Will BT reach out to Alcatel-Lucent?

Word (first reported exclusively by The Register and quoting anonymous Openreach insiders) has it that BT (that Mr. Verwaayen was running up until this summer) is negotiating the outsourcing of its network access arm.

Openreach came into being in 2006 after Ofcom, the UK regulator, conducted a "strategic review" of Britain's telecoms industry in 2005. At the time it was thought that unless BT did something pretty radical a forced break-up of its businesses would be on the cards.

Many of BT's would-be competitors in the local loop had complained that the big incumbent operator was obstructing the co-location of DSL equipment at BT local exchanges and maintaining an unfair hammerlock on the "last mile" of the network.

BT took the hint and created Openreach with the intent to "ensure that all rival operators have equality of access to BT's own local network".

The local network comprises the twisted pair and other cabling connecting subscribers to their local exchange, starting from the main distribution frame (MDF) therein and extending to the network termination point (NTP) at the customer's home or business premises. Openreach is also responsible for the links between the MDF and BT Wholesale's LLU termination points (jumper connections) within local exchanges.

Furthermore, Openreach also employs the BT engineers (some 25,000 of them) that install and maintain the wiring running into end user premises - and that applies regardless of whichever alternative ISP or telco (and there are about 400 of them) actually retails and bills customers.