Homes and businesses that can get fibre broadband speeds of over 30Mbps
across our network |
|  | Homes and businesses we can supply with ultrafast
Full Fibre broadband |
| | Homes and businesses
are connected to our
fibre network |
|
Are you ready? We’re entering the last 11 months of our trials in Salisbury and Mildenhall, read on to see the importance of these trials and how we’re reinvigorating them for the final 11 months. Stop sells are underway in a number of Priority Exchanges, with more tranches announced every quarter. Click here for full details on how and why we’re retiring our copper network Full list of impacted exchanges. If you have any questions about All IP, please reach out to the All IP Migration team. |
| |
James Lilley – director, Managed Customer Migrations As we say goodbye to 2021 and welcome 2022, we’re ramping up to what promises to be a busy year. The Salisbury and Mildenhall trials have entered their final 11 months, with both coming to an end on 5 December 2022.
|
|
Although we’re seeing a higher uptake of fibre products in these areas, the numbers aren’t moving fast enough for us to meet our target of migrating all lines to fibre (where available) by December 2022. Our team is working hard in the background with Communications Providers (CPs) and Industry, with a particular focus on business migrations. It’s important to note the purpose is to trial migrations with a view to gain learning in advance of the 2025 PSTN switch off. The trials will help us take learnings from more complex migrations and edge cases. It’s the best place to learn as we can put our arms around migrations and ensure we successfully get end customers on to the new IP products. We talk more about business migrations in this newsletter.
Priority Exchanges In October 2021 we issued 12 months’ notification of stop sell for the 77 Priority Exchanges falling into Tranche 6 (GEN098/21). This brings the number of exchanges subject to future stop sell to 319 and the number of exchanges under stop sell, where FTTP is available, to 134 including the Salisbury trial site. Our Tranche 7 stop sell notification is due in January 2022 and the full list of priority exchanges can be found here.
Industry Fact Sheets We’ve produced a series of Industry Fact sheets after talking with Industry about how moving to All IP (Digital Phone Lines) will affect them. The fact sheets provide useful information and links to the websites of the industry bodies and key stakeholders where you can find more information.
Digital Services Test lab Our test lab is now open and welcome to vendors. It provides an environment which emulates some of the conditions found when an analogue line migrates to a digital line. Since the launch, we have had a number of hardware vendors sign up to test their products – including Telecare, Alarms, Finance (chip and pin) and Lifts. So far, we’ve had some great insight and learning which we will update you on in the New Year. Feedback on the Test Lab, to date, has been very positive. More details can be found here and you can email all-ip@openreach.co.uk to book a timeslot.
As ever, I encourage our customers to stay engaged with us and share any key findings or case studies they come across in our trial or additional FTTP priority stop sell areas.
Contact details for various leads in Openreach are at the end of this newsletter.
|
|
In conjunction with the All IP steering board monthly meetings, hosted by the OTA2, Openreach is now running more focussed sessions on Business Migrations. The aim is to understand any real or perceived barriers preventing business migrations, with the view to successfully migrate CPs and end customers on to the new IP Products. CPs are engaged and sharing their views. The key to success is insight and learning, working with live migration scenarios, and we’ve asked CPs to supply live scenarios, specifically within the trial areas. We’re focussing on the trials with a view to building a catalogue of business migration solutions, to share more widely, ahead of the PSTN switch off in 2025. Please reach out to the WLR withdrawal team if you’d like more information.
|
|
|
What are Non-Standard Lines (NSL)? These lines require extra work to either provide or cease them. They include, for example: - Lines at Hot Sites (lines in or near electricity power stations).
- ‘Short Duration Lines’ – where ceasing the line must also include recovering the network e.g. a site office porta cabin at a new development. We must physically disconnect the line from the porta cabin to prevent injury or damage when it’s removed from site.
… and what are lines at Non-Served Premises (NSP)? These lines serve unusual locations that wouldn’t be called a standard residential dwelling or business premises. Traffic lights, sewage treatment works, and street CCTVs are typical NSPs.
What is Openreach’s plan? - Create migration and provision journeys to Single Order Generic Ethernet Access (SOGEA) for all of the line types mentioned above, wherever SOGEA is available.
- Change the FTTP stop sell rules, to allow SOGEA NSL and NSP orders to be placed at locations where both FTTP and SOGEA are available.
- Create provision journeys for FTTP for all of the line types mentioned above.
- Announcement on how SOTAP will support migrations will follow.
For more information on migrating non-standard lines and lines at non-served premises to All IP, the briefing can be found here. Alternatively, please get in touch with your All IP Migration team for support.
|
|
|
In November 2020 we advised on a delay to the start of the SOTAP pilot due to CP consumption issues. The pilot was due to start in Mildenhall (the WLR withdrawal trial exchange) in May 2021. We are pleased to advise that, in alignment with planned CP consumption of the Openreach functionality, we are now targeting July 2022 as the pilot start date for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The MVP will have functionality limited to: Migrations from WLR (with or without SMPF)/MPF, Start of Stopped Line, Line Test OK and Line Test Not OK T2R functionality, Amend, Cancel and Modify. Openreach will extend the pilot to the end of March 2023 with the assumption that additional exchange areas may be included to drive additional volume. The stop sell rules in Mildenhall will continue to be relaxed to allow Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) to be ordered (in premises where fibre is not available) until appropriate SOTAP functionality is available. We do not expect the delay to the SOTAP pilot to impact the end of the WLR withdrawal trial in Mildenhall (December 2022). The SOTAP Product scope is available at https://www.openreach.co.uk/cpportal/products/copper/sotap and will be updated regularly as functionality is deployed. |
|
|
|
In December 2020, we began to discuss the long-term handover architecture of our network with CPs. We highlighted the opportunity to exit exchanges no longer needed to support FTTP, FTTC or Ethernet services. We set out an ambition to exit 100 exchange buildings by December 2030 and a large majority of the remaining 4,500 non-handover exchanges in the early 2030s. Exiting exchanges gives us and CPs the opportunity to consolidate infrastructure, reduce energy consumption and increase efficiency. We now plan to run pilots to identify the operational enablers, processes and notification periods to facilitate exchange exit and better understand commercial opportunities and challenges. Our key priority is to ensure that all end customers are migrated safely and with minimal disruption.
We’re currently consulting on the running of five pilots, all non-handover exchanges: - Deddington, Oxfordshire
- Kenton Road, Greater London
- Carrickfergus, Ballyclare, Glengormley – all in County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Industry briefing GEN102/21 refers. The pilots will begin in April 2022, with FTTP stop sell restrictions already in place and restrictions on new supply for all products from June 2022 and final withdrawal in December 2023 (Deddington) and June 2024 (all other exchanges). For further information please refer to the consultation. CPs and interested parties are invited to respond to the proposals laid out in the consultation no later than 21 January 2022.
|
|
|
Customer Journeys We have recently started trials of new methods to manage FTTP Lead to Cash (L2C) provision in the form of Build to the Wall (BTTW) and CP Engineer. In these trials the normal L2C install to the premises from the Connectorised Block Terminal (CBT) in the street is split into external and internal stages. The BTTW Trial is where Openreach completes the external work from the CBT to the premises outside wall as far as the Customer Splice Point (CSP). The second trial is CP Engineer where the CP completes the remaining internal work to install the Optical Network Terminal (ONT) inside the premises and the fibre from the CSP to the ONT to complete the installation.
Process Description We have recently produced a new and comprehensive Process Description to help CPs with orders, fault management and many other process interactions. We are currently reviewing the document with Industry to ensure it captures everything and meets all CP guidance needs. Other Best Practice Guides for CPs covering Point of Sale interaction with the end customer and Openreach, plus key L2C and Trouble to Resolve (T2R) guidance are also being updated.
Order Entry Improvements
Supporting FTTP delivery to business premises and other buildings we have added additional fields to our order entry forms to allow CPs to specify additional information that will help the engineer on the day. This will include on-site contact details (names and contact numbers) and location information for parking, access to the building and the ONT location. |
|
|
Openreach has launched a new special offer for FTTP which gives suppliers a guaranteed price for new full fibre connections for the next 10 years. Any CP that signs up between now and the end March of 2022 can secure the offer prices in exchange for agreeing to make ultrafast full fibre the default option for new customers or upgrades in areas where FTTP is available. Openreach developed the new offer in consultation with CPs. The pricing gives CPs a simple and straightforward deal, with a set national monthly price across the entire Openreach fibre network. CPs can choose to tailor offers across a range of speed tiers, with bigger discounts in place to encourage adoption of higher bandwidths. Further details can be found on our Openreach website
Is Equinox available to me?
Equinox is available to all Openreach customers, provided they buy FTTP directly from Openreach. If you are a customer of Openreach and would like more detail on Equinox please contact your business development manager, if you are not sure who that is, email or.srm.team@openreach.co.uk. |
|
|
Over the past couple of months, we’ve conducted some external activity to help drive awareness of the migration to All IP. Highlights include… In the November 2021 issue of reseller flagship title Comms Business magazine, Matt Dexter, Head of Client Partnerships, talked about our new Equinox pricing deal for Full Fibre, and how it would help turbo-charge digital migration. You can read the full article here. Also in November 2021, to highlight the launch of our new digital services test lab we released a video blog across our social channels from James Lilley, and included an article in the Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA) newsletter about it, and have started a more proactive outreach in connection, you can view James’ message here. In September 2021, as part of our campaign to raise awareness of the Digital Upgrade to businesses in the Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) sector, we used LinkedIn to live stream a panel discussion. Speakers from BT Enterprise, Vodafone and Yorkshire Water joined James Lilley to talk about how businesses can prepare for the switch from analogue to digital, and the challenges and opportunities that it presents. The panel discussion (and audience Q&A) were expertly hosted by Matthew Evans from techUK – and in the audience were representatives from the likes of: Highways England, Welsh Water, the NHS, Ministry of Justice and wider telecoms industry. You can watch a recording of the session here. |
|
These working group meetings are led by the OTA2, run bi-monthly and are open to all. At the top of each meeting we run polls asking how the audience is feeling about the move to All IP. As the months pass, on the whole, we are seeing the numbers move in the right direction, with the total number of respondents who ‘have a migration plan they’re confident with’ or ‘have started migrating their existing customer base’ steadily going up. The number of respondents needing more help and guidance has reduced. Interestingly, the number of respondents who aren’t sure how All IP impacts them has risen. These are all points we’ll cover at our next working group meeting on 26th January 2022. Haven’t signed up for the working group yet? Follow this link to register. |
If you have any questions or want to discuss your migration planning requirements, please contact your Openreach business development manager, or for more information, visit www.openreach.co.uk/futureofWLR |
|
|
If you no longer wish to receive these electronic messages, please unsubscribe.
This electronic message contains Openreach information, which may be privileged or confidential. It's meant only for the individual(s) or entity named above. If you're not the intended recipient, note that disclosing, copying, distributing or using this information is prohibited. If you've received this electronic message in error, please notify us by email to the address above immediately.
Copyright 2022 © Openreach Limited. All rights reserved.
|
|
