To use WLR3 (wholesale line rental 3) CPs must interface with the BT Openreach Equivalence Management Platform (EMP). Union Street was one of the first third party integrators to offer CPs an interface solution with its WLR3 Portal. While the WLR3 Portal is suitable for CPs using other billing platforms, when used in conjunction with the Union Street’s aBILLity billing platform, it gives significant additional business benefits including reduced data entry, faster order processing, extra validation and reduced errors.
The four new WLR3 support staff will assist Union Street customers with migration issues arising from the transition to WLR3. Openreach has announced a firm withdrawal date of 30 June 2011, by which time all CPs must migrate to WLR3. Openreach have advised that CPs should have completed WLR3 service establishment by 31 March 2011.
For Union Street, Tony Cook, Managing Director said “The transition to WLR3 represents a major challenge for our customers. While there are great benefits for CPs using WLR3, the changes to current working practices are considerable with increased responsibility levels for CPs. For the majority of our customers that have implemented the Union Street WLR3 Portal solution, we want to ensure that the transition is as seamless and pain free as possible so that they can enjoy the many benefits of WLR3 with the minimum of hassle.”