Netomnia Apologises After Damaging Customer’s Openreach FTTP Line and Kit
Alternative UK broadband operator Netomnia has apologised to one of their YouFibre ISP customers after an engineer they sent out to install the new full fibre connection botched the setup, not least by ripping Openreach’s existing optical modem (ONT) off the wall and using the incumbent’s own fibre cable to finish the job – breaking a second FTTP connection in the process.
Before we get started it’s important to underline that, for the most part, engineers that enter your home to install a new broadband service will generally do a clean and professional job – that’s just as true of Netomnia as it is of any other UK network operator. But there are always rare exceptions and over the years we’ve covered plenty of hatched jobs, where for one reason or another an engineer leaves behind more than just a mess.
The latest example of how not to install a full fibre connection comes from the Derbyshire (England) town Ilkeston, where Netomnia’s new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network recently started to go live. Jack, one of ISPreview’s readers, then decided it would be good to get YouFibre to install the new service as a complement (NOT replacement) to his existing FTTP line from Openreach, which was separately managed by retail ISP Olilo.
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Granted it’s not particularly common for consumers to have two FTTP lines from different ISPs installed to the same house, but there’s no reason why you can’t do it. During this process engineers are generally expected not to touch the fibre line and kit of rival networks (some exceptions exist for the management / removal of old copper lines, but that’s not relevant here).
What went wrong
“After [Netomnia’s engineer] had left, I noticed the Openreach ONT was unplugged on the floor and the Netomnia ONT was in its place on the wall. I had no internet service on Olilo as a result, and after moving the Ethernet cable from the YouFibre router into my own, had no internet service on YouFibre either and had to call their support team, who then fixed the YouFibre line,” said Jack before realising the extent of what had gone wrong.
Olilo later arranged for an Openreach engineer to visit and repair the broken line, but when their subcontractor, MJ Quinn, arrived to assess the situation he discovered a much bigger problem. According to the engineer, Netomnia’s engineer had used Openreach’s external wall box (CSP – Customer Splice Point) for their own service and had also unplugged Openreach’s fibre cable at the CBT (Connectorised Block Terminal) in the road and plugged it into their own network. Not to mention the drill holes left inside the house around their ONT.
A second engineer visit was then actioned to confirm the best fix and both agreed that Jack would require a new fibre installation to correct the problem, which has since taken place. “I now have 2 fully working broadband lines from Openreach and Netomnia, but with unnecessary damage to my property … as well as having had an entire broadband line down for 4 days due to the negligence of YouFibre. Despite contacting YouFibre many times, their communication has been lacklustre. A complaint was logged on 17/7/2026 which has still had no response at all, despite being promised contact within 48 hours,” said Jack.
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A spokesperson for Netomnia told ISPreview:
“We regret the disruption and inconvenience experienced by the customer. We take the standards of our engineers and installation partners extremely seriously. We are aware of the installation referenced and have reviewed the circumstances internally. We have taken the appropriate steps following our review and will continue to monitor and investigate the matter as required.
To date, we have found no evidence of any wider issues. Incidents of this nature are extremely rare given the volume of installations we complete, and we remain committed to delivering a high standard of service and working responsibly alongside other network operators.”
According to Jack, Openreach’s second engineer had indicated to him that they’d seen similar issues in the area from Netomnia in the past, although after asking our sources we could find no evidence to corroborate that claim and Openreach declined to comment.
Olilo are understood to have since passed invoices for the repair work from Openreach onto YouFibre and are awaiting payment, while Jack is still struggling to get much communication from YouFibre: “It’s interesting that they claim they have taken the appropriate steps which seemingly don’t include talking to their actual customer,” said Jack.
UPDATE:
Since writing this article late last week we understand that Jack has cancelled his YouFibre service and NanoFibre, who were the contractor for YouFibre, have agreed to pay Openreach for the reinstall and to tackle any cosmetic damage to the property. NanoFibre’s engineer, the one responsible for the original damage, has also written a personal letter of apology to Jack.
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“Seems like an odd situation where their contractor is left dealing with YouFibre’s customer directly and I hear nothing from the actual company I signed up with,” said Jack. Curiously, after cancelling, YouFibre did contact Jack but only with a sales pitch, as it seems their sales team wasn’t aware of his recent experience.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I’m seeing this alot now from all altnets.
Wow now I’ve seen some botched installs in my time but thats new levels…. stealing the last mile line from the competition, reminds me of the days cable and sky chopping aerial cables to feed their own coax.
Damn, the merger hasn’t even officially been approved and Netomnia out here acting like VM do already by ignoring complaints.
He is not alone. Netomnia contractor was about to use OR cable as well, but I had live OR connection.
I think it’s happening because most of customers switching to Youfibre or they just trying to save money or it’s just easy to use existing cable, who knows… .
I live in Wisbech (PE13)
I wouldn’t be surprised if that engineer has been asked loads of times by householders to remove old ONTs as 99.9% of people won’t be operating two lines and ideally wouldn’t want multiple boxes on the wall. Not an excuse but perhaps he thought he was doing this customer a favour. YouFibre’s customer service sounds unmitigatedly awful though.
Even if a customer asked for the Openreach ONT to be removed, it doesn’t belong to the householder and should be left in place. It says quite clearly on the front “Property of Openreach”.
In this case, the installer was lazy (and/or rushed) and decided they could reuse the fibre instead of putting in a new one.
You could be right.
Sadly, shabby work is everywhere and getting more of it, or it seems that way.
Goes both ways sadly, see openreach doing it alot more.
I am not sure if it is a lot more, but they certainly do shabby work, well, their contractors do. One of my brothers had shabby work done when he had BT fibre installed.
Openreach or one of their contractors, left cable hanging from the pole by me months ago, it was moving around in the wind and could have easily hit someone.
Someone did not replace a cover correctly down the road, but that could have been Zzoomm, but I don’t see why Zzoomm would have been in there. It was dangerous.
Seems like a continuation of how where BT/Openreach infrastructure was sometimes removed or disrupted when the cable phone line went in.
Use of Openreach’s fibre all the way into the pit is also quite concerning. A pitfall (pun not intended) of PIA as it makes such vandalism so much easier. What powers do OR have to protect its customers and punish operators who do this?
A bit surprised this has made an article , I’ve been in telecoms for 15 yrs plus mostly on install side , this is daily occurrence and has been for years , cables ntl and bt both doing it to each other, sky and bt both doing it to each other , now altnets and don’t believe bt still don’t do it back to each other , usually its installer error(laziness to drill a new hole ) or customer asks for no new holes and they forget to mention that bit in their complaint .
Surely then the surprise is not that this made an article, but that we don’t see more articles like it more often?
Even if the customer was switching, they may want to switch to someone using Openreach in the future.
I can’t imagine Netomnia being too happy if Openreach did this to their installs when a customer switched away.
I can understand a customer wanting the old ONT removed. It feels like Openreach could probably supply a dust cap and a returns bag for the old ONT, and mark the property as needing a new ONT. This would help in the future when switching back to Openreach (the ISP will knoyan engineer visits required)
The principle here is that the ONT belongs to the Network Provider, it should remain in situ and in no way should a competitor (including PIA) utilise a competitors cabling. Installation for other services ISPs becomes more costly if records are wrong and there is extra work for the installer to work out what has gone on. It should be more than just the recovery of costs, I would have thought Netomnia has breached its PIA agreement.
Openreach provide a CSP and the worst case should be recovery of the in/out cable.
Most consumers will not be aware and whilst most consumers are likely to stick with their first FF network supplier I think there should be more consumer awareness in any communication when there is an engineering change moving between ISPs. i.e if you are moving between networks its clear that the customer needs to request the removal of the old FF if they don’t want it (number is on the ONT).
The other thing is for ISP/Network processes to include clear flags when it is a New install and a move. Particularly where the change is an ISP that utilises differeent Networks.
Personally my view is that ONTs should not be simply installed in the first opportunity for a hole in the wall and power socket but more thought through. Ideally ONTs just like your electricity meter should be in a utility cupboard, garage etc. This incident looks extreme but I can see this increasing. The cost of this doesn’t just impact the single customer.
An unnecesary mess.
This doesn’t surprise me one little bit.
I had a similar experience but with a provider called Connect Fibre. They sent 4 engineers to do what looked like 1 persons job, and still did it incorrectly.
I ended up cancelling my subscription and should have taken the warning flags when their contractor in the street was photographed throwing human excrement in to our neighbouring farms field a year ago (circulated via our parish).
What I find most shocking is that companies like these (maybe not youfibre) are taking tax payers money in the form of goverment contracts and then treating the areas with total disregard.
Ofcom only regulates and investigates pricing/customer service issues… not the installation phase. BDUK, a civil service outfit should have people physically out supervising these companies, not just getting monthly reports.