Fast response by Openreach

Some ISPs take heavy criticism because of Openreach delays, sometimes unfair as they cannot do anything about it. I've just seen how Openreach themselves can have problems.

My phone line comes 30m from a distribution pole across a busy road to the top of my gable wall, where it is secured by a ring bolt. I noticed this bolt was very severely corroded and called Openreach, saying that as an engineer I considered it should be replaced within the next few months. The operator told me the technicians had 48 hours to respond as emergencies such as road safety related items had priority.

The Openreach fitter arrived 18 hours after my call and replaced the bolt within 15 minutes, saying that the bolt was one of the worst he had seen. While installation delays must be infuriating, in this instance I thought OR did a good job.

A recent experience with my ISP and Openreach with regard to a line fault was that the OR engineer arrived (4.00pm ) to fix the reported voice fault 10 days after I had reported it to Plusnet.

The OR engineer did his stuff and the fault was subsequently fixed, the afternoon calls to Plusnet CS were answered in around 30-40 minutes.

When our broadband was faulty, openreach 15 hours after call, and fixed within 30 minutes!

I think some are missing the point.

As stated in your OP, it was a road safety issue. Nothing whatsoever to do with an individual line fault.

The bolt breaks off the wall when a strong wind pulls the cable, and someone could get killed or at least seriously injured. Possible scenario, it swings down, hits a cyclist in the face, and the cyclist falls off a metre in front of a car. If lucky, there's no car. Just a lost eye.

I think some are missing the point.

No, just having a moan