As a result of Government restrictions across the UK and globally to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, many of our suppliers are finding their operational activities severely impacted.
To keep our customers informed of how this affects our ability to provide products and services to you and your customers, we have put together a summarised update below.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be bringing you up to date information affecting the comms industry to keep our customers informed. Please see below for the latest update regarding BT Openreach services.
Effective from midnight on 24th March, Openreach announced that a nationwide MBORC had been declared (matters beyond our reasonable control) for provision, repair, missed appointments and the availability of appointments.
In line with the Government advice on social interaction and movement, Openreach will be restricting engineer visits, effectively limiting service delivery to self-installs until 1st June at the earliest.
So what does this mean for our customers?
Openreach contact centres are currently closed, which is having an impact on obtaining updates and queries.
New Orders
Openreach will continue to accept new orders for installations but these will be delayed with available appointment dates likely to be after 1st June.
What do the restrictions on engineer visits mean?
Any order that requires internal work, including WLR orders for Single Analogue lines, will be delayed until June unless they meet one of the following criteria, which if they do, will be handled on a case by case basis with BT through an escalation process (for which we are still obtaining details).
- Self-install activities (i.e. where there is no engineering visit to the end customer premises)
- Service to vulnerable end customers (in-home and carried out safely, only where essential)
- End customers who have no other form of broadband or telephony available – BT will work with us to look for solutions that do not require a home visit
- On-premises work for critical national infrastructure customers (NHS, pharmacies, utilities, emergency services, retail and wholesale food distribution outlets, financial services businesses and other categories defined by the Government)
What orders can go ahead?
Any order where there is no internal work will progress as normal for example:
- Like for Like transfers
- Upgrade from ADSL to FTTC
- Activating a new Broadband Service on an existing line
Orders currently in flight
Appointed jobs will be converted to non-appointed and Openreach will attempt to complete orders to provide service only to the external part of the building. If internal works are required, they will need to be reappointed after 1st June.
Faults/Repairs
Repair work will continue to be focused on restoring service with safe working practices and with revised processes to further reduce social interaction wherever possible. Engineers will be asked NOT to enter the end customer premises and to enable/restore service where possible from outside of the premises.
Below is a communication sent to the industry by Openreach:
Openreach Communication Update
Declaration of Matter Beyond Our Reasonable Control (MBORC) on ALL products, effective 24th March 2020 23:59
Openreach provide much of the cabling infrastructure in the UK and engineering resource, the declaration of MBORC is a contractual provision contained in all Openreach contracts which releases Openreach from liability under the relevant product terms and conditions in certain circumstances. The relief removes Openreach from any contractual SLAs and SLGs. The declaration affects all products taken directly from Openreach and will also affect those providers who rely on Openreach engineering to deliver their services.
The products affected include (and is not restricted to) the list below:
- GEA (FTTC (including Gfast), FTTP (including Fibre-on-Demand), GEA Cablelink / SOGEA / SOGfast
- LLU MPF and SMPF (ADSL)
- WLR (PSTN, ISDN2, ISDN30)
- Ethernet: EAD, EBD, Cablelink, Street Access, CCTV access, Broadcast Access, WES/WEES/BES (repair only), TDM Access Service
- New Sites
Openreach will now prioritise only the essential work and absolutely minimise work that requires their engineers to enter end customer premises. Provision work carried out by Service Delivery and Fibre and Network Delivery will be limited to:
- Self-install activities (i.e. where there is no engineering visit to the end customer premises)
- Service to vulnerable end customers (in-home and carried out safely, only where essential)
- Those end customers who have no other form of broadband or telephony available – Openreach will look to deal with these via escalation channels jointly with the CP to find a solution that doesn’t require a home visit
- On-premises work for critical national infrastructure customers (NHS, pharmacies, utilities, emergency services, retail and wholesale food distribution outlets, financial services businesses and other categories defined by the Government)
With immediate effect:
- Appointment books will be closed for new appointed provision with books moved out to 1st June 2020
- Openreach will attempt to complete appointed in-flight orders outside of the premises
- Non appointed orders will continue to go ahead where no visit is required to go to the premises (transfers, upgrades to Fibre to the Cabinet)
- Repair books will remain open at this time - Openreach are reviewing non urgent repair
- Engineers will be asked NOT to enter the end customer premises and to enable/restore service where possible from outside of the premises
- Openreach will ask CPs to help them identify Critical Network Infrastructure and vulnerable end customer tasks in order to prioritise these