Rights in relation to failed broadband installation

Tumtitums

Yesterday i was supposed to have broadband installed from a new service provider. They came round but then said they couldn't do the installation as there was no space on the telephone pole so BT have to come do something about this. I'm not 100% sure what they said but  it was something like this .

The problem is that i have cancelled my current internet service provider contract and days like today where there is no train service i need to work from home. Having no broadband is a big inconvenience

Is there any compensation due , the messages i got from them did not mention anything about the possibility of a failed installation.  If it had done then i wouldn't have been so quick to cancel my contract with the current provider.

What are my rights in this instance ?

Keep_pedalling

Possibly

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automatic-compensation-need-know

littleboo

Who is the new provider? If its one of the Altnets, then they typically aren't part of the automatic compensation scheme so you would need to negotiate with them. Too late now, but if continuity of service is important, never cancel until the new service is installed and working, or have a fall back such as a 4G or 5G router.

iniltous

If you are trying to use an Alt Net then the ‘advice’ they gave you is nonsense, their failure to provide service has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with BT .
If this Alt Net takes advantage of Openreach’s physical access infrastructure ( like telegraph poles ) then they should have already installed their kit ( the fibre block ) at the pole top , so any lack of space for this block would be known before they offer service ( if they know what they are doing ) .

If the pole was at maximum dropwire load , or is already overloaded ( basically too many dropwires already existing meaning that they cannot add any new ones )  , there are rules that govern this and they need to abide by them,  but they should have processes in place , and have already highlighted the overloaded pole to Openreach before they even fitted their kit to the pole.

Obviously an overloaded pole needs Openreach attention but is no more important than any other overloaded pole , so if advised, OR should ( at some point ) get around to doing something about it, overloaded pole isn’t the only possibility, there are other considerations that could stop a pole being used.
If they have suggested it’s your ‘job’ to chase this with ‘BT’  , it shows what a bunch of amateurs you picked to provide your service, if they are already dealing with it ( by liaison with OR ) then it will eventually be possible to provide your Alt Net service, but there will no timescale , OR don’t have to drop everything to do this immediately.

TBH , a more prudent approach would  have been to keep your existing service until the Alt Net was fitted , you could ( at the expense of a new minimum term ) ask your old provider to restore your previous service, but obviously that also may take a while to arrange , and be expensive to cancel early once the Alt Net do finish what they presumably started.

Tumtitums

The broadband supplier is Community Fibre and they are now telling me that its  going to take 3-6 months to fix the telephone pole . I can go back to my current provider but they are going to put me on one of their more expensive deals
I dont understand why they have been sending me leaflets through the letterbox asking me to join  for over a year if they cant provide me with the service 
Is there any way i can get compensation for all this ???

Tumtitums

Keep_pedalling said:

Possibly

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automatic-compensation-need-know

It is community fibre and i see they do not seem to appear on this list 

Tumtitums

iniltous said:

If you are trying to use an Alt Net then the ‘advice’ they gave you is nonsense, their failure to provide service has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with BT .
If this Alt Net takes advantage of Openreach’s physical access infrastructure ( like telegraph poles ) then they should have already installed their kit ( the fibre block ) at the pole top , so any lack of space for this block would be known before they offer service ( if they know what they are doing ) .

If the pole was at maximum dropwire load , or is already overloaded ( basically too many dropwires already existing meaning that they cannot add any new ones )  , there are rules that govern this and they need to abide by them,  but they should have processes in place , and have already highlighted the overloaded pole to Openreach before they even fitted their kit to the pole.

Obviously an overloaded pole needs Openreach attention but is no more important than any other overloaded pole , so if advised, OR should ( at some point ) get around to doing something about it, overloaded pole isn’t the only possibility, there are other considerations that could stop a pole being used.
If they have suggested it’s your ‘job’ to chase this with ‘BT’  , it shows what a bunch of amateurs you picked to provide your service, if they are already dealing with it ( by liaison with OR ) then it will eventually be possible to provide your Alt Net service, but there will no timescale , OR don’t have to drop everything to do this immediately.

TBH , a more prudent approach would  have been to keep your existing service until the Alt Net was fitted , you could ( at the expense of a new minimum term ) ask your old provider to restore your previous service, but obviously that also may take a while to arrange , and be expensive to cancel early once the Alt Net do finish what they presumably started.

Thank you for this. This sounds like what the guys said but  the email from them says that there is a "defect" which they are now saying can take 3-6months to fix. I dont understand why they have been sending me leaflets etc for at least the past 2 years if its not possible for them  to provide me with a service 

matelodave

Probably not.

As said above if you are going to change to a ISP that uses non-OpenReach infrastructure you would have really been better off not cancelling until the new service was operational.

They've probably been sending out flyers to see how much interest there is to decide whether to extend into you neighbourhood.

Virtually all ISP's that use the OR infrastructure will handle the whole transfer process without you having to cancel but there isn't an inbuilt process for swapping between OR to  AltNet's or Virgin yet. 

It should have been up and running by now (April 2023 was the original deadline for the so called OTS - One Touch Switch) but everyone is dragging their feet and and AFAIK they've been given another year to sort themselves out.

So you'll probably have to bite the bullet and go back to either your original supplier or another ISP who uses the OR infrastructure and hope that your line hasn't been reallocated and that there is still capacity available in your cabinet

QrizB

Tumtitums said:

The broadband supplier is Community Fibre and they are now telling me that its  going to take 3-6 months to fix the telephone pole . I can go back to my current provider but they are going to put me on one of their more expensive deals

Or you can go to any of the other OpenReach-based providers (if that's what your previous provider used, and they weren't eg. Virgin).

At my address (I don't know yours!) the MSE deals finder offers a one-month VDSL contract for £21 a month plus setup costs.

Or you can look at 4G/5G broadband from Three etc.

southsidergs

Tumtitums said:

Yesterday i was supposed to have broadband installed from a new service provider. They came round but then said they couldn't do the installation as there was no space on the telephone pole so BT have to come do something about this. I'm not 100% sure what they said but  it was something like this .

Interesting that BT need to do something when the pole would be openreach equipment & community fibre don't use the openreach network, you've either picked it up a bit wrongly or they're already outright lying to you

littleboo

southsidergs said:

Tumtitums said:

Yesterday i was supposed to have broadband installed from a new service provider. They came round but then said they couldn't do the installation as there was no space on the telephone pole so BT have to come do something about this. I'm not 100% sure what they said but  it was something like this .

Interesting that BT need to do something when the pole would be openreach equipment & community fibre don't use the openreach network, you've either picked it up a bit wrongly or they're already outright lying to you

Community Fibre use PIA as far a I know, so are likely paying for access to the OR pole