Broadband cable damaged

Mattthomas48

Hi All, I am pretty desperate for some advice if anyone can help? Two and a half weeks ago our broadband connection disappeared. We notifed our provider immediately but they have not been able to get Openreach to fix it. We have followed up, escalated the complaint with our provider but we still have no information from the provider and Openreach about when the problem will be fixed. We believe it is because a cable has been damaged by some road works and Openreach need to dig the road up to get to the problem. We have tried raising the issue with Openreach but they just push us back to our service provider. Our service provider just tell us Openreach are not telling any detail, just that they cannot fix the fault yet. Christmas is coming, we are both home workers who need to do video calls daily and we have 4 children  who need to use online services for schoolwork. Using 4G hotspots is not an option as the 4G signal is poor at our house. Can anyone tell me how I can raise this issue and get emergency works done when our provider and Openreach do not seem to be able to fix the fault? Thank you to anyone who can offer any help or advice.

couriervanman

so if a cable has been damaged lots of your neighbours must have lost broadband/tel connection

wongataa

Does a landline phone still work?  If not tell your provider that it doesn't work and that might help.

Browntoa

Unless it's a business line then you have no priority for repair or leverage to escalate. It's a residential line.

Cable faults can be complex and need council permission to dig (or close) roads . All of the above has been slowed by covid19

matelodave

AS Browntoa says, there's not much you can do. We had a similar situation a couple of years ago and were without BB for nearly three weeks due to cable damage.

The process of getting resources and permissions, especially for civil works can be long and protracted and are frequently not under the control of either your supplier or even Openreach especially if the council has to grant permission for road works or insist on road closures.

Getting frustrated or angry wont expedite the problem either. All you can hope is that other customers are also pressurising their suppliers who are in turn pressurising Openreach but as most people know there's no way you can get the council to expedite matters (unless you are an affected councillor)

JJ_Egan

Problem is with so called home workers they are using home  broadband  as opposed to the company paying for dedicated business service with higher tier OpenReach response times .

Exemplar

MBORC - Matters Beyond Our Reasonable Control. Normally seen in smaller communities where, if digging is required, permission is needed from council/ landowners. You cannot push back on that which cannot be pushed!

onomatopoeia99

Mattthomas48 said:

We have tried raising the issue with Openreach but they just push us back to our service provider. 

You are not a customer of Openreach and have no contractual relationship with them.  Therefore, they have no obligation to you and raising issues with them will achieve nothing.

You can only deal with your service provider.  If you are a home worker that needs the internet to work, perhaps consider getting an ISP that targets the business market next time, rather than trying to use a domestic connection for business purposes.  Generally business focused ISPs pay BT wholesale more for each connection to ensure priority response times from Openreach.