Leader: BT's near break-up

Well, BT has dodged Ofcom's axe once again and given birth to a new network access unit, openreach.

According to BT CEO Ben Verwaayen, the telco's restructuring won't necessarily mean price cuts; consumers won't see any changes except a new livery on the company's vans and ISPs will now be able to treat themselves to an online engineer booking system instead of calling up BT on the phone.

Ofcom's decision looks likely to be replicated in other countries, turning this seemingly inconsequential event into something that may even have repercussions across the whole European Union.

So has this been a £200m exercise in running on the spot? To a certain extent, yes - BT has done what Ofcom wanted in order to stop the regulator splitting the telco's Wholesale and Retail arms.

Still, this could well be far better news for pretty much everyone involved than it first appears.

BT, for its part, has had to paint some vans and get a new balance sheet drawn up once a quarter but it's unlikely the whole process will be a huge financial stress, even if it is a strategic hassle. BT has also positioned itself well for spinning off the unit at some stage in the future - a nice added bonus.

For its trouble, BT gets to stay together as a single business.

Ofcom has also come out of the affair looking none too bad. The situation almost calls for a wisdom of King Solomon comparison: knowing how much BT wanted to stay together, the creation of openreach must have come as a relief to BT. As well as keeping the telco at heel, Ofcom has proved it's not just a toothless old watchdog.

And Ofcom's decision looks likely to be replicated in other countries, turning this seemingly inconsequential event into something that may even have repercussions across the whole European Union.

Other ISPs have welcomed the changes with open if somewhat reserved arms, hoping they might be getting better treatment from BT if all goes well.

And lastly, what of consumers - will they notice any benefit? While prices may well not fall solely due to this announcement, they are due for a drop and, according to analysts, BT's new 'policy of equality' could see other ISPs broadening their horizons beyond seeing how much unadorned bandwidth they can give out for £19.99 per month.

Instead, ISPs will be able to look at what new, interesting services they can offer including the much-talked-about triple play - voice, video and data. Not the biggest prize but better than nothing, right?