Following the announcement of a 4-week lockdown in England, which came into effect from midnight on Wednesday 4th November 2020, Openreach have made some changes to how they are handling engineering appointments. This is a fast-moving situation, and we are working hard to keep you updated with any changes that come into effect.
Engineering appointments update
Openreach are now placing ALL areas in England under amber status for all copper products. Please note that these restrictions do not include any Ethernet products, which currently remain unimpacted. Engineers will only be entering premises to provision orders working up to the NTE (Network Termination Equipment) / ONT (Optical Network Termination) or where an end customer has a Total Loss of Service requiring repair.
Click here for a full summary of the latest status.
Due to these restrictions, if you require an NTE shift but your service is working, engineers will not be able to complete this under the current amber status. Any NTE shift requests will need to be placed on hold for at least 4 weeks, at which point the current lockdown restrictions will be reviewed by the Government.
If you have lost service and an engineer is required to install an NTE as part of a provision, this work will still go ahead to ensure you have connectivity during this difficult time.
A reminder – COVID-19 screening questions
On 29th October we advised you on some questions that should you consider asking yourself before booking an engineering appointment. We recommend that the following questions should continue to be asked:
The engineer may also ask the above questions on arrival. Should you confirm ‘yes’ to these questions, then the engineer will not enter the premises and the job will be reappointed for four weeks later.
If the answer to the above questions is ‘no’, the engineer will enter the premises to work up to the NTE/ONT only and they will be taking additional precautions (such as asking individuals to vacate to another room).
We will continue to monitor the situation and remain committed to supporting our customers. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact our team.
