Moving home with Sky - from bad to worse (Green street cabinet full)

danhutch88

Hi,
I've went from a bit annoyed to concerned and stressed, and not sure what options I currently have.
I informed Sky I was moving house on the 25th March, emphasising how important as little gap in internet connection as possible is to me. I'm a web developer and have been working from home for over a year as our office is closed.
They arranged for my current connection to be ended on March 29th, and me expected activation date to be the 31st March - which seemed great to be honest a maximum of 48 hours disruption. I woke up to a text saying "Unfortunately we are unable to complete your order" and a phone number to call.
When I called they tried to explain that there had been some sort of processing error at their end, and the only way to proceed was to cancel the current order and start again - but cancellation would take up to 24 hours. So I reluctantly agreed to cancel the order, and wait for a call back / call them the following day.
I called back the following day and went through the same process, but this time the next available activation date was the 7th of April. This was obviously very annoying, but had to go ahead with the order as I couldn't see any other option. In the grand scheme of things it didn't seem too bad as I have waited weeks in the past when changing providers - but still not ideal at all.
I have since had another text saying there was a delay on the connection, and there would be an update on the 6th April. When I eventually got the update this afternoon I'm gobsmacked:

"Hi , just a quick update on your order. Openreach have told us the green street cabinet they were going to connect you to is currently full. Your order is queued until further capacity becomes available, and then we'll send you a letter confirming the activation date of your services. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do until this happens. You don't need to do anything - we'll stay in touch with Openreach until your services are up and running, and we'll text you with an update on 13/04/2021"

I called up to discuss this, but as expected ended up going round in circles as this is now an Openreach issue and out of Sky's hands. But how has it got to this stage? What the hell can I do?! I rely on the internet for my job and have just about managed finding alternative places to work for the past week but I can't keep doing that indefinitely until a space frees up in the green cabinet. Virgin isn't available in my area, and all other providers use BT Openreach. I know 4g broadband services have came a long way, but with the nature of my job I really do rely on a broadband connection.

I have reiterated to Sky how much this will effect my life and they said I will be compensated - but I'm now panicking and don't know where to turn. I've already increased my mobile data just to allow my girlfriend and I have some basic internet access in the house. What options do I have? Does anyone have any experience of this? I really dread to think how long this could go on for.

Thanks in advance.
Dan

brewerdave

Unfortunately you are looking for a fibre (FTTC) connection. Waiting lists for availability on local cabs. were/are extremely common (I gave up after waiting nearly 3 months and stayed with my ADSL2+ connection) altho' in some areas now being provided with full fibre (FTTP) the problem has eased.
 I'm not aware that there is any way of queue jumping UNLESS a business connection gets preferential treatment ? (but at greater cost) - are you looking for a business contract?

danhutch88

brewerdave said:

Unfortunately you are looking for a fibre (FTTC) connection. Waiting lists for availability on local cabs. were/are extremely common (I gave up after waiting nearly 3 months and stayed with my ADSL2+ connection) altho' in some areas now being provided with full fibre (FTTP) the problem has eased.
 I'm not aware that there is any way of queue jumping UNLESS a business connection gets preferential treatment ? (but at greater cost) - are you looking for a business contract?

Thanks for your reply.
No it's home broadband, I'm just an employee of a small business that has switched to home working because of the pandemic so that's not really an option for me unfortunately.

flashg67

I guess you could ask them if there's an option for standard broadband in the interim? Otherwise I think you'll have to look at 4g options - this can be quite cheap depending whose signal is best near you. (Only Vodafone works near me and I use Lebara at £25 p/m for unlimited data (monthly contract, can leave anytime) and a used 4g Huawei router from ebay) 

matelodave

There really isn't a great deal you can do.

If the cabinet has reached capacity then possibly it will require a second cabinet to be installed which may require planning permission and all the infrastructure that goes with it.

Unfortunately many more people are now working from home and it's added significantly to the utilisation of the internet and lots of cabinets have reached capacity and have waiting lists.
OR are also shifting their emphasis to the fibre rollout programme which migh slow or even halt the upgrading of some of the existing infrastructure if FTTP is in their short to mid term planning for your area

TBH your only real option to get up and running may be 4g if Virgin isn't available

iniltous

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/
is it the case that your phone line has been provided ( so you have dialtone ) it’s just FTTC broadband missing .

If you enter your address ( a Sky the phone number won’t be recognised even if it were in and working ) ...if the FTTC shows ‘waiting list’ then as already stated, the cabinet is full and unless a port becomes spare ( by someone ceasing their FTTC service ) you are stuck, it’s possible that Openreach may be considering adding extra capacity , and more ports make become available because of that, but otherwise it a case of keep checking, as it seems to be a little misleading referring to a waiting list , the reality seems to be the first provider to get an order in the system once a port comes up as spare gets it, the longest ‘waiting’ customer doesn’t necessarily get the first available port, so you would be relying on Sky checking regularly on your behalf.
If it is the case that your phone line is working and it’s just a port in the FTTC ‘cabinet’ you are waiting for, what speed would ADSL2 from the exchange provide ?,  most providers would put you on ADSL temporarily whilst waiting for FTTC .

danhutch88

Thanks for your replies. 

I've looked through the broadband checker on BT Wholesale, and now I'm even more confused. To me it looks like all services are available?

danhutch88

Is this enough to go back to Sky and tell them that Openreach just have made a mistake?

matelodave

You could go back to SKY and tell them that their info doesn't correspond with the BT Wholesale checker. You dont know whether there is actually a mistake or one of them isn't fully up to date with the latest data.

Did you check against the actual phone number or against an address (address checking isn't as accurate as using the actual phone number)

danhutch88

iniltous said:

is it the case that your phone line has been provided ( so you have dialtone ) it’s just FTTC broadband missing .

If you enter your address ( a Sky the phone number won’t be recognised even if it were in and working ) ...if the FTTC shows ‘waiting list’ then as already stated, the cabinet is full and unless a port becomes spare ( by someone ceasing their FTTC service ) you are stuck, it’s possible that Openreach may be considering adding extra capacity , and more ports make become available because of that, but otherwise it a case of keep checking, as it seems to be a little misleading referring to a waiting list , the reality seems to be the first provider to get an order in the system once a port comes up as spare gets it, the longest ‘waiting’ customer doesn’t necessarily get the first available port, so you would be relying on Sky checking regularly on your behalf.
If it is the case that your phone line is working and it’s just a port in the FTTC ‘cabinet’ you are waiting for, what speed would ADSL2 from the exchange provide ?,  most providers would put you on ADSL temporarily whilst waiting for FTTC .

I have no phone line either. The package that Sky offered was with a VOIP phone line. All that I currently have is the Sky satellite TV service.

danhutch88

matelodave said:

You could go back to SKY and tell them that their info doesn't correspond with the BT Wholesale checker. You dont know whether there is actually a mistake or one of them isn't fully up to date with the latest data.

Did you check against the actual phone number or against an address (address checking isn't as accurate as using the actual phone number)

I don't have a phone number currently, so went by address