FTTP resoultion date

[milouvision1]

In essence, is there any obligation for BT and/or Openreach to provide a date for a serious network issue to be fixed?

I’m in a small village in NE Aberdeenshire and we’ve had FTTP since September 2025. Great – a distinct upgrade from the previous 10 down, one up speeds. It started snowing on 1 January 2026 and on the 4 January, the red loss of service light on the ONT box came on for me and six other neighbours. I appreciate that in the first few days there would have been access issues due to adverse weather condition, but now we’re entering the third week, and no-one in BT and/or Openreach seems to be able to advise what the issue is and when it can be fixed. I do hope that either BT and/or Openreach knows but it’s not being communicated.

I’ve had four phone callbacks from BT and whilst each have been smiley and polite, there seems to be no grasp about what to do. During the last Thursday call, it was mentioned that there were “19 notes” from Openreach about this issue. It’s thought that a cable has been cut probably by a tractor with a snow plough (we’re reliant on these in the winter) probably by disturbing one of the grey slab boxes that are on the grass verges and which connect the village to the local exchange box, but that’s only a summation. It’s plausible but not confirmed.

During the Thursday call, I was told that a complaint would be opened on my behalf due to the lack of a resolution date and that I would hear by Friday evening at the latest about a resolution date. Of course that didn’t happen.   

We're both bouncing off intermittent 02 4G signals (front of house only). Openreach were in the village on last Wednesday and said they think someone somewhere is aware of the issue.

So...all help on whether there is any obligation for BT and/or Openreach to provide a date for this issue to be fixed would be greatly received.

Edit: I assume BT/Openreach will have a map of where these grey boxes are situated along the verges and which one is broken (if indeed that is the problem). There is still some snow on these verges although a shovel is a solution.

David

[iniltous · Accepted solution]

Openreach pay ISP for outages that fail to be repaired within the service level agreement, presumably you are a BT customer (otherwise why post here ) , as a BT customer you will be compensated in line with the  Ofcom compensation scheme that BT are a part of , but apart from that I’m not sure what you mean , can you ask your provider for updates , Yes you can , do Openreach have an obligation to keep you updated directly , No , quite the reverse, Ofcom requires Openreach to only deal with service providers and not end users .
Clearly it’s in Openreach interest to fix issues as soon as possible , it’s not as if they are likely to be sitting around doing nothing , but there are some matters that unfortunately can’t be rushed , if for example a road closure or traffic management were needed to repair/replace damaged or faulty infrastructure and that needed a minimum notice period (a local authority requirement) that can’t simply be ignored .
Should you get better information from your provider, ideally Yes , would you having that information speed up the repair, No

[milouvision1]

"Openreach to deal with service providers and not end users" Thanks. That's what I wanted to know.

Perhaps Openreach have advised BT (I've been a customer since 1979) but that information hasn't been passed to me. 

I'll call.

Thanks again.