Openreach

[SilverTop669]

Does anyone have any idea how long it should take Openreach to put up a pole in front of my house?

 

I live in a large village in South Yorkshire surrounded by houses who all have phone line and internet access. Some overhead and some are underground and I am in the middle, close to both. I moved into a brand new house over 6 weeks ago and still have no idea when a pole will be installed. I have no line, landline phone or internet until the pole/cable is installed. It is such a nuisance not being able to make good quality calls. I have a good mobile phone, but quality in this area is poor and calls usually break up (possibly due to being near an airport). It's hard to believe this is 2019 and some of us still live in the dark ages thanks to companies like Openreach. Openreach will only talk to my ISP and Plusnet tell me little or nothing.

Edited January 13, 2019 by SilverTop669

[Guest Guest]

A relative of mine recently moved into a new house although on a new estate and he had to wait around 3 months

[SilverTop669]

Many thanks, Kieran. I won't hold my breath then. I am learning to live without the internet and a landline phone. I take my laptop to the local pub because add-on data on my phone is very expensive. It's a pity ISPs don't just tell us this in the first place rather than customers looking out the front door every day hoping to see a pole appear.

[FN-GM]

I think a landline should be mandatory as part of the build process like electricity, gas and water is. If it has been factored into the build it would be in by now.

[XiJ]

I think a landline should be mandatory as part of the build process like electricity, gas and water is. If it has been factored into the build it would be in by now.

 

In the new estate I moved into 4 years ago we all have a BT line but they also have virgin media cable deployed to all the houses. Still took about 3 months to get connected but it actually works well for us.

[Cache]

The cable was in place for mine, however it needed Openreach to come and connect it. From placing the order for a new line to getting the line connected was about 5/6 weeks and then it was about 4 weeks more for internet to be activated because BT forgot to place the order...

[Jamman960]

Dealing with openreach is never easy I’m currently waiting for them to excavate along the pavement near work to complete installation of our leased line. I’m watching roadworks.org, permits show up on there along with descriptions of the work so I’ve got an idea of when they’re supposed to be carrying out work. I’m not sure if this relys upon your council using it or not.

 

Then again having a permit seems to mean very little - 80% or so of ours seem to get moved every time the works are due to be carried out. I’m endlessly pestering our supplier to push openreach to do their job, they “escalate” the issue and openreach continue to do the same...

[XiJ]

Openreach are a law unto themselves.

[elsiegee40]

@localzuk how long does it take to get Openreach to do something? And then to complete it?

[Katy]

Took us 6 months to get a phone line 20m away from where an existing 40 pair cable terminates (and it had 36 spare pairs). That involved 7 separate visits there they did nothing and went away, including saying they'd have to run a new cable from the street and need a pole installing - the following visit they asked me why the pole wasn't up (?! not my job to install poles for OpenRetch!)

 

8th visit someone came and just installed the line from the 40 pair and went - which was what i'd tried to get all 7 previous engineers to do.

 

So don't expect it to be quick or done competently.

[localzuk]

Well, it's been 100 years since I placed an order... The world has changed, empires have risen and fallen, and families have grown.

 

In all seriousness, they are truly the most incompetent company I've had to deal with. Things that should take a day take weeks.

[rich_tech]

Comms providers we use have 70 working day lead times on commission of new business services with them, I don't know how much of that is openreach and them adding their expectations on top, we have had two sites delayed so far where they have had to give notice for road closures to run fibres and cables into buildings, both of them were 30 days notice statutory on top, one had further complications as the office has a three lane road outside which meant Sunday working for them to pull fibre and 50 pair cables in.

 

Ironically here at the moment with one of our installations, BT have been waiting on us to get into a site and get the trunking setup for them to the cabinet, which was this weeks fun for our facilities team. Its in an estate where its pretty much all fired up and their waiting on us to be clear tomorrow.

 

Thats business though, no idea if it varies for you on domestic though.

[MatthewL]

I'm guessing your in the area of Robin Hood Airport, if so might be worth a look at Quickline, they have coverage in the area and it might be quicker than waiting for Openreach!

[SilverTop669]

Thanks sincerely for all the input to this thread from everyone.

 

In this day and age TVs, CCTV systems and other appliances often want to connect to the Internet (including to activate warranties). We also pay for Amazon Prime to watch films and yet 3 months of the subscription will be wasted. A lot of authorities, councils, utilities etc expect to be notified online of changes of address and other issues we have.

 

I agree that the Internet should be as mandatory as gas, electricity, water and drainage but my independent builder told me he could not get a line installed because the request needs to come from an ISP and he couldn't arrange that through my ISP. Off-topic, because he was a business building the house I am being hit with business rate gas and electricity bills on a 5 bedroom domestic property.

 

I see no evidence that anyone, anywhere has escalated my problem and BT Openreach are not even keeping to their predicted dates. If Plusnet had told me up front that they would not charge me for any service and I would likely be down for 3 months I would have made contingency plans much sooner.

[Meldrew]

I've just cancelled my BT landline altogether - you can have mine (only 2mbs though). I've gone mobile broadband instead for half the price and at a minimum three times the bandwidth.

 

Meldrew

[meakjoe]

I've just cancelled my BT landline altogether - you can have mine (only 2mbs though). I've gone mobile broadband instead for half the price and at a minimum three times the bandwidth.

 

Meldrew

 

Out of interest, what provider are you using for your new mobile broadband? Our landline speed is slower than 2mbs and I'm thinking about changing...

[Ketlane]

Might help relieve some of the frustration.....

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5054849/Angry-villagers-torch-huge-effigy-BT-van-Devon.html

[Meldrew]

Out of interest, what provider are you using for your new mobile broadband? Our landline speed is slower than 2mbs and I'm thinking about changing...

 

I've gone for 3. Although the coverage isn't great where i am. I've tested with a free SIM in my 4g router and it's acceptable. They do 100G a month for £20 or unlimited (no fair usage policy) for £27 per month. I checked and the contract allows tethering.

 

Meldrew

[SilverTop669]

I moved into a new house 30/11. My garden borders 5 other properties that all have internet access. I am hardly a remote farm miles from anywhere. BT Openreach could even put up a new pole in a cul-de-sac at the back of my house.

BT Openreach previously told Plusnet that a new pole would be put up 09/01, then 10/01, then 21/01, then 25/01 and now 31/01 but again a pole has not been put up.

The months roll by and I see have no idea if I will ever get an internet service or even a landline phone. BT Openreach will not respond to me directly.

In this day and age where we are all expected to manage our gas and electricity bills, bank accounts, etc all online it is not good enough.

I also have a Plusnet mobile phone and I have to keep paying for data add-ons which are expensive.

[SilverTop669]

Incidentally, since the 5 dates above I have since been given 15/02 and now 18/02. And that's just to plant the pole, not get me up and running with a phone and broadband. Everyone assumes we all have a phone and broadband these days. Even gas and electric expect online customer readings. And 3 months of Amazon Prime streaming is down the drain. Mobile phones in this area are dodgy at best between 0900 and 1700. O2 possibly have the strongest signal in this area, but if they are no better than Plusnet mobile (EE network) I am no better off.

 

I blame BT Openreach without doubt for the time taken and (so far) 6 inaccurate installation dates, and do I believe 18/02, no I don't. It's a poor service from a company that when all said is a MONOPOLY. If they were a bank or supermarket they would not be allowed to have such a monopolistic control of the market, and have no responsibility to communicate with the end user (the public). Unfortunately, these isn't an ISP that does not rely on BT Openreach for their infrastructure.