The WLR3 platform is a central to the concept of Equivalence of Inputs (EOI) imposed on Openreach as part of its Undertakings three years ago. Here, Adam Oxford asks whether Openreach is living up to expectations.

In theory, EOI grants equal access to the provisioning systems competitors to the incumbent, and means communications providers aren't waiting for the phone call that never comes to inform them of when a line is going to be installed. By the end of June, at least a third of lines should have been migrated to WLR3. Instead, that figure is just over one in ten. The Head of WLR Development at Openreach, David Curran, says that the delay is down to a slow start to the migration. "The new system had some teething problems, and we wanted to protect the customer experience to the level BT Retail and Global wanted to," he says. "This is a change to the systems, not the end product, and we want to make sure that end users can continue to use their telephones without any break in service."

Curran reckons that starting the migration six weeks earlier would have meant hitting the June target, and points out that two million customers are now managed on an equivalence basis - a significant milestone for the company, since this represents 50 per cent of the WLR2 user base. For the time being at least BT is off the hook. In the letters published on the Ofcom website, the body says that it respects the investments made by BT, and extended the WLR3 deadline until the end of the year. "Ofcom has taken account that BT has delayed migration due to issues that may have impacted customer experience," an Ofcom spokesperson told Comms Dealer. "BT will now have to comply by the end of December or Ofcom may take enforcement action under the Enterprise Act."

According to Curran, December is an achievable target for Openreach. The experience of Scottish provider HIGHnet has been fairly typical. David Alldritt explains that the company prides itself on being an early adopter of new platforms. "We've been on the bus and off the bus," he explains. "Because after it started being delivered it all fell apart a bit. So we moved back on the old WLR2 gateway for a while. We were the second provider in the UK to go to a ‘business as usual' position with WLR3."

With competition from IP providers stepping up, staying competitive is as compelling a reason for BT to step up work on its EOI commitments as the Undertakings are. "BT has made itself an unattractive channel," one reseller told us. "Our biggest partner right now is Voicenet, we're doing a lot of hosted voice and switches with them."

That's not a view shared by all. Rob Boylett from UK Telco says most of his business is still with BT and will remain so, because that's what the market demands. "The LLU suppliers and the SIP providers have working products," he says. "But they're not being sold properly by the resellers. I don't think they're putting BT under any pressure. Out of 200 orders a week, only one is for IP trunks."

The difficulty with the slow roll out of WLR3, he says, is twofold. Not only is WLR2 still problematic, but you have to run two systems at once. Boylett states of the company's progress: "BT hasn't changed a lot, to be honest. They're really hard to deal with. Eighteen months ago we had two BT account managers. Then one went on maternity leave, and we haven't seen anyone since. I email the people I think are my account managers, and I might get an answer back in a week if I'm lucky."

He's also critical of the slow progress towards a level playing field for CPs. "There's still a big disparity between what BT Retail can do against BT Openreach," he continues. "We were quoted about £15,000 to put a new fibre into a building with not enough analogue lines. The client went to BT and five days later got a new line for £100. That happens a lot, you're told there are no lines left so you get charged for digging holes in the road. The client goes to BT and they get a line installed for the normal cost."

Naturally enough, BT's Curran refutes the idea that BT Retail still has a privileged position. "That comes from historical mistrust," he claims. "People will always believe that while we're part of the same group we will favour BT Retail, but if the Undertakings have achieved anything, they've definitely achieved that equivalence goal. It runs through the blood of everything Openreach does, and created some interesting discussions internally when people get told they can't do something the way they have in the past. We don't have ring fenced teams like we did in the old world, there's been a complete sea change in the way we deal with internal customers."