Will I ever get broadband? I've been trying for 7 months now.

[SC85]

It just feels like I'm going around in circles. I'm sorry that this is long, but I am incredibly frustrated by this whole thing and don't know where to go for help.

In September 2024, I placed an order for broadband in the house I'd just bought. There is a cable of some kind already connected to my house that was being used for Sky broadband by the previous occupier until the day I moved in, but someone at Sky told me new customers had to be on FFTP and so I had no choice but to have that. The problem was it wasn't installed to my house, so the only choice I was left with was to get a 5G router from Three (which is serviceable, but several of my WFH tasks are slow or not possible due to compatability issues).

FTTP was supposed to be installed in early October, but the installation date came and went. I was eventually sent a  permission to work document from Openreach in late October (it requires some digging in the road) and signed it promptly, but no work ever happened. By December, Sky said they had to cancel my order because Openreach hadn't done the work yet - according to Openreach, they weren't going to do the work because Sky had cancelled the order.

I placed a new order in January, but this never went anywhere either. I'm not sure why. I placed the latest order in March. The installation date came and went just like it had in October, with six weeks of "we have not received a further update" messages from Sky. Eventually, some progress! A man from Openreach came to my house to discuss what they would do, took some photos and drew lines on the street. He said it might take a month before the line is installed - fine, what's another month on top of seven?

However, I've just received this message from Sky: "Openreach have advised you need to send back the permission to work document. Until this is received, your Broadband and Talk order will not progress. You will receive a text with an update on your order on 08/05/2025." I haven't received any permission to work document. I did receive one back in October, as I said, which I signed and returned. Are they supposed to have sent a new one? It feels like a complete farce at this point.

Has anyone else had such a disastrous installation experience? It doesn't even seem legal to not allow someone to use the cable that's already installed to their house because they have to instead use something that doesn't exist. Would I be entitled to any compensation for such a huge delay?

[TimmyBGood]

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@SC85 wrote:

 It doesn't even seem legal to not allow someone to use the cable that's already installed to their house because they have to instead use something that doesn't exist. 

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The fundamental problem is that in fibre priority areas ISPs cannot order wholesale broadband over legacy copper connections.

[TimmyBGood]

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@SC85 wrote:

Would I be entitled to any compensation for such a huge delay?

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There's a compensation scheme, yes, but that's probably also why the installation was cancelled as this effectively resets the timer.

[TimmyBGood]

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@SC85 wrote:

Has anyone else had such a disastrous installation experience? 

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Almost certainly, yes.  Openreach is attempting to carry out north of 80,000 new FTTP installations every week to meet the national target (85% coverage by January 2027) and inevitably some of those are going to go wrong.

[SC85]

I understand that it's a big task, but it makes no sense to not allow me to temporarily use broadband through the cable that is already linked up to my house (and was in use via Sky until the morning I moved in) until I wait for FTTP to be linked from the road to my house.

[TimmyBGood]

@SC85 

It makes no sense, but it's also how the national switchover is being run.  As I said, ISPs cannot purchase FTTC service from the wholesale network provider in locations flagged for FTTP priority.  

[Chrisee]

@SC85 as I undrrstand Sky's escalation process your ordrcshould be with the order recvoery team who deal with the installs thst become sagas. If you haven't already I would make a formal complaint see How to make a Sky complaint | Sky Help | Sky.com

As @TimmyBGood said there is a compensation scheme which I would argue should cover the shole period see Customer Auto-Compensation | Sky Help | Sky.com despite the order cancellations. I think you msy have the dubious honour of having the longest delay mine in comparison was a few weeks but generated enough compenstion to give me 6 months free broadband. 

[SC85]

Thank you for the links.

The latest update is Sky are saying this can't proceed until I sign the permission to work document from Openreach and Openreach are saying there's nothing to sign because there's no active order, so this is another brilliant scenario.

[SC85]

Update: last month five men in three vans came to dig up the road. It turns out they didn't need to, and simply pulled the cable through from under a cover on the street. They were done within an hour, and spent the next five hours sat in their vans outside.

Today a man arrived to install the cable in the house. After drilling the hole, he tried to strip the cable back outside and accidentally cut it to ground level. He says the original team is going to have to come and pull a new cable through again.

Each new event in this installation is more ridiculous than the last.