OTA2 Update for December 2010

At the end of December the number of unbundled lines (i.e. MPF + SMPF) installed has now reached 7.49 million

On the Telephony front there are 6.27 million WLR lines and the number of telephone numbers using CPS is 3.07 million.

General

This update is in our revised shortened format. We plan to publish a full update quarterly, with the shorter interim report in the other months, concentrating on the KPI’s that so many people find useful. Our next full report will be published for the January update, in the more familiar format. The following is an interim update on some important areas of our work:

Service Recovery

Openreach are progressing a major recruitment exercise to bolster their ability to handle the continuing high levels of CP demand for both Provision & Repair, and to materially reduce service lead times (and work stack levels) which have increased dramatically in recent weeks due to the extreme weather conditions experienced across the UK.

Openreach are unable to predict with any certainty when ‘normal lead times will be resumed’ as this is directly influenced by the return of ‘normal’ weather patterns and how quickly their new recruits will become fully productive.

Our KPI charts show current performance levels.

OTA2 continue to drive the following Major Programmes on behalf of Industry & Ofcom:-

• Switching Working Group (SWG) in support of Ofcom’s current Consultation - Strategic Review of Consumer Switching
  
• Minimum Security Standards
  
• VULA – To establish the difference between Openreach’s Reference Offer (RO) for VULA and specific Industry requirements that fall within the Ofcom VULA framework and can be supported by genuine market opportunity.
  
• Passive Infrastructure Access - To work with Openreach and Industry to realise a draft reference offer, due to be published 14th January, which delivers a product that meets Industry’s expectations.
  

Rod Smith