Villagers’ internet powered by battery
ANGRY VILLAGERS have hit out at Openreach after a car-crash left their high-speed fibre-optic broadband connections unreliable – and powered by batteries.
Their frustration began when a vehicle struck their village’s transformer box, damaging its power supply, nearly a month ago. Since then engineers have been forced to travel to Streethouse, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, to change the batteries every six hours. And some of the village’s 400 residents are furious that they are often left completely without an internet connection for hours due to the power problem.
Many pay about £40 a month for a superfast internet service – but have been left with hours of no access since the smash on the night of Friday, October 13. Lee Johnson, 29, says his broadband is disconnected more than four times a day while internet engineers replace batteries.
Mr Johnson said: “The box (was) crashed into on October 13.
“We literally had no broadband in the whole village for a week after the crash, it affected everyone and my business was brought to a halt.
“They got it back up and running but they have to send out an engineer to change the batteries multiple times a day; it is ridiculous.
“We have been told it is a temporary fix but there has been nothing said about it being fixed for good and there has been no communication from Openreach who manage the box. It feels like we are living in the Stone Age.
“I rely on the internet both at work and to use my mobile phone because of lack of signal and it has impacted me.”
The cabinet has not been reconnected to the mains since it was struck by the vehicle.
Another resident, Dan Pearson, 31, says Openreach – the firm responsible for connecting most of Britain’s homes to the internet – told him that the village is not a priority to be fixed.
He said: “It’s incredibly frustrating because Openreach say they are busy and we are not a priority, we’re too low down in the queue.
“Openreach are paying their technicians a call-out fee every six hours to change the battery in the cabinet to get the system back up and running.”
Mr Pearson’s partner launched a nursery business from home which requires constant internet access, and says the situation could threaten her livelihood.
Openreach said: “We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused by the temporary power solution.
“Restoring the mains power connection is absolutely a priority for us and we are working to secure the earliest possible date for it to be reconnected.”
We had no broadband in the whole village for a week after the crash. Streethouse resident Lee Johnson.