Fibre installation delayed due to Openreach (BT Wholesale tool results inside)

[MondayChips]

Placed the order for FTTP last month. Now getting the dreaded "Openreach has informed us that they currently do not have the equipment in place to connect your Broadband and Talk to your phone exchange" support messages from Sky. I need to call up as the Sky engineer installation is meant to be tomorrow to find out how to proceed on that front.

I got the email from Openreach saying that FTTP was available and I saw and I had chatted to the team who were installing to the pole right outside my house in December. The team lead even told me he expected it to be ready by Feb. The main road in my village (just down my road) has had FTTP for at least a year, so it is active in the local area, it was just a new expansion to some other roads in the village.

Can anyone glean some info from the BT Wholesale tool? I searched some other forum posts and the issues they had aren't in my notes for my property. Thanks

[jamesn123]

Hi @MondayChips 

Good new is the checker has showed some info which will give you an insight into the delay 'alternate L2C solution required'

Bad news is that this term can be used for any part of the install process which requires special attention/a deviation from standard install practice.

Generally it can mean that the cable run from the pole to your home isnt as simple as usual e.g. a ladder wont cut it and they need a cherry picker or perhaps a drop wire inbetween. 

However it can also mean that perhaps your pole isnt connected directly to the Openreach infrastructure and it needs further work to enable FTTP on that pole. 

[MondayChips]

Thanks @jamesn123 ,

It should be a fairly standard install onto the house with a ladder, I don't foresee any issues there. So perhaps the issue does lay elsewhere, as you suggested.

I did just speak to a Sky rep on the phone but she wasn't able to ascertain anything about Openreach's situation. Fingers crossed they'll sort it out soon. Openreach shouldn't have emailed me to say it's ready if it's not ready!

[jamesn123]

@MondayChips 

If you know any neighbours on the same pole might be worth seeing if they are/were able to get activated with FTTP. That would tell you if its more of an area issue or specific to your property.

Another thing you can do is put other addresses close by to yours in the wholesale lookup tool to see if they have similar notes for the install process. 

[MondayChips]

I just checked a few houses on my road and they are all "no anticipated issues" rather than "alternate L2C solution required". They are all the same terraced houses. The only difference I see is that the current copper wire connects to my house above the little porch whereas the others I can see easily on streetview are not directly above the porches. Additionally, my current connection uses an old-fashioned ceramic insulated connector thing (don't know the name) attached to the roof facia which you can see in the attached photo. I want to get rid of it, and the copper line, once the fibre is all done. I'd prefer to have the new fibre connect to the house elsewhere where a ladder can be easily used. So it's annoying having to wait.

Hopefully the Openreach engineer will be happy to attached the fibre line in a difference location rather than to the old connector.

The Sky engineer was due yesterday but was a no-show so I assumed everything is being pushed back until Openreach is done.

[jamesn123 · Accepted solution]

Hi @MondayChips 

The cause is likely the connection location then. It is fustrating to have to wait, especially if you are happy for Openreach to install the entry point in a different place.

If you speak to the engineer on the day they should be fine with changing the entry point a bit as long as it doesnt exceed standard cable length or difficulty. 

[LW101]

I'm having the same issue. I ordered full fibre broadband from Sky in December and I still have no broadband and no idea when it will be installed (it's not end of Feb). It's very frustrating dealing with Sky on this because they provide no useful information. What I'm trying to figure out is if going with another provider or ordering different broadband will help get by the issue. I've been 2 months without broadband, I can't last much longer without it. Can anyone help?

[MondayChips]

@LW101

From what I've investigated Openreach won't deal with consumers directly over this kind of thing, you need to go through your service provider (Sky). If it's an Openreach issue then I don't think there's much any company can do better than another. I've spoken to Sky a few times on the phone and they don't have any more info than what's in their update messages.

As an update to my original post, the latest I heard from Openreach (via Sky) is that they found a fault which they're going to fix. And in fact I saw some fibre contractors doing something out on the street just today, so hopefully that is part of the remediation.

[MondayChips]

On the plus side you'll also be getting a ton of compensation. £6.10 PER DAY missed from the original activation date. https://www.sky.com/help/articles/auto-compensation

[Tony+Sly]

This is crazy - just spoke to Sky cust service and they explained that you are due compensation for each day provisioning is delayed (https://www.sky.com/help/articles/auto-compensation) - £6.10 per day - have you received this?

I ordered Full Fibre about a week ago, was given 27 March as my activation date and today got this message:

"Openreach has informed us that they currently do not have the equipment in place to connect your Broadband and Talk to your phone exchange. They are looking for the best way to get you connected. You will receive a text with an update on your order on 28/03/2025."

So according to Sky, normally should be a week or two, as Openreach pay for delays - which is ~£43 per week, so they're incentivized to fix quick. Is it not live for you?

[MondayChips]

@Tony+Sly

Hi, still no activation for me, still waiting on Openreach. Activation was meant to be on 12 Feb. I've had a total of 9 delay messages from Sky.

Apparently Openreach have found a fault which needs fixing but they haven't dealt with it yet.

I haven't received compensation yet, the page says I should within 30 daysoof the delay. But I believe it'll just be as credit on my next bill, so I'll wait to get that before I investigate more. I did chat to customer services a while ago and they mentioned the auto compensation too.

[LW101]

Still no installation for me either. Sky keep sending the same updates which provide no help at all. Speaking to their customer service is also extremely unhelpful. Very, very frustrating.  

[Chrisee]

@MondayChips & @Tony+Sly compensation is credited to your Sky account some 4weeks or so after the line goes live. In my own case it covered the first 6 months payment for the service. These delays do come up quite frequently but given Openreach are connecting around 80K properties each week itis not totally surprising some dont go smoothly.