Can C BT bl blame b broadband problems on Openreach?

QSince November 2015 our BT broadband service started to regularly drop out (up to 50 times a day). Our phone line is also really crackly. An engineer couldn’t find any faults and BT said it’s a matter for Openreach. Openreach says BT has to fix the problem. Can you help?

Jenny Terras

AWe’ll try to help Jenny and have given BT the information it needs to investigate. The company has already apologised to Jenny for asking her to contact Openreach – the subsidiary of BT Group that manages the broadband cables that connect businesses and homes across the UK. If a customer is having problems with their broadband, it is always the responsibility of the internet service provider (ISP) to contact Openreach. Indeed, Openreach makes this clear on its website ( www.snipca. com/22282), using capital letters and a bold font to hammer home the point (see screenshot)! Incidentally, Openreach does encourage customers living in newly built homes to ask whether broadband will be soon available: www.snipca.com/22284.

Jenny says she lives in an area where she can’t get fast broadband and relies on slower ADSL 2+. We’ve checked her postcode on broadband-comparison sites, which say she should be able to get fibre broadband, but we know that these aren’t always accurate. It’s possible that she lives in a street that hasn’t been connected yet. That said, simply moving to a faster package from another ISP won’t fix her problems. Only BT will be able to do that.

If BT doesn’t resolve the problem, Jenny could take her case to the Ombudsman Services ( www.snipca.com/ 22283). It can review her complaint and decide if BT’S doing enough to solve it.