April 2006
Welcome
Welcome to the fourth issue of BT's Undertakings Bulletin. We are now some seven months into the implementation of the Undertakings. Although there are many major milestones already delivered, a number of both important and challenging obligations remain.
In this issue we look forward to the next major milestone of delivering equivalence in the supply of unbundled loop products into BT Wholesale for use in the creation of IPStream. We also cover a recently delivered obligation, of space sharing services in BT exchanges.
We report on account management in Openreach, an issue of concern to some Communications Providers, and one flagged by Ofcom as an area where further progress was required.
In addition to the creation of Openreach, the Undertakings required organisational changes in our BT Wholesale product management teams. These were covered in recent briefings to Communications Providers and in this bulletin we set out the organisation now in place to deliver the separations and allocations of responsibilities the Undertakings require. We also profile Cameron Rejali, the BT Wholesale Executive Board member with overall responsibility for product management.
The same industry briefings also highlighted the delivery of equivalence for the supply of IPStream to BT Retail and the material used is re-presented here. Information on how the Undertakings provide for fair competition over Next Generation Networks is also covered in this bulletin.
Finally, any feedback or questions that you have about the Undertakings and how BT is delivering against them is most welcome, and can be sent to us at undertakings@bt.com.
Peter McCarthy-Ward
BT Director of Equivalence
If you have any questions regarding the content of this bulletin please email undertakings@bt.com
BT has delivered all its Undertakings to date on or before the scheduled date. Here is a quick reference guide.
View complete article "Undertakings Delivered by BT to date"
A total of 116 people attended the two Undertakings Industry Events held in Manchester and London on 13 March and 16 March respectively. These events were the third in a series of industry events outlining progress with delivery of BT’s Undertakings and followed on from the successful events in October and November last year.
View complete article "Successful Undertakings Industry Events Held"
A major programme of communications, training and engagement continues throughout BT ensuring that all our people, whether in the UK or abroad, are aware of what the Undertakings are and how they affect the way they work and make decisions.
View complete article "Global Reach of BT’s Training about the Undertakings"
Find out more about the organisational changes that BT Wholesale have undertaken in the products area since the Undertakings were introduced.
View complete article "Update on BT Wholesale Products Organisation"
A number of customers have asked what Equivalence of Inputs really means in practice.
View complete article "IPStream Equivalence of Inputs (EoI) in Practice"
Cameron Rejali joined BT Wholesale as Managing Director for Products and Strategy in January 2005 from Sprint Corporation in the United States, where he was Vice President of Product Management and Development. Sprint is a global communications company with annual revenues in excess of $25 Billion, providing wireless and wireline, voice and data services to consumers, businesses and multinational corporations.
On 7 March, Ofcom published "Next Generation Networks: Developing the regulatory framework". In addition to setting out Ofcom's view of future regulation, Ofcom announced the formation of the independent Next Generation Networks (NGN) industry group envisioned in Undertakings 11.12 - 11.14, to be called NGN UK. NGN UK will focus on the technical and commercial arrangements for NGN development.
View complete article "Next Generation Networks (NGN) Update"
NetLocate delivers BT’s Undertaking for the launch of equipment location services by the agreed deadline of 22 March 2006.
View complete article "Equipment Location Services Undertaking Delivered"
Following on from the February edition of the Undertakings Bulletin we know that many Communications Providers are keen to do business directly with Openreach but are concerned that their account manager hasn't been appointed yet.
Careful thought has gone into the creation of this organisation, including consultations with customers about the nature and scope of account management that is needed in Openreach.
View complete article "Openreach Customer Business Management Function"