Telegraph pole down - No broadband for 6 weeks and counting

[chris-leeds]

On the 12th of February, someone drove into a telegraph pole near our house and brought it down, together with the broadband service for the neighbourhood. Seems no one was hurt fortunately.

I  reported this to BT as a matter of course and they said Openreach would be informed.

Over 6 weeks later, we are still waiting for service to be restored. I have formally complained to BT and all I get back is "We are awaiting Openreach". We have also had commitments to repair dates, which have come and gone.

I actually had an email address for Openreach from which I received correspondence a while back for something unrelated. I mailed that address and asked them to forward my complaint to the relevant person. I then had a voice message from Openreach, saying to take it up with my provider.

As a home worker, this is a nightmare. BT provided a mini 4G hub, which is very hit and miss. I can't do video zoom calls and have to constantly re-connect to the 4G hub when it loses connectivity.

Anyone else been through the same experience ? How long could I be waiting ?

Finally - is there another way to escalate this ? Ofcom maybe ?

😥 😠 

Thanks

[imjolly]

the pole down is not just a problem for BT customers but also for customers of other ISPs who use the openreach network.

if the pole is near the road, which sounds like it may be, then it may take a while for permission from the council to allow the closing of part road while work is carried out

[chris-leeds]

.... sure, I get that other providers are also affected by this and I don't necessarily blame BT. I assume they're doing what they can, whatever that is (?).

I'm desperately looking for an indication of MTTR, so thanks for your insights.

It might not be so bad if I someone set customer expectations properly. E.g. Openreach should be telling me via BT that this can take a while, because of X,Y,Z ... and  "Here is our target date for remediation mr customer........"

Funnily enough, a neighbour was meant to be having fibre broadband installed recently from another provider and the Openreach engineer turned up to find there was no telegraph pole. Not exactly a joined-up organisation it seems.