Address not in Openreach database, preventing switching

I'm trying to help a friend of mine sort out their Internet connection. They are out of contract on Sky and we're trying to shop around for a new deal. The problem is that their address is not in whatever database the ISPs use when placing orders. They all seem to think that his property doesn't exist!

The property in question is a farm that has its overhead phone line coming in from an adjoining road about 200 meters away. From there it goes to the exchange two villages over, which is about 2.5 miles as the crow flies. Broadband speeds are never going to be great given this setup but they OK considering, generally averaging about 20 Mbit down.

Now, my friend previously had BT Broadband and switched to Sky about five years ago. Some time after then there was some sort of problem with the line. Sky called out Openreach who replaced the master socket and--I'm hearing this second hand from my deeply non-technical friend so I don't know what really happened--"replaced the incoming phone line".

(Perhaps they connected the master socket to the other pair in the overhead, but the database tracking which phone lines service which properties never got updated? Just my best guess...)

Since then the service from Sky has worked about as well as can be expected given the distance from the exchange. However it was after that point that I noticed the address has been missing when you go to an ISP's web site and try to place an order.

I tried placing an order with several by phone, but most are in typical "computer says no" mode--the address doesn't exist so no order can be placed! Zen however were much more helpful. The sales person searched several databases (though I don't know which) and said that the property isn't in any of them. The only suggestion she had was to contact the existing provider and get them to confirm that the service address is correctly registered (but I don't know with whom, perhaps Openreach)?

This is easier said than done, however. I've got to say the Sky web site is one of the worst I've ever tried to navigate. Unless you have a problem for which they have a pre-canned answer, it's hopeless. The best I can get to is a page with a button that says "call us", but no phone number is listed, and clicking that button does nothing. I doubt they could have made their site any more aggravating to use for people who have a problem that needs resolving if they tried!

Anyway Sky's [censored] web site aside, I managed to find the cancellations number on Google and phoned it. To their credit the representative I spoke to was helpful and did reduce the ongoing cost of the broadband package to something more reasonable. They didn't have any idea about why the address was no longer in the database however and couldn't help in resolving the problem.

As for the BT Broadband Availability Checker at https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL, putting in their landline's number returns an error saying "There is no data available for this number. This could be either because it is not a BT line or it is a new BT number that has just been provided. Most new numbers will appear on the checker 24 hours after BT has installed the line
" - now, I distinctly remember using the same tool before Openreach "replaced the phone line" to view info about the expected speeds of the line, even though it was not a BT line but a Sky line. So maybe this is another interesting data point, or maybe it's just that BT changed the web site so that it only hands out info about BT lines.

I guess my next step has to be writing to Sky to raise a complaint and see where that (doubtless torturous) process takes us. But I thought I'd also post here to see if anyone has any other ideas...

Right, rolling my sleeves up a bit, I had a go on the BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker -> Address Checker and I have managed to find the property!

The address is listed in the format:

[Villiage], [Postal Town]. [Post Code], [UPRN], XX, [Property Name]

I found the UPRN from https://www.findmyaddress.co.uk/

The XX is literal.

What's interesting is the order of the fields in the address. Most other addresses in the villiage are listed in the conventional order, e.g.:

[Property Name], [Villiage], [Postal Town], [Post Code], [UPRN], SM, A[11 numeric characters]

So perhaps the property's row in this database has not got the property name recorded in the correct field, and when J Random ISP presents the list of addresses in a post code for orders, they are filtering out dodgy looking database entries...

As for what can be done about it, I'm none the wiser.

I'm also curious to know the significance of "SM" (on most addresses) vs "XX" (on my friend's address), or the A-code, that is missing for my friend's address but is present for most others...

The two-letter field is the region (XX indicates none), the Annnnnnnnnnn is the NAD key.

Premises with XX and no NAD key have never had an Openreach service installed, frequently older premises as newer ones typically have infrastructure prebuilt if the developers have properly engaged with Openreach.

As your friend has an active service this is obviously not the case so something has happened to the Openreach database, potentially from bad updates during the earlier repair.

There is a process to fix these errors, the existing ISP has to submit an ORDI request to Openreach - unfortunately the first-line support staff at many ISPs are clueless as to how to escalate this within their organisation.

It may be worth raising it directly with Openreach via the Clive Selley email address so it gets assign to someone who can manage the end to end process.

Get your friend to try this

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

write a concise email to the Openreach CEO, Clive Selley then it will get picked up by the executive complaints team and escalated appropriately: [removed by tbb]

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 21:41:03)

Try https://www.openreach.com/forms/fibre-broadband-avai...

Thanks for the info and suggestions everyone. Writing the post earlier inspired me to try again with Sky and this time I actually managed to get directed to the right internal team (Order Recovery).

I learned that the address is "silver" matched and that they have raised an ORDI request to get the database sorted out, which should happen within 5 working days.

As for "SM", indeed this is the region code for Oxfordshire. NAD keys I've not heard of before, it gives me something else to add to the list of esoteric UK telecoms jargon.