News - Ofcom imposes 48 hour repair limit on most telecoms faults

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The UK telecoms regulator also makes switching fibre supplier cheaper and easier.

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Read more.

I know many people have had appalling service from openreach with delaying, cancelling and not showing up for appointments, so its about time a regulator stepped in.

I have never really experienced broadband outages for more than a couple of hours tbh so i cant really comment there. The switching rules are certainly welcomed. With regard to contract length, i suspect, to keep overall package costs down, we wont see a lot of difference in the offers we receive from ISPs.

"superfast broadband" i hate that term, what the hell is superfast anyhow ?
It seems politicians love to use it, do they think i makes them sound cool or something :yucky:
If they are using superfast to describe fiber why don't they just call it fiber.

/Rant :rant:

Indeed, 1Mb internet could be called "superfast" if you came from 56k modem. The term is far too open to interpretation, just like anything any politician says, make sure you leave enough room to be able to twist the meaning of your words to fit what people actually want you to mean.

Its the same as the term HD. This was used to describe 405 line B&W television back in its introduction, its used again for 720/1080 (with the additional frustrations of HD-Ready :rolleyes: ). This trend is continuing with the term UltraHD, currently its for "4k" equivalent resolutions, however "8k" resolutions also fit into the same name.

The problem is that politicians are generally just normal people, the kind that would call you when they clicked on that, "free pc cleaning scan" link on a pop up then claim it, "just happened". They don't understand the reality behind the terminology, they just learn the buzz words so that other normal people can think they know what they are talking about and are doing something really important and valuable about it.
I think i might have gone off topic though...

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Originally Posted by Corky34

"superfast broadband" i hate that term, what the hell is superfast anyhow ?

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"Superfast" = "faster than the bozo next-door/down-the-street" :p
Actually I'd categorise as follows:
<1 Mbps = dialup.
1 - 49Mbps = broadband
50-99Mbps = fast broadband
100-999Mbps = superfast broadband
1Gbps+ = you live in Korea or Japan.

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Originally Posted by Biscuit

I know many people have had appalling service from openreach with delaying, cancelling and not showing up for appointments, so its about time a regulator stepped in.

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More I hear about Openreach the happier I am with Virgin. Last Monday a landscape gardener we got in decided to cut my Virgin cable (because "I didn't think you needed it" :wallbash:), phoned Virgin in the afternoon and by 9.30 on Wednesday the job was done (at £0 to me!).

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Moves to boost superfast broadband competition in the UK are also to be implemented.

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Erm, how exactly? Surely the only players are BT, Virgin, and 3rd parties buying service from BT - UK definitely needs more in the way of competition! All hail our fibre-toting Google overlords!

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Originally Posted by crossy

More I hear about Openreach the happier I am with Virgin. Last Monday a landscape gardener we got in decided to cut my Virgin cable (because "I didn't think you needed it" :wallbash:), phoned Virgin in the afternoon and by 9.30 on Wednesday the job was done (at £0 to me!).

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The strange thing about openreach is that the service differs across ISPs. The main example i can think of is my friend in London who tried to get BT to install vDSL for 4 months and they kept delaying. He asked plusnet and it was done 2 weeks later.
My results with Plusnet have all been good: 3 installs, all on time, no problems.

I wouldn't touch BT with a barge pole, as I used to work for the company & hardly received a penny when they got rid of me!:whip:

I wouldn't touch BT with a bargepole. I used to be one of their customers. Never again.

How do we enforce this? I had infinity installed last Tuesday (moved house) . And yesterday my fibre died. As did my phone line. I rang BT who said the soonest they could send anyone was next Tuesday. That's not 48 hours. I complained and mentioned the new Ofcom ruling but as usual the Indian callperson was unable to deviate from their script. Seems to me that this Ofcom ruling means zilch for us end users.

and to the Offcom website you go!

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Originally Posted by neonplanet40

How do we enforce this? I had infinity installed last Tuesday (moved house) . And yesterday my fibre died. As did my phone line. I rang BT who said the soonest they could send anyone was next Tuesday. That's not 48 hours. I complained and mentioned the new Ofcom ruling but as usual the Indian callperson was unable to deviate from their script. Seems to me that this Ofcom ruling means zilch for us end users.

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And that is because you were talking to BT Retail - not BT openreach - a separate company within the BT group who do not deal with the public/end user.

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Originally Posted by ik9000

and to the Offcom website you go!

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But it won't do you much good because you do not have a contract with Openreach. It is a wholesale provider, not a retail. You CAN complain to (or about) your ISP who can enforce the rules with Openreach, but (subject to the usual caveats "as far as I can tell" - and "I am not a lawyer") an ISP can offer its own terms and conditions for repairs. However it may be able to make those more attractive because of the binding on Openreach.

Openreach itself came about as a result of Ofcom trying to make the market fairer - as did the plethora and confusion of Directory Services (<rant>and those dismal adverts on TV with the twins twins - can't remember who it is for as the remote is activated within 500MS of it appearing. - </rant>)

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Originally Posted by peterb

Openreach itself came about as a result of Ofcom trying to make the market fairer - as did the plethora and confusion of Directory Services (<rant>and those dismal adverts on TV with the twins twins - can't remember who it is for as the remote is activated within 500MS of it appearing. - </rant>)

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You mean 118-118.
http://www.mrmagento.com/wp-content/...es/_118118.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fdo6NupZsg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbikMxihtoU

wtf, only 1 video per message? Bit draconian! Wouldn't 3 would make more sense?

Good news on the whole. I have a friend who had major issues with BT doing fault repairs and eventually gave up and went to Plusnet. Problems were fixes within a week.

The contact length reduction is good as well. Great for me as will be upgrading to Fibre soon. (not BT of course)

Sorry to disappoint but at just over 4 weeks from 18th June 2014 to get me a connection: phone and Broadband they have already failed! NB I'm also with Plusnet!