The Guardian is naive to think that Openreach would become a public service entity if split away from BT (Editorial, 20 July). The current government has spent much effort “selling the family silver” by privatising – or attempting to privatise – state assets at a rate of knots, including profit-making operations such as the Land Registry. BT’s rivals have been clamouring to take control of Openreach without demonstrating how customers (as opposed to their own shareholders) would benefit.
We believe improvements can and should be made to the way in which Openreach is run but this does not happen in a bubble. For example, there are drawbacks to the demand-led approach to the universal service obligation, as economies of scale mean that it is generally more cost effective to roll out broadband access to a number of premises in one area simultaneously and this approach inevitably disadvantages rural areas with low populations. Quality of service is also affected by the current regulatory model, which focuses almost solely on pricing. The focus has to be about quality of service and stimulating investment, ensuring a properly resourced workforce to build and maintain network infrastructure to a high standard.
No one would welcome a public service broadband provider more than my union. However, with the future of 28,000 Openreach staff we represent in the balance, we want to see a direction that is well-resourced, puts service for customers at its heart, and is also practically deliverable. We believe BT ownership – with improvements – best meets that ambition.
Andy Kerr
Deputy general secretary, CWU
• Philip Hammond says UK is open for business (ARM sold abroad for £24.5bn, 19 July). What he means is UK is up for sale.
Francis Jones
London
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
