Connected to the wrong Openreach exchange

[Callum98]

Hi,

A few weeks ago I got Full Fibre installed in my flat, the activation date for my broadband has long since passed and I am still completely without connection.

Every time I contact BT they just say it's a fault and send an engineer from Openreach. The engineers all say the same thing: there is no physical fault, its just that I've inexplicably been connected to the wrong exchange.  The exchange I'm being connected to is in a town over 10 miles away and there are several exchanges between here and there, so it's not even like I'm close to being in range. The engineers then arrange for me to be switched over on the phone, saying it shouldn't take more than a day or two, then leave.

This has happened 3 times in 3 weeks and I'm still connected to the wrong exchange. I don't know why they aren't switching me to the correct one when presumably 3 different engineers have advised it. We can't really tell why this is happening either, even if I type my postcode into the Openreach fibre checker it says I'm powered by the local exchange, not the one I'm actually being connected to. 

I'm quite lost at this point. If I phone BT they just send another engineer and there doesn't seem to be anyone else I can talk to. I haven't had broadband for a single minute this whole time and it's seriously affecting my job (work from home)

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[imjolly]

If you are actually getting full fibre to your home then that does not come from the exchange.  If however you are getting fibre to the cabinet and then copper to your home then that does come the cabinet.  So are you getting FTTP or FTTC?

Enter your address and post results including all the notes

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

[Callum98]

I'm not entirely sure, it just says "fibre 2"

But since the engineers are saying that the issue is being connected to the wrong exchange I assume it's supposed to be coming from a cabinet. 

[Callum98]

I put my address in and this is what I got 

 

[jac_95]

@Callum98 

It states a ONT is active. What lights are shown on the ONT? What colour are they?

If the ONT PON light is solid green and the LOS light is off then your full fibre connection is connected to Openreach's headend equipment ok.

If the above is ok then it maybe the authentication with BT Wholesale's  and BT Consumer's equipment. What colour lights are showing on the BT/EE Smart hub?

[Callum98]

Yes it's exactly that, PON is flashing, LOS is off and the other 2 are solid green. The hub it's plugged into is also displaying a solid orange light. They've been like this for weeks, since the initial installation.

[jac_95]

Ok so PON flashing but LOS light off on ONT means your ONT if trying to perform the verification step with Openreach's headend equipment. If that's been going on for a while then means the verification may be failing. This could be down to a few things, including a potential mismatch of serial number of the ONT.

[Callum98]

I asked a guide about this when on the phone to BT and they said the serial number was a match. 

[licquorice]

First of all the head end that you are connected to can be miles away, fibre distance limitation is far greater than copper. The local exchange is probably not a fibre head end. Secondly, you can't connect a single customer to 'the wrong exchange', the fibre backhaul is all built before any of the 30 customers that share the backhaul are connected.

The ONT and hub indications show that your connection is physically in place but BT haven't activated it correctly.

You need to be insistent with BT that your connection isn't activated.

[iniltous]

As already stated , the concerns about how far away the headend exchange is , is unfounded, 40kms to a headend isn’t unreasonable , OR have around  6000 exchanges , once FTTP is everywhere there will be around 1000 exchanges, so very few addresses will actually be served from their ‘local’ exchange , but one relatively close by , it’s very unlikely that the network that serves you and your neighbours has been connected to the wrong headend exchange.

There are a couple of ‘incorrectly connected’  possibilities though , the optimum way Openreach designs their passive local optical networks  is with around 120 addresses in each PON , this makes the most efficient use of resources , this requires 4 ‘SASA’s (splitters) in the same enclosure (splitter node ) …when the area is designed each address is pre-allocated to a splitter , so (for example) your address allocated to splitter 1 via a CBT (the fibre distribution point near you address ) , if the CBT you are connected to was incorrectly wired to splitter 2 instead of splitter 1 , you would get the symptoms you have , the PON light flashing , that’s because  ‘light’ is being received at the ONT , but it’s from splitter 2 not splitter 1 ( that’s why the LOS loss of signal ) isn’t lit ) but authentication fails because the OLT  data has you recorded on splitter 1 not  splitter 2 ….this is usually an easy and quick fix to reconfigure the data, basically to move your ‘data’ and the other addresses on the CBT , to splitter 2

The other less likely possibility is the OLT exchange is correct , but each headend exchange houses many OLT racks (headends) …. In simple terms , if the aggregation node that feeds the splitters should be on OLT rack 1 but was connected to rack 2 ( so not the wrong exchange but the wrong headend within the correct exchange) then again authentication would fail .

Unfortunately although this may explain the issues the solution hasn’t changed , Openreach need to sort out the problem either physically ( move the connections to the correct location ) or re do the data entry’s to take into account the network error, as stated all you can do is keep on at your ISP to chase OR for a resolution