Kitz Forum
Announcements => News Articles => Topic started by: gt94sss2 on June 21, 2019, 02:17:10 PM
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Interesting FT Article (https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEJUDyPIL_b0J5EF8os7NYkoqFwgEKg8IACoHCAow-4fWBzD4z0gwgtt6?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB%3Aen) about the relationship between BT and Openreach.
When telecoms engineers working for BT’s newly branded subsidiary Openreach first visited customers to carry out repairs or install services, they ran into an unexpected obstacle. Doors were slammed in their faces.
Under strict orders from regulator Ofcom to improve access for rival telecoms providers, BT had separated its wholesale division operationally in 2006 (it has since had to go further). To underline its independence, BT had ordered Openreach staff not to refer to the better-known parent.
“It impacts everything we do!” one engineer complained. “All the time people ask us ‘What is Openreach?’ We never had these problems with BT, because they trust BT and just let us in. Now, with Openreach, sometimes people won’t see us at all.”
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I can believe it.
My mother would likely be one of those who does not automatically (or at least didn't) associate the name Openreach with BT engineers.
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There seems to be a general bubble when it comes to telecoms/broadband, so I'm not really surprised about people not recognising Openreach.
Even when it comes to broadband packages and the different technologies deployed nobody really explains what they are to the public. We on this forum are the vanguard of the public so we know. But when people think they are getting full fibre with FTTC technology, heaven knows what they think if G.fast is mentioned. I bet most people have never heard of G.fast, and with the confusion about full fibre unless better public information is available then there is going to be take-up problems of these new technologies as the public just doesn't know them.
As we've observed stories in the past about older people resisting technology being deployed in their areas. They are probably the ones with the least information about the new technologies. I think ISP's need to remember there is life offline and it could still be an advantage to print paper leaflets about products and post them. It's never been so easy and cheap to distribute leaflets these days.
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There seems to be a general bubble when it comes to telecoms/broadband, so I'm not really surprised about people not recognising Openreach.
'Twas ever thus.
I'm sure most people I know aren't aware that diffrential local/regional/national phone call rates are a thing of the past, and that the Post Office (public) is a different entity to Royal Mail (private).
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I still give "postie" a few quid at christmas. He's a guid soul, and would probably notice blood seeping out my front door. I've absolutely no idea who he works for any more.
Just as a medical report about myself, though from experience, I probably trust telecoms individuals from OpenReach more than plumbers, joiners, electricians, plasterers, or politicians.
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As I say, I quick liked the article - another extract:
Frustration — and hilarity — ensued. Prof Jarzabkowski and fellow researchers wrote another study about how “TelCo” and “AccessCo” met the insuperable paradoxes with dark humour. It was hard not to laugh when, for instance, calls to a freephone number for complaints — including one from the office of a well-known television personality who was moving house — were accidentally routed direct to the manager struggling to implement one of the Openreach programmes. Or when, in a Kafka-esque twist, managers won some wiggle-room from Ofcom, only to find that an internal BT committee set up to police the undertakings refused to let them push through the concessions.