risk training ...................................................................................................... 18 Teasers – testing understanding and embedding learning ............................................. 19 Information sharing audits and assurance work ........................................................... 19 New joiners – engineers ............................................................................................ 20 New joiners – managers ............................................................................................ 21 VI. Instilling a Commitments Compliant Culture ......................................... 22 VII. Communications Plan............................................................................ 23 Purpose and outcome ............................................................................................... 23 Audience ................................................................................................................. 23 Our Communications Plan for Launching Openreach Limited ......................................... 23 Strategy and tactics, creativity and innovation ............................................................. 24 #WeAreOpenreach campaign strategy ........................................................................ 25 Campaign collateral .................................................................................................. 26 Success measurement .............................................................................................. 27 BT Group Communications to Openreach People – new governance .............................. 28 Intranet site ............................................................................................................. 28 VIII. Northern Ireland ................................................................................. 29 IX. Commitments breaches ......................................................................... 30 Categorisation of breaches ........................................................................................ 30 Serious breach ......................................................................................................... 30 Trivial breaches ........................................................................................................ 31 Non-Confidential Version Page 3 of 52 X. Openreach’s Strategic Independence .................................................... 33 Budget, Financial Planning and Strategy Development Processes .................................. 33 XI. Customer Engagement ...................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Initiatives ................................................................................................................ 35 Volume Commitment Special Offer on GEA-FTTC, G.fast and GEA-FTTP 35 Fibre First 35 The Garden of Eden trial 35 Re-imagining Ethernet Provision (REP) Project 36 Chatbot 36 Automatic Compensation 37 Community Fibre Partnership Programme 37 Openreach Initiatives for Schools 38 NHS Digital and GPs 39 Other Types of Engagement ...................................................................................... 39 Openreach consultations with its customers 39 Industry Forums 41 Account management and Board to Board customer meetings 41 Statement of Requirements (SoR) process 41 Equivalence of Input (EoI)......................................................................................... 42 XII. Widespread availability of fibre broadband .......................................... 43 Investment in Full Fibre rollout .................................................................................. 43 XIII. Decent broadband for all ..................................................................... 47 XIV. Quality of Service ................................................................................. 48 Meeting Customer needs for great service .................................................................. 48 Key facts & stats ................................................................................................... 49 Customer Satisfaction ............................................................................................... 49 UK CSAT – Customer Satisfaction Survey .................................................................... 50 Improved Ethernet service ........................................................................................ 51 Non-Confidential Version Page 4 of 52 I. Executive Summary 1. Under the terms of BT’s Commitments to Ofcom, Openreach has become a distinct, legally separate company that is wholly owned by BT Group Plc, called ‘Openreach Limited’. This means that Openreach is now a more independent business – Openreach sets its own strategy, taking the interests of all our customers into account. We have greater independence over our investment decisions and we have a clearer mandate to deliver great service, with an explicit duty to treat all our customers equally. We have made significant changes that are benefitting our customers and the UK as a whole. We have created our own Board, with a majority of independent members who are not affiliated with BT. The Openreach Board is responsible for setting Openreach’s strategy and overseeing our performance. 2. There has been significant progress on areas identified in our last implementation report submitted to Ofcom’s Openreach Monitoring Unit (OMU) in November 2018 and this is demonstrated through the Openreach strategy, our compliance culture and how we are supporting customers throughout the industry. 3. Openreach’s strategy has at its heart, three core objectives: • Better service – we want to provide industry leading customer service; • Broader coverage – we want as many people as possible to have access to speeds of at least 30Mpbs; and • Faster speeds – we want to give ultrafast access using full fibre to 15 million premises by the mid-2020s, if the right conditions are in place for investment and there is customer demand. These objectives are well aligned with those of Ofcom’s and our customers and we believe we are making good progress against them as outlined in this submission. 4. We have made significant progress in our engagement with customers, and have transformed the way we consult with our Communications Provider (CP) customers – giving them a greater opportunity to talk to Openreach confidentially about their plans. This is allowing us to have more open and meaningful conversations with CPs early on about our collective strategies and goals. Having conducted several major consultations this year, has also enabled us to tailor our plans more closely to what our CPs need and to launch new initiatives. Non-Confidential Version Page 5 of 52 5. Other key elements of living up to our Commitments by establishing our independence, creating a culture of compliance and delivering good market outcomes include: Setting up Openreach Limited. An important part of this has been the creation of our own Openreach Board Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee (OBARCC), which is a committee of the Openreach Board and provides oversight of Openreach Compliance activities. Commitments breaches are reviewed and decided by the OBARCC, together with remedial actions which will mitigate the impact of the breach and avoid a repeat occurrence. On 1 October 2018, 31,000 people moved from BT Group to become employees of Openreach Limited, which was the largest TUPE in UK corporate