Investigation into Openreach's quality-of-service performance in leased lines access and wholesale local access in 2022/23

Following our investigation Ofcom has now issued BT Telecommunications plc (‘BT plc’ or ‘BT’) with a decision.
BT is required to meet specified Quality of Service (‘QoS’) performance standards across the leased lines access, Interexchange Connectivity and wholesale local access markets. These standards are implemented under the SMP Conditions imposed on BT plc under the WFTMR. Openreach Limited (Openreach) was appointed by BT plc as agent to manage and operate BT’s network business to which these standards apply.

Ofcom found that BT, through Openreach, contravened SMP Condition 10.1 and the QoS Standards set out in Volume 7 of the Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review (WFTMR),by failing to meet three of the QoS obligations.

• Mean Time to Provide completed orders was 38.36 days for Relevant Ethernet Services and Dark Fibre Access in certain leased lines access and certain Interexchange Connectivity markets (above the no more than 38 day standard);
• Completed 93.8% of provisions for MPF and GEA-FTTC services on time in London and the South East (falling below the 94% standard); and
• Completed 84.2% of repairs for faults subject to Service Management Level 2 on time in Wales and Midlands (falling below the 85% standard).

After taking account of the information gathered about the circumstances which affected performance in 2022/2023, and the steps taken by Openreach to comply with BT’s QoS obligations under these circumstances, Ofcom have decided to not impose a financial penalty or any other remedy in relation to these breaches.

In reaching this decision, Ofcom also considered the following factors:

• Each of the three standards was failed by a narrow margin;
• The 2022/2023 regulatory period saw eight days of industrial action (‘IA’) by the Communications Workers Union (‘CWU’);
• Openreach calculated the impact of the IA on its performance in 2022/23 to be larger than the margins with which it failed each of the three standards;
• The breach was not flagrant - Openreach has demonstrated it made considerable efforts to meet the performance requirements.

The central objective of imposing a penalty (as set out in our published Penalty Guidelines) is deterrence both in terms of the addressee of our decision and the wider industry. Our view is that a penalty or another remedy would not have, in this case, been appropriate or proportionate to the contraventions.

Ofcom takes compliance with QoS standards seriously, as consumer harm can result when service levels fall below the standards that are expected. It is important that Communications Providers (‘CPs’) take compliance with their regulatory responsibilities seriously and that when things go wrong, they recognise this and act quickly and responsibly to remedy any harm that has been caused and that they allow Ofcom to investigate, as appropriate.

A non-confidential version of our decision will be published in due course.

Ofcom has today opened an own-initiative investigation into Openreach’s compliance with its quality-of-service obligations in 2022/23.

Our rules require Openreach to meet specified quality-of-service performance standards across the leased lines access and wholesale local access markets. These standards are implemented under the SMP Conditions imposed on BT under the WFTMR.

Among other targets, Openreach must:

• ensure that the mean Time to Provide completed orders is no more than 38 working days in each relevant year;
• ensure that it completes 94% of provisions for MPF and GEA-FTTC services, on time; and
• ensure that it completes 85% of its repairs for faults that are subject to Service Management Level 2, on time.

Openreach has informed Ofcom that in 2022/23 it:

• took a mean time to provide completed orders of 38.36 days;
• completed 93.8% of provisions for MPF and GEA-FTTC services on time in London and the South East; and
• completed 84.2% of repairs for faults subject to Service Management Level 2 on time in Wales and Midlands.

The quality-of-service obligations were imposed to ensure that Openreach provides an appropriate level of service to its customers. The obligations are intended to be a lower bound, met under all but very exceptional circumstances. Ofcom takes compliance with the quality-of-service obligations very seriously and the investigation will examine Openreach’s performance in respect of the year 2022/23.