BT Wholesale Customer Service Forum
28th January 2014, 11:00am
These are the questions asked on the call, complete with answers:
Name
Beatrice Hodgson
(Virgin Media)
Question & Answer
On Ethernet and MTTP, on the slides Cat 3 averaging circa 120 days and Cat 4
was a lot less, I would have thought that Cat 4 would take longer than a Cat 3.
Why is this?
Cat 4 orders – example New Build/Green Field sites fall into this category tend to be more ‘Stage Managed’ because we know the issues up-front
(eg there is no infrastructure on site) so we can do a lot of the off-site
work in readiness (eg getting the fibre cable up to the where the new
building will be built). In Cat 3 orders, we know there is infrastructure
there, but we don’t know what state the infrastructure is in, until the
planning starts, so a lot is sequential and we can also get into additional
‘way leaves’ and new overlay ducts too.
Regarding the additional KCIs to take towards CPD, on the slides there were
different stages that have ECDs. Are those in place now? Or is this
aspirational?
The aspiration is to get that information proactively. At the moment, we
(BT Wholesale) can ask Openreach for this information but they are not
currently in a position to do this proactively. Once they are, they will need
to look at the roll out across the industry because it is a change to the
Product Service Level Agreement.
We hope this new information will be provided by the Openreach Clarity
Template by the start of March so we can provide it to you proactively.
Bob Padginton
(Verizon)
Are there any plans to integrate the Escalation Portal (or its functionality) into
ECO+?
No, but we are working on integrating the portal into Business Zone –
which is a one stop shop that we are developing for customers,so that
when you are on Business Zone, we will put an easy link in for you to
escalate if you need to.
Will that auto-populate things like the circuit reference or the ticket number? It
would help if it does.
We will align to what you are being asked for on other systems to make it
easier for you. At the moment, it will ask you for a BBAU or CBUK. If this
changes we will mirror that in the Escalation Portal.
Would the Forum to discuss ECO+ problems and developments also cover
Ethernet too?
I think we will need a specific session for Ethernet – Russ Gittins will
liaise with Carl Brinkworth and Tony Stephens to get an industry view on
Ethernet ECO+ improvements.
Claire Lyndon
(NTT Europe Ltd)
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In regards to Slide 7 and the Failure % - CCD unavailable – CP is over 55%.
What’s the reason for that and why they keep failing and is there anything the
carriers can do to improve that rate?
Generally, it’s when there is somethingpreventing Openreach from
delivering, such as excess construction charges, way leaves, access to
site. The way you can help us is to focus on resolving anything that is in
customer delay on your daily report and then feeding that into the
Ethernet Provision team so that we can get that into Openreach.
Robbie Mawer
(Level 3)
In relation to the port flex, it is good that CPs have the option to do this,
however our End Users tend to ask for more details about what causes an
outage.
Port Flex & Reset are designed to fix issues with MSAN Ports where the
DSL Service is In-Sync but the PPP Session cannot be established. In
these cases, either the Port itself has locked up or the configuration may
be corrupted.
The definitions below provide details for each of the current Self Service
Repair tools and are extracted from the Self Service Repair Handbook,
available on BTwholesale.com - Self_Service_Repair_Tool_Introduction_v1
Port Flex: The virtual circuit details and parameters are removed
(deactivated) and then automatically rebuilt (reactivated) on the same
physical port and hardware. This function deactivates and reactivates the
ADSL service by ceasing the configuration on the port of the MSAN or
DSLAM and then configures the port within the same parameters
(cTag/sTag on MSAN or vci/vpi on DSLAM). This process can be effective
in soft repairing a line with an IP type issue, where no physical fault has
been identified but a Port Flex may be effective in restarting services at an
IP level.
Port Reset: On some MSANs this operation is at the physical port level to
disable and re-enable the ADSL service at a hardware level. On others this
operation will lead to a cease and re-provide of the customer service port
configuration – similar to a Port Flex reset.
Kill Session: This function terminates the IP session between the
(Broadband Remote Access Server) BRAS and the customer’s
router/modem.
Note: This is also currently available via the 20C Fault Diagnostics menu.
It will be removed from this menu after all 20C services have been moved
to the 21C System stack where they can be access via the Self Service
Repair toolset.
If you have any other queries please contact James Lamb, KBD and Test
& Diagnostics Manager, Telephone: 07713 265365, email:
james.f.lamb@bt.com.
Ian Boydon
(PlusNet)
We have been seeing a lot of problems with BT Wholesale testing software of
late, especially Eco+. I see we have a new KBD platform coming soon. With
this new update, are we expecting more stability across all testing software, and
will there be more improvements to come? Especially with Eco+ in regard to
booking appointments, as too often we see software issues causing failures on
appointment and other issues, such as missing buttons.
I’m sorry to hear that you have been having problems with our systems. I
can tell you that for New KBD we have had this delivered on a brand new
hardware and software platform, this will allow it to handle increased
levels of usage and provide much better performance than the existing
KBD Tool. Infact, in conjunction with logic and coding changes in the new
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tool, we are currently seeing end to end test times of on average 03:05
minutes for Copper Broadband Services and just over 01:00 minute for
Fibre/NGA Tests.
New KBD is also accessed direct from the BTwholesale.com website and
not through eCO+. This will reduce the reliance on any Diagnostic
Transactions through the eCO+ platform.
There is an ongoing program of work to replace and update the current
BTW Systems estate with many systems moving to VDC (Virtual Data
Centre) environments, this will provide a much Improved system
performance over time. Any upgrades that take place are Notified where
necessary via Systems Outage notifications.
If you continue to experience any further Issues with Eco+ in regard to
booking appointments or missing buttons please report them via the
System Support Help Desk Team you can contact them by email or by
phone.

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For ‘eCo’ system issues, email; broadband.eco.admin@bt.com
For btwholesale.com issues, email; btwholesale.direct@bt.com or
call 0800 783 5639 and select Option 1.
If you have any other queries please contact James Lamb, KBD and Test
& Diagnostics Manager, Telephone: 07713 265365, email:
james.f.lamb@bt.com.
Roy Wilson (BT
Global Services)
With the work stack falling to 27,000, what percentage of those open incidents
will be expected to meet the SLA?
The ability to hit the SLA for a given volume in the work stack is
dependent on supplier resource and the type of work and geographies
that are in the demand. The supplier may have resource able to manage a
work stack of say 25000, however they would resource against the priority
work and would invoke overtime or may manage out the dates for
provides, in order to be able to meet the SLA as near as possible.
The current supplier performance for SFI is only slightly below SLA and
the variance in extreme circumstances of prolonged work stack issues
impacts to the tune of around an 11% gap to SLA. The SLA achieved does
have a relationship with the volume of work, however it is not always a
direct result of it.
Jay (DCSVAV)
I agree to the question that Claire raised for slide 7 KCi3.....How does this
reflect on WLR3 SP as the KCi3 don't come through promptly.
WLR3 is an Openreach product not a Wholesale product so you would
need to approach Openreach for the insight on this.
Dave Conn (BTW)
With regards to the 10 day retest on T2R engineering activities. Is this all
Openreach engineering activity or just SFI?
The 10 day retest is for SFI enabled engineering visits only.
Dave Jackson
(TEF O2)
Would there be a benefit in holding a customer / user forum to capture
requirements to improve Eco+ - it has been suggested this may be in the
process of being arranged?
We are setting up a work within the next couple of weeks (which will
include Dave Jackson from TEF O2 and Bob Padginton from Verizon) to
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capture the issues on BB and Ethernet journeys. The Ethernet issues
raised will be passed to the Ethernet CE team.
Paul Du Bois
You said that you had a fault work stack of 37,000 faults – is that a month?
That’s the Openreach fault work stack as opposed to ours and represents
all customers of Openreach but clearly that has a strong bearing on our
own broadband provision and repair processes. The weekly in-take for
Openreach approached nearly 90,000 at its peak (the highest ever level).
Who do we contact if we have some ideas for solving these faults?
The Broadband Repair workshop taking place on Monday 3rd February
offers an opportunity to raise any ideas and suggestions to test out with
wider industry. However, we always welcome ideas and input so feel free
to raise with Richard Marsh (richard.marsh@bt.com) or Russ Gittins
(Russell.gittins@bt.com) who leads the repair area on Broadband.
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