This week marks a significant milestone on the One Touch Switch journey. All our hard work has paid off, as on Monday, we will be ready to invite all residential fixed voice and broadband providers to onboard with us. It means everyone who will be using the TOTSCo Hub will be able to register as a customer of TOTSCo and book your test slot in preparation for the testing window opening from 28 July.

As testing is so crucial, industry has asked us to facilitate a co-ordinated testing approach, so I am pleased to introduce you to Anand Sundaram, our dedicated Industry Test Lead. Anand will be working with you to develop common test cases, share test cases and ultimately to make sure our testing programme is fit-for-purpose and beneficial to everyone.

To make this happen we are going to be forming Industry Testing Working Groups. The four CP groups are based around scale and/or type of CP in anticipation that this might provide commonality in topics of interest and experience.  The Groups are organised by large CPs, medium CPs, and two groups for smaller CPs (<50K customers) and Altnets. We will be sending out a Bulletin next week inviting you to apply for membership.

This week we sent out the first of our ‘TOTSCo Talk’ eBulletins. If you didn’t receive it let us know.  Based on your feedback, we have created this communication channel to create an engaging way to give you essential updates, latest news and any important actions you may need to take.  These ebulletins are going to be crucial as we progress as there is going to be more and more we need to tell you.

Talking of latest news, this week we sent out two new Bulletins. Bulletin 15 which provides you with a list of known companies that are developing Managed Access Solutions and Bulletin 16 asking for your feedback on our suggested Message Delivery Policies.

Lastly, I wanted to introduce the newest addition to the TOTSCo board, Ben Shaw, Head of Industry Engagement at Sky. Ben joins us, replacing Pablo Sifrim, Director Group Procurement at Sky, who stepped down as our procurement activities transition into the delivery phase. I am looking forward to working with Ben and the rest of the board as we continue the journey to deliver One Touch Switch.

That’s it from me this week folks, have a great weekend.

Paul