Consultation: Measures to Support Openreach Trials
As part of Openreach’s plan to support the migration of telephone services onto IP technology – the move to All-IP – as well as upgrade its access network to full-fibre, the organization has applied to Ofcom for several rule waivers. Ofcom has opened a consultation that will run until 06 January 2020.
The plan is to carry out two trials. In Salisbury, Openreach will test the processes for migrating customers to full-fibre services and, ultimately, withdrawing legacy copper-based services. The Mildenhall trial will test the procedure for withdrawing Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) and migrating customers to replacement services.
Ofcom is proposing to amend its wholesale charges for these trials to encourage early participation – connection charges would be waived – and wholesale rental charges would remain unchanged from the legacy rate for one year after migration. Any objections raised for the plan to remove the ‘equivalence of inputs’ obligations for both trials should be lodged with Ofcom. The full consultation is now online.
The completion of both trials are deemed an important step forward by Ofcom in the transformation of the UK’s connectivity. You can read more about the move to All-IP on our website, and further reading on the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review too.
