Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => ISPs => Topic started by: Weaver on December 06, 2015, 12:03:03 AM
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Stupid question: What is BT Openreach, and what is BT Wholesale?
* These terms are bandied about, yet I have no idea exactly what they mean?
* Who deals with which?
* Who charges whom for what?
Apologies for being so dim…
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Openreach is responsible for the (essentially) analogue access network that exists between the network terminating point -- an NTE5/A for a residential customer -- and the MDF (main distribution frame) of the serving telephony exchange. The access network is often referred to as the "last mile" (or the "first mile", depending upon which way, and from where, you are looking).
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Who does an ISP have dealings with (presumably answer 'both') in order to achieve what?
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Who 'owns' the BT core network, from the exchange heading towards the ISP?
Again, apologies for so many dim questions, but I'd like to become accustomed to using the BT-division speak correctly and accurately.
There many possibly be other kitizens who aren't exactly clear about these terms.
Are there real Chinese walls within BT?
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An ISP/CP such as --
- TalkTalk will only deal with Openreach.
- A&A will deal with a wholesale entity (such as TalkTalk) and Openreach.
- BT Business or BT Residential will deal with BT Wholesale and Openreach.
All of the main network (the junction circuits, the trunk transmission circuits, microwave links (what is left of them), etc) is owned by the BT Group and is a (essentially) wholly digital network. It is maintained by the Operate division. The Operate division is also responsible for the maintenance of the "fibre" cabinets (of the FTTC product) and the fibre optic cables that link them to their respective head end exchanges.
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Are there real Chinese walls within BT?
Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto VI, XVII:
Oh, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive!
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Thanks for your kind replies. It's a bigger question than perhaps I had imagined.
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A brief description of the different divisions is available from Wikipedia:
BT Group is organised into the following divisions:[53]
Customer facing: BT Global Services – provides IT and telecoms services to multinationals
BT Business – provides telecoms services to UK SMEs
BT Consumer – provides retail telecoms services to consumers including TV and BT Sport
BT Wholesale – operates BT's networks
Openreach – fenced-off wholesale division, responsible for the "last mile" of BT's access network in GB and tasked with ensuring that rival operators have equality of access to BT's local network
Internal service unit: BT Technology, Service & Operations – responsible for the innovation, design, test, build and running of BT’s global networks and systems.
or on the BT Group Website http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/Ourcompany/Groupbusinesses/index.htm
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There's also a BT Local Business, may be called something else now, which is a franchise and not actually BT at all. We look after some circuits for a customer bought from BT Local Business, who in turn order from BT Global or someone, who in turn order from ... etc etc. One side issue of the complication is that if (when) billing issues arise we deal with completely different people and lines of escalation whether it's private circuits, Internet or MPLS. Thankfully all those except one LES are now ceased, but the billing arguments still run on months later.