Telecommunications Adjudicator update for November 2022

An update on the principle areas of project activity being led by OTA2 in November 2022.

See the latest charts

At the end of November 2022, the number of unbundled lines stands at 7.75 million. There are 3.56 million WLR lines and the number of telephone numbers using CPS is 1.86 million.  *

The following is an update on the principal areas of project activity being led by OTA2.

Passive Infrastructure Access

Operational performance remains good even with high volume of both NoI and NA orders.

The OTA2 are developing a framework for industry, looking at operational incident management and communications. A request has gone out to all the registered CPs to provide a Single Point of Contact, phone number and e-mail address to facilitate Network Provider to Openreach and intra Network Provider contact for resolution of incidents and issues. The list will be hosted on the Openreach portal through the log-in for security.

Health and Safety, and good working practice continues to require our attention, instances of poor behaviour continue to surface, which is not acceptable.  This remains top of the industry agenda.

Active workstreams currently running to improve the product and its usability for CPs are:

• NA Evidence and quality documentation for CPs to able to instruct their field resources.
• Connecting Customers
• Incident Management

Ethernet

Service remains challenging with the workstack remaining higher than optimal. This will take some time to get under control, the positive note is that Openreach are fully committed to addressing the challenge and are drawing in additional resources to achieve this. Completions remains very high with c1300 orders per week being the norm.

There has been some good work, looking at Order Quality with some extremely helpful CP input covering the complexity of the supply chain and how orders flow from wholesale channels and agents into the Openreach front door. The aim is to highlight any deficiencies and provide better guidance for those placing orders to improve the quality of orders flowing through the system and the ability for CPs to flag where they are unable to supply information.

Copper and Fibre

At the January CFPCG, Openreach stated that dependent on circumstances a cancelled provision would only lead to either to a cancellation charge or an AVC being levied, however, the contract gives Openreach the right to charge for both. Industry and OTA2 consider that the contract should reflect the policy being applied. This has been under consideration by Openreach for some time with an anticipated November response, deferred until at least December.

When FTTP was launched, Openreach chose to adopt a defined tier approach to installation options rather than offer time related charges. However, CP consumption of the Premium option has not materialised. This has the potential to create issues during installation where the work required exceeds that ordered.  Openreach and industry agree on the need to find a workable solution and have initiated discussions to address this. Openreach informed industry that it intends to commence the pilot of new speed tiers in Q4 2022 with the aim to launch in Q1 2023.

Openreach have announced Equinox 2, an overlay scheme. This changes the rentals in 23/24 and ARPU share level versus Equinox pricing. This is planned to launch April 2023.

All-IP Steering Group

The All-IP steering group continues to work well, providing a good interaction on issues and concerns. Openreach requested CPs re-forecast the migration of their WLR assets for Salisbury and Mildenhall by early November. Progress against these will now be tracked. Openreach plans to make direct contact with end customers of non-engaged CPs, or CPs with ‘off-track’ migrations from January 2023.

The remit of the All-IP group has been extended to support Exchange Exit, for which a Pilot has commenced covering five locations. The Pilot will be utilised to identify the operational enablers required and to test processes and notification periods for exchange exit. The end date for the Pilot is set as 30 March 2024. Letters will be sent to affected CPs shortly for the first exchange, Deddington, giving 15-months’ notice of termination.

Work continues in support of the DCMS/NHS activity planning which aims to improve the migration experience for vulnerable users of telecare equipment, although progress has not been as rapid as hoped. The current focus is on gaining alignment on aspects of the telecoms processes.

Dark Fibre

Orders for DFA are continuing to increase. Openreach continue to report that their systems and processes are working well, and all performance metrics are healthy. Demand remains volatile but connections and the size of the work stack are falling for both DFX and DFA.

Consumer Switching & Number Porting

The ‘One Touch Switch’ Process (OTS) for Residential Customers and Gaining Provider Lead (GPL) for Business Customers

• OTS is the process selected by Ofcom for all residential fixed Voice (NBICS – Number Based Interpersonal Communications Service) and Broadband (IAS – Internet Access Service) switching
• Ofcom have also stated that a GPL process must be available for Business Customers who are switching their Voice and/or Broadband services.
• 03 April 2023 remains the target date for Industry compliance to Ofcom’s revised switching General Conditions (GCs)

OTA2 continue to engage with industry through OTS and GPL Process Design initiatives alongside the TOTSCo (The One Touch Switching Company) Governance structure.

TOTSCo have now launched their website (totsco.org.uk). To receive updates on the technical and commercial updates for the TOTSCo Hub, please register with them directly.

The OTS DDG (Design Drafting Group), working with OTA2, have produced a Version 4.1 of the Process, alongside early drafts of the Hub technical specification and API developer guides – all are available from the TOTSCo site. These documents provide a good baseline for CPs to assess changes required to their own process and system developments .

GPL Business switching design is being undertaken by volunteer members drawn from a cross-section of the Business service provider community. Through a steering group, co-chaired by OTA2 and FCS, a series of meetings with Ofcom have been arranged and set of guiding ‘principles’ agreed, process development underway and technical requirements being documented.

Right to Port (EECC Requirement – April 2023)

Under this requirement, CPs must provide number porting to customers that request it for at least a month (agreed as 31 calendar days) after the termination of a contract, unless the customer expressly agrees otherwise when terminating that contract. This requirement extends to scenarios that would not require the number to be ported (hence ‘Right to Retain’) in order to reactivate a ceased number and will address existing issues with customers attempting to recover their number after ceasing service. A revised ‘Best Practice’ document has been shared and reviewed by the NPPCG members, with the intent to re-publish at Issue 1.0 status. For more please see under ‘Porting Improvements’

Porting Enhancements to compliment the ‘One Touch Switch’ process

The proposed ‘Express Porting’ solution documentation is near completion, and a presentation of the detail will form part of the December NPPCG agenda, this will include more details of the process and rejection codes planned to be used.

Porting improvements

Input from across the Number Porting community, has identified the need for investigations into a broad spectrum of Porting issues, mostly stemming from areas of friction in the existing Best Practice processes, which reflects on their age and focus on analogue voice services, at a time when ‘All-IP’ voice service is rapidly becoming the mainstream. The coincidence of this and the anticipated requirements to support a new switching process present both a challenge and opportunity to the Number Porting community

It is noted that CPs should be aware of the upcoming withdrawal of Openreach WLR, with both the NPPCG and NPESG sessions being re-briefed and the following contact details provided:

The Openreach portal link for WLR withdrawal information is: WLR Withdrawal (openreach.co.uk) and if CPs wish to reach out for assistance then they should email wlr.consultation.feedback@openreach.co.uk.

A Plan of Works for 2022 has been created to focus efforts this year and into the future, it includes:

• The NPPCG continue to monitor the transition to All-IP, with no reported issues raised at the November NPPCG session
• A Best Practice for the Bulk Transfer process to facilitate Wholesale Porting. (i.e. porting at the Wholesale level) has been created, reviewed and agreed, and will be published on the Number Porting website shortly
• PoV (Pre-order Validation) Uptake of the PoV process continues to grow, with more CPs registering themselves to support and utilise this facility. More information can be found on the OTA2 website
• CDB - Common (Numbering) Database: After the Number Porting community, via the NPESG and NPPCG, provided significant contributions to the requirements catalogue, this initiative and the investigations to support it rest with the NICC. This community will continue to support the NICC in it’s work.
• Right to Port/Right to Retain (EECC Requirement – April 2023): The Right to Port industry spec draft 0.j was shared with NPPCG and NPESG members for review on 3 November 2022, with requests for all feedback to be provided by 19 November 2022. Responses and an updated draft will be circulated by end November.

Service Levels

Copper & Fibre Provision

Openreach FAD (First Available Appointment Date) performance nationally, over the 5-day period ending 21 November 2022 was as follows:

Notes:

1. MI and SI are Managed-Install and Self-Install orders
2. FTTC is Fibre to the cabinet
3. FTTP is Fibre to the premises
4. SOGEA is Single Order Generic Ethernet Access
5. GFAST is Fibre-base Ultrafast Broadband

Copper Repair

LLU and WLR ‘on time repair’ performance has seen a upward trend for LLU, but a downward trend for WLR, achieving a 4-week rolling average of 77.4% and 71.0% respectively, by week ending 4 November 2022.

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Ethernet

Due to the performance data not being available this month, the Ethernet KPI charts have not been updated.

*The figures quoted exclude BT downstream connections

Signed David Halliday