A ground-breaking agreement has been reached in a shake-up of the UK's broadband infrastructure, it has been announced.

Openreach, which controls the UK's broadband infrastructure, is set to become a separate company. BT has agreed with industry regulator Ofcom to separate from Openreach, allowing it to become truly independent. It means Openreach will serve all its customers equally and work on behalf of the whole industry, not just BT, as reported by The Guardian.

The news has been welcomed by other internet providers and should be good news for businesses and households alike. Rival internet providers, including Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone, say BT has been reluctant to open up the network to their engineers, making it difficult for them to offer superfast broadband access.

Openreach, which has been operating since 2006, is responsible for building and maintaing the copper and fibre lines that run from telephone exchanges to homes and businesses across the UK.

Under the deal with Ofcom, Openreach will be stripped of BT branding and become a distinct company with its own staff and management. The transfer of 32,000 staff, about a third of the current BT workforce, to the new company will be one of the biggest transfers of employees under UK regulations.

Here at Punchline, we know how essential reliable internet is for business. We welcome this move and look forward to a more straightforward and reliable service in the future.

What do you think? Email mark@moosemarketingandpr.co.uk 

Readers' comments:

Mike Lawrence: But who owns the shares, appoints the board and/or has effective control over it