How to avoid a 28 day installation time??

actresskat

Hi, Moving into a brand new house soon. No phone line (but connection points). We've moved before and always get told the same thing...that we'll be without the internet for 28 days while the line is connected and broadband setup....anyone know any companies that can get you connected quicker???

penrhyn

There is only one company that installs ADSL/VDSL broadband, i.e BT Openreach.

actresskat

Hi, thanks for your reply. We've moved into a new house before and had Sky sort everything out. (We only paid them directly) even if BT were involved. Any way we can get it installed and done quicker than a whole month?

penrhyn

You could try pressurising Sky, however the exchange work is done by BT, so Sky are in the same queue as the other ISPs.

BT don't allow third party operators in their premises, even if Sky Talk Talk etc have their equipment installed.

PasturesNew

Can you use a dongle just for one month? Depending on signal, you can get a free one from O2 shops, then you connect and pay for a period of time's connectivity ... others will probably have the same.

actresskat

A dongle might be something we will look into actually. We rely on the internet so much that not having it whilst running a business is difficult.

macman

You can pay for a business line, which will give you a priority install. Otherwise you are in the same OR queue as everyone else.
NB: if you are running a business on a residential line you are anyway in breach of contract, not that the ISPs is bothered.
The only other option is VM cable if available.

Buzby

If you're running a business, you'll get it installed in just 5 days. You will of course be charged business line rental.

The 28 days is not a target, but a completed before date. Openreach will schedule the work depending on what's required in your area. If the house is pre wired, you might be lucky and not need an engineer visit to your home - just the external work needs done. You pay your money and take your choice - business users also get faster repairs if the service goes down.

actresskat

Hi, thanks for that. That's good to know. Spoke to Sky and BT and it seems that 10-14 days is the usual time now so they must've been able to improve on what happened 3 years ago.

Really appreciate the advice everyone! Many thanks!

money_saving_matt

Forgive me for the long post, but so often people are given the wrong information when it comes to Openreach products and SLAs that I ended up writing an uber-post

Essentially Openreach's single-line product is available in two service types: MPF and WLR. The WLR service type is further broken down into two line types: Basic and Premium. Therefore the product offering for a typical residential or business address is:

• MPF [If available in the area]
• WLR Single Line (Basic)
• WLR Single Line (Premium)

Notice there is no such thing as a business line or a residential line (and hasn't been for many years). The terms "business" and "residential" are nothing but marketing bumpf and as I'll demonstrate further down, these terms don't mean anything when it comes to Openreach's SLA either.

The minimum lead time for a brand new install of any of these products is 3 working days. This means that if there is an engineer appointment available you could have any one of these products installed in 3 working days.

The crucial part of the sentence above is "if there is an engineer appointment available". Appointment availability varies from one exchange area to another, and also varies (albeit only slightly) based on the product. Whilst it is true in theory that appointment availability is better for Premium WLR lines than it is for Basic WLR lines, in practice the appointment availability is most often the same.

For example, a few minutes ago I checked appointment availability for a new MPF line in my parent's address and there is an appointment available on the 20th of May (i.e. in 3 working days). Checking again for a WLR Basic line returns the same date, and for a WLR Premium line the same date again.

If I perform the same three tests on my home address, the earliest appointment date for all three products is the 16th of June. For my work address, it is the 2nd of June.

As you can see, in practice the same appointment slot usually covers all three product types. Occasionally I have seen better appointments being offered for WLR Premium line installs compared to WLR Basic, but it is reasonably rare and only ever a few days difference. To state that "if you're running a business you'll get the line installed in 5 days" is not true.

If there is a line box installed in a property that has been ceased but has a dial tone, this is known as a stopped line. A stopped line can be "restarted" without an engineer visit and the lead time for this is either the same day or the next working day, depending on whether a new number is being used and/or whether the technology type is changing from MPF to WLR.

In terms of care level (i.e. how fast Openreach will endeavour to fix a line in the event of a fault), there is always confusion about this too. The care levels that Openreach provide are:

• Care level 1: Fix by end of next day plus one, excluding weekends and bank holidays. For example, if a fault is raised on Tuesday (at any time), the fault will be fixed by midnight on Thursday. If a fault is raised on Friday (at any time), the fault will be fixed by midnight on Tuesday.
• Care level 2: Fix by end of next day, excluding Sundays and bank holidays. For example, if a fault is raised on Tuesday (at any time), the fault will be fixed by midnight on Wednesday. If a fault is raised on Friday (at any time), the fault will be fixed by midnight on Saturday.
• Care level 3: If fault is raised before 1pm it will be fixed before midnight. If fault is raised after 1pm it will be fixed before 1pm the following day (including weekends and bank holidays).
• Care level 4: Fix within 6 hours of raising the fault (including weekends and bank holidays).

The care level available to each product is:

• MPF: 2, 3 or 4
• WLR Single Line (Basic): 1, 2, 3 or 4
• WLR Single Line (Premium): 2, 3 or 4

What's important to note is that the product type and care level are not really related, other than Basic lines are the only product for which care level 1 is an option. It entirely possible for a service provider to install a WLR Basic line on care level 4. In other words, the common mantra "business lines have a better SLA" is not always true.

Typically service providers aimed at the residential market install MPF lines (if available) or WLR Basic lines, and subscribe the end user to the lowest possible care level, but this is not always the case.

What all this really means for customers is that to find out their SLA they need to know the care level their service provider has subscribed them to - knowing the product type is not enough. I know some business-only service providers that install WLR Basic lines on care level 1 (the lowest), all the while marketing them as "business" lines...

Hope this clears a few things up - keyboard is a bit warm now!

iniltous

penrhyn wrote: »

You could try pressurising Sky, however the exchange work is done by BT, so Sky are in the same queue as the other ISPs.

BT don't allow third party operators in their premises, even if Sky Talk Talk etc have their equipment installed.

This isn't strictly true, although Sky don't connect their own customers to Openreach's network , they do have access to the exchanges MUA , multi users area, where their own hardware is located,