BT has been given permission by Ofcom to draft in extra engineers to help improve service levels at Openreach - the division charged with helping rival telcos get equipment into local exchanges.

The telco is bringing in 150 engineers from another division - BT is restricted by regulators to stop it unfairly favouring its own retail division. Local loop unbundling has been hit, BT says, by high levels of demand.

A spokeswoman for BT told the Reg: "Openreach has been experiencing problems with service levels. This allows us to allocate extra resources quickly. We are also asking Openreach engineers to work overtime and we're recruiting an extra 400 apprentices.

Unbundling is the process by which rival telcos put their own equipment into BT's local exchanges. BT engineers are then required to connect the kit to individual landlines. The process has long been seen as crucial to injecting real competition into the market but implementation has been slow.

The spokeswoman from BT predicted: "The level of resource should show in improved service levels in the next two months."®

Related stories

• Exclusive BT plots massive Openreach outsourcing deal (3 October 2008)
• Ofcom mulls BT Openreach price hike (30 May 2008)
• Ofcom tells BT to buck up on unbundling (11 December 2007)
• Ofcom fills Local Loop Unbundling loophole (23 May 2007)
• European Commission beats telco open access drum (29 March 2007)
• BT revenues creep up (9 November 2006)
• BT operator: 'What service do you require?' (30 October 2006)
• LLU taking off, but lift off slower than hoped (5 September 2006)
• BT wants more women engineers (27 June 2006)
• Spiders attack Manchester phone network (17 June 2006)
• UK LLU hits half million (15 June 2006)
• C&W sets sights on one million wholesale LLU lines (9 June 2006)
• Openreach cuts wholesale broadband charges (7 June 2006)
• Ofcom steps into Carphone row with BT (2 May 2006)
• Analysis Carphone talks tough on LLU deadline (12 April 2006)
• BT drags heels over LLU (11 April 2006)