Episode 17

Openreach – the company which runs most of Britain’s landline and broadband connections – is back on X-Ray's radar after complaints continue to pour in.

Since we featured them back in 2013, we have received more than 40 complaints about engineers turning up ill-prepared to fix problems or not turning up at all. The result is long delays in getting broadband and landline services repaired or installed.

Keenan Lewis, a chef from Treorchy was without landline and broadband for seven months after he tried switching providers in August last year. He was told that Openreach had connected him to the wrong exchange point; a problem he thought would be easy to fix. However six engineer visits later, Keenan still wasn’t connected until the beginning of March this year.

“If you're switching providers I thought it would be without it for two weeks, if not three”, says Keenan, “I never thought I would be restricted for this long.”

Edmund and Diane Cartwright from Pwllheli lost their broadband and landline after the house across the road was struck by lightning in October last year. The force of the strike was enough to blow their router off the wall.

The couple say their provider, EE, sent out a new router within 48 hours, but it was another six weeks before Openreach reconnected their lines. Out of seven appointments made, one was cancelled, two engineers didn’t show up and three of the repair jobs only lasted a couple of hours.

“It was just so frustrating, unbelievable,” says Diane, “it seemed that our lives were revolving around trying to get someone to come out and just fix the line.”

Both Mr Lewis and the Cartwrights spent hours on the phone to their providers trying to get the problem fixed; they say they found it frustrating that they were unable to contact Openreach directly.

Last Summer Ofcom gave new targets to Openreach. They say 70% of faults should be repaired within two working days and appointments for 55% of new line installations should be given within 12 working days.

Openreach say they are meeting Ofcom's official targets but say they want to improve further and they're hiring more engineers to help them. They say sometimes in cases like the Cartwrights in Pwllheli - lots of work is needed over several visits to fix serious damage. 

In Keenan's case they say "data inaccuracies" led to unnecessary delays. They have apologised for any inconvenience - and so have their service providers Sky and EE.