Moving house Openreach detects issue to activate Broadband

Pat38493

I am moving house on Friday and when I applied for the broadband connection, they said it could be activated remotely by Friday.

However I then received an SMS from Openreach and said that they have detected an issue and an engineer visit is required.

Would I be right to suspect that the most likely issue is that the previous owner (house is currently unoccupied) has unplugged the ONT?  If so, is there any point getting it plugged in and asking them to check again or is it better to just wait for Openreach to send someone out rather than confuse their process chain?

oldernonethewiser

Pat38493 said:

I am moving house on Friday and when I applied for the broadband connection, they said it could be activated remotely by Friday.

However I then received an SMS from Openreach and said that they have detected an issue and an engineer visit is required.

Would I be right to suspect that the most likely issue is that the previous owner (house is currently unoccupied) has unplugged the ONT?  If so, is there any point getting it plugged in and asking them to check again or is it better to just wait for Openreach to send someone out rather than confuse their process chain?

Could be something else so leave them to it.

Ayr_Rage

ONTs are hard-wired, they just need a power supply which could have been switched off.

Do you already have a router that you are taking with you?

Unless you can ascertain exactly what has happened you'll have to wait until Openreach attend and they'll most likely need access so plan on being there.

Pat38493

Ayr_Rage said:

ONTs are hard-wired, they just need a power supply which could have been switched off.

Do you already have a router that you are taking with you?

Unless you can ascertain exactly what has happened you'll have to wait until Openreach attend and they'll most likely need access so plan on being there.

We already sold our old house a couple of weeks ago and the Sky equipment is being returned.  I have now signed up with Plusnet and they should send the router to the new address.  However I am planning to replace the Plusnet equipment with an Eero Mesh setup which I will already have before moving in.

I suspect they switched the ONT off at the wall power supply but I will have to wait to check when we get the keys.

iniltous

If the OBT  has been switched off  and  you switch it back on , and the PON light goes steady green , then you may find that you get another communication (text,  call , whatever,)  saying we don’t think the visit is necessary so we aren’t coming, but if they don’t cancel the visit it is preferable to be available, even if the visit is brief.
Is it definitely FTTP in the property you are moving to ? , if it is , then switching off the ONT  or even the old occupant removing the ONT completely, is a real possibility, obviously if it’s removed you need a visit .

Smith2001uk

I've had this too, they detected errors on my line. An engineer came, did some fault finding, replaced the wiring in my master socket and all errors were removed and i got my full 80mb d/l speed. Its best to leave them too it

Ayr_Rage

Smith2001uk said:

I've had this too, they detected errors on my line. An engineer came, did some fault finding, replaced the wiring in my master socket and all errors were removed and i got my full 80mb d/l speed. Its best to leave them too it

As an ONT is mentioned then it's full fibre so there won't be a master socket at all!

Pat38493

iniltous said:

If the OBT  has been switched off  and  you switch it back on , and the PON light goes steady green , then you may find that you get another communication (text,  call , whatever,)  saying we don’t think the visit is necessary so we aren’t coming, but if they don’t cancel the visit it is preferable to be available, even if the visit is brief.
Is it definitely FTTP in the property you are moving to ? , if it is , then switching off the ONT  or even the old occupant removing the ONT completely, is a real possibility, obviously if it’s removed you need a visit .

Yes it's definitely full fibre - I was an Openreach ONT there when I was viewing the house and also, various providers that I looked at for the service confirmed that there was an ONT at the property.

(There is also Virgin service available there but cable was not installed up to now).

iniltous

Switching off the power to the ONT , to any ‘testing ’ the network operator does  , ‘looks’ the same as a physically disconnected or faulty service , in that any attempted ‘handshake’  between the headend equipment and the ONT will fail  , the headend effectively says ‘are you there ?’ -and gets no reply , thus kind of dialogue takes place even with ONT’s that are not currently associated  with an ISP , so it’s understandable that this is highlighted to the new ISP by Openreach when they get an order for the address and why the ISP needs to book an appointment with you  just in case the issue is more complex. Power  being off at the ONT is the simplest issue that can be fixed ,but it can’t be assumed that’s all it is .

If simply turning the power back on is the solution, and hopefully that’s all that’s needed , once you do that , if the service comes up and works , provided its reasonably in advance of the appointment, it’s in OR’s interest not to have a wasted visit , in the same way you don’t want to hang  around unnecessarily…, most OR visits come with RARA ( ring ahead , ring after ) , so if it turns out OR contact you saying , ‘ we’ll be there in half an hour ‘ if it’s not necessary you can say so then , but  if the day or two before they notice you putting the power back on (if that’s all that’s missing) they may cancel the visit anyway 

Pat38493

iniltous said:

Switching off the power to the ONT , to any ‘testing ’ the network operator does  , ‘looks’ the same as a physically disconnected or faulty service , in that any attempted ‘handshake’  between the headend equipment and the ONT will fail  , the headend effectively says ‘are you there ?’ -and gets no reply , thus kind of dialogue takes place even with ONT’s that are not currently associated  with an ISP , so it’s understandable that this is highlighted to the new ISP by Openreach when they get an order for the address and why the ISP needs to book an appointment with you  just in case the issue is more complex. Power  being off at the ONT is the simplest issue that can be fixed ,but it can’t be assumed that’s all it is .

If simply turning the power back on is the solution, and hopefully that’s all that’s needed , once you do that , if the service comes up and works , provided its reasonably in advance of the appointment, it’s in OR’s interest not to have a wasted visit , in the same way you don’t want to hang  around unnecessarily…, most OR visits come with RARA ( ring ahead , ring after ) , so if it turns out OR contact you saying , ‘ we’ll be there in half an hour ‘ if it’s not necessary you can say so then , but  if the day or two before they notice you putting the power back on (if that’s all that’s missing) they may cancel the visit anyway 

I have now got access to the house. The ONT is there but the power supply for it is missing.  There are power supplies that claim to be compatible on the internet e.g. Amazon can I just get one of those?

QrizB

I guess so, tho' OR will give you one when they turn up.

Your seller shouldn't have taken it with them; it's not theirs!