Watchdog - Openreach
Almost 100 viewers have emailed WD this year alone, with complaints about Openreach, who run most of the UK's digital network. With many UK households still operating on the old analogue network Openreach are scheduled to roll out fibre broadband by December 2026 whilst phasing out the old network. Though some people we have spoken to are finding that moving to fibre is proving harder than they thought.
In July this year Yinka ordered fast fibre broadband through her provider Vodafone. It sent Openreach engineers to lay the necessary cable.
She told us:
“he has a look, and then goes to try and put the cable through, he also discovers he says there's a blockage and he'll mark it up and then keep me informed. I then rang Vodafone the customer advisor said, you asked to be transferred to fibre that's pending. And as a result you've been cut off.”
Vodafone have since reconnected Yinka to her old network.
Nigel tells us he was told by PlusNet that Openreach would connect him with fibre as his old analogue lines are being phased out. He was then told it would cost £2050 which Nigel’s thinks is unnecessary as there’s poles already onsite. Though Nigel told us numerous engineer visits to check the poles have been cancelled.
“I would love to be connected, we needed decent internet for our business and also for the Farm Security was CCTV cameras and so forth. We've got to no more than two megabytes of internet and we're paying 44 pound a month for it.”
Richard Neudegg from Uswitch has been monitoring the switch
“the way the system is set up is with Openreach; your contract is actually with your retail provider. They're interfacing, often with Openreach in the background, but as customers, we don't get direct access. There's clearly a frustration in the process, that's just not okay to leave some with no connection at all.” He said
An Openreach spokesman told us:
“We’re really sorry to hear about these cases, and we intend to learn from and fix the issues they raise.
“Having said that, we monitor our service performance closely and this doesn’t reflect the vast majority of feedback we get from customers.
“Our Trustpilot score has been rising consistently in recent years, we’re currently scored as ‘Great’, and our own Customer Satisfaction and Net Promoter metrics are at near-record highs.
“We’re also missing fewer appointments than at virtually any time in our history, but our engineers complete tens of thousands of customer visits every week and unfortunately, things can occasionally go wrong.
“We know there’s always room for improvement and we regularly contact customers to understand how we can do things even better.”
Specifically on our Full Fibre broadband programme
“No company is investing more than Openreach to upgrade the UK’s digital infrastructure.
“We’re spending more than £15 billion to build faster, more reliable Full Fibre broadband to 25 million homes and businesses by the end of 2026 and that programme is very much on track.
“We’ve already reached nearly 12 million properties, including millions in rural areas that aren’t served by other networks.
“We also complete more than 30,000 new Full Fibre orders every week successfully but we do face some challenges that can cause delays, such as needing permission to close roads or to enter private property.”
Vodaphone said:
“Firstly, we're sorry for the inconvenience that the customer experienced here, and we can confirm that the original broadband connection has now been restored and is live. Furthermore, we have offered the customer compensation, which includes refunding the temporary connection and providing a financial goodwill offer.
“This case has been challenging, and we have been working closely with the customer to resolve it. On 21 July 2023, we started working with our infrastructure partner, Openreach, to upgrade the customer's broadband to Fibre. Occasionally, there are geographical and infrastructural challenges involved in these upgrades, but they are often not known to Vodafone until the infrastructure partner sends an engineer to the property. In this instance, they discovered work was required, but a third party rejected their request for permission to make the necessary changes to establish Fibre connectivity. We are dependent on our infrastructure partner to resolve this problem before we can connect the customer to Fibre. We do provide information about this in our contracts, in accordance with Ofcom regulations. Regrettably, the customer received incorrect information during this time, adding to the confusion and delay – we’re committed to improving this experience for our customers.
“Due to a 30-day automated disconnection, the customer's copper broadband stopped working, but we have now resolved the issue. We can confirm that the customer has been able to retain her landline number.”
Nigel’s provider PlusNet declined to comment.
