topic Re: Waiting on openreach in Broadband

Waiting on openreach

Weewido — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:55:55 GMT

I've been told that there is an issue with my Internet and I have to wait on an engineer to go to the local exchange.

my heating, and my autistic sons sensory room all run off of my WiFi. I have a 8 month old baby in a freezing house but seems to be no urgency whatsoever. Is there any way this can be treated as a matter of urgency.

Re: Waiting on openreach

Daniel0210 — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:59:58 GMT

@Weewido
Once aware Sky usually quote 2 WORKING DAYS as a potential fix time due to the service level agreement in the UK between ISPs and Openreach for fixing a fault. Openreach claim to be successful within that timeframe in about 85% of cases.

Some repairs take longer, for example when a pole or cabinet has been damaged or Openreach / City Fibre need to dig the road up (after getting permission from the local council).

▪️

This link explains the Ofcom agreed auto compensation scheme which Sky operates for when there is a TOTAL loss of Sky Broadband or Sky Talk for UK customers.
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/auto-compensation

If you have a total loss of service and it isn’t fixed after two full WORKING days from when Sky are notified of the fault, you will become eligible for it.

From Ofcom’s website:~
If your broadband or landline service stops working, you will have to report the fault to your provider. If the service is not fixed after two full working days, you would not need to ask for compensation or contact your provider again, as your provider has systems in place that mean you will start receiving compensation automatically if the repair takes too long.

This auto compensation is applied 30 days after the fault has been repaired and will come in the form of a credit appearing on your Sky account (from 01/04/25 the rates are £9.98 per day)

▫️There is no equivalent scheme in place for customers in the Republic of Ireland.
▫️There is no automatic compensation for TV services affected by a broadband problem.
▫️Sky broadband being discussed here is a domestic service therefore whilst it's fine for customers who work from home to use it for that purpose they won't receive additional or quicker support.

Re: Waiting on openreach

Weewido — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 18:02:58 GMT

Leaving an 8 month old bat in a freezing house for "at least two days" seems insane.

Not to mention leaving an autistic child in a state of anxiety for the same period seems cruel. I couldn't give two hoots about compensation. Just want my baby to be warm and my autistic child not to screaming the walls off the place for the next 48 hours.

obviously unless we are one of the 15% of cases where it takes longer.

Re: Waiting on openreach

Daniel0210 — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 18:04:38 GMT

@Weewido
You may not be aware but you haven’t contacted Sky by posting on here. This is a customer ▶️ customer discussion forum where we try to help other customers.

Re: Waiting on openreach

TimmyBGood — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 18:29:14 GMT

@Weewido

Unfortunately at between £1 and £2 per day a domestic broadband subscription just doesn't cost enough to get 'better' service, and uninterrupted internet connectivity is never guaranteed. There's also essentially no mechanism for delivering priority support based on household circumstances.

Any internet-connected heating system should have some kind of manual over-ride for exactly that reason.

You could also look at cellular data as a temporary option, and then perhaps consider using an ISP which offers automated failover in the future.