Openreach: BT’s new network division
September 22, 2005
BT has revealed details of its new network division - BT Openreach - which will provide equal access to its phone network. Openreach will employ 30,000 people including 25,000 engineers and will come into operation in January 2006.
When it is established, Openreach will have assets of approximately £8bn and revenues of over £4bn. In order to keep it separate from the rest of BT, it will have its own HQ and brand identity.
BT Openreach chief, Steve Robertson, said in a statement: “The local BT network is one of the UK’s most important assets and my role is to ensure everyone has equal access to it.”
BT has created the new division as part of a regulatory settlement with Ofcom, under which the telecoms company agreed to “substantive structural, product and governance changes, affecting both its current and future networks”, in order to avoid the risk of being broken up.