BT and Ofcom strike deal over future of Openreach

British Telecom and Ofcom have struck a deal about the future of the company’s Openreach broadband division after it agreed to transfer 32,000 staff into a legally separate company.

The agreement ends two gruelling years of debate between the telecoms regulator and BT over the future governance of Openreach, which owns the fibres and wires that provide homes and businesses with broadband. It is the biggest shake-up in the regulation of British telecoms in a decade. The deal finally removes the lingering threat of a full break up of BT and Openreach that rivals Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone had pushed for. The compromise to legally separate the network business and put in its own board is designed to give it more power to set its own strategy and invest in faster broadband services. But critics have questioned whether the move will lead to greater investment in ‘full fibre’ networks.