Openreach is changing

ISP’s have this week received a letter from Openreach’s CEO, Clive Selley.

16:41 14 July 2017

The letter explains how Openreach are implementing the voluntary “Strategic Review” whereby Openreach would become a legally separate company. Competing  ISP’s have argued that BT Retail took advantage of it’s close working relationship with Openreach stifling competition and making certain markets, such as FTTP, difficult for new market entrants.

 

A first “symbolic” step has been announced today with Openreach dropping BT from it’s livery on some of it’s fleet of vans, with the intention to remove BT’s logo from all of their communications and on the field presence within 4 years.

 

Please see a transcript of Clive Sully’s letter below:

 

“At Openreach, our number one priority is providing a better service to our customers and to achieve that, we’re making fundamental changes to the way we work.

 

I’ve been keeping you up to date with how we are implementing our Commitments following Ofcom’s Digital Communications Review in March 2017. We’re showing you, our customers, that we’re becoming more independent – an Openreach that deals with everyone on equal terms.

 

We’re implementing as many of the Commitments as we can now, ahead of Ofcom’s requirements, because we believe it’s the right thing to do.

 

We want to get on with the job of delivering better service, broader coverage and faster speeds across Britain, so we’ve already established the new Openreach Board, with an independent Chairman and a majority of independent members, and they are now playing a very active role in steering the business and setting its strategy.

 

We’ve also begun changing the way we engage with you our Communications Provider customers by introducing a confidential phase to our discussions on significant investments and major strategic developments.

 

Today, we’re making a further small but symbolic step, by launching our own distinct brand.

 

We’re removing the ‘BT’ element from the Openreach logo. This is a visual sign to reflect how we deal with everyone on equal terms. We are committed to delivering the highest standards to everyone and we’re doing this well ahead of Ofcom’s timeframe as we feel the re-brand is an important step in building trust with you and our stakeholders.

 

The re-brand is also an opportunity to restate what Openreach stands for and how we want to work going forward. Openreach is all about our people and our network.

 

We want our brand to be consistent and recognisable so we’re keeping the distinctive typeface and name, as our research suggests it will mean our engineers continue to be recognised when they knock on your customers’ doors.

 

As you’ll see from the new imagery and About Openreach video this isn’t an expensive or extravagant re-brand. It’s a simple and pragmatic step which will allow us to continue to focus on our business.

 

From today and over the coming weeks, months and years, we’ll be introducing the new logo and imagery into our key touchpoints – everything from our websites, slides and documents, ID cards and workwear to the 22,000 vans in our fleet. We’re rolling it out over the next 1-4 years to reduce costs and minimise the impact to you and your customers.”