Exactly she has no control it was there and just disappeared her son deals with but feel sorry as the provider is a nightmare to deal with unlike EE who in comparison so far are good. I have only dealt with them at a commercial level and they were still bad, probably needs a new box as old or re-association with her account but getting through to someone sensible by beyond the turn it off and on
Personally I prefer total control myself of routers and media boxes but then I have been working in networking and media (yes some multicast TV streams not on the level the EE guys deal with just internal to business), but understand most people prefer simplicity