Home
 » ISP News » 
Sponsored Links

UPD Anger Flares at Openreach Over Holiday Homes USO Exclusion in Scotland

Wednesday, Aug 9th, 2017 (1:34 pm) - Score 1,682

Residents of the Grand Eagles holiday park in Perthshire (Scotland) have claimed that Openreach holds a virtual “monopoly” after they accused the operator of trying to “extort” £3,500 per property from home owners, who aren’t covered by the current Universal Service Obligation.

The existing USO is delivered exclusively via fixed lines and only requires KCOM (Hull only) or Openreach (BT) to deliver, following the “reasonable request of any End-user” (i.e. demand-led), an “affordable” telephone service that includes the ability to offer “data rates that are sufficient to permit functional internet access” (here); even slow dial-up (28.8Kbps) lines can hit it.

Under this approach Openreach is expected to foot the bill for deploying a basic copper phone line, although they’ll only absorb the first £3,400 of construction charges (plus users would still have to pay a small connection fee) and the home owner would then foot the bill for anything above that. This is necessary in order to stop costs getting out of control, but in practice hardly anybody ever has to pay an excess.

Advertisement

In this case a number of residents at the Grand Eagles park have been trying to get a phone line and broadband installed, except Openreach want to charge them £3,500 each. “It is a disgrace that Openreach can get away with this and that they are not accountable to anyone other than their customers … it’s about time the Government removed this monopoly on the communications industry,” said resident Lynn Cairns (here).

However Openreach denied the accusations and said that Holiday Homes are exempt from the USO.

A Spokesperson for Openreach said:

“This means that any work undertaken to provide a line into a holiday home is chargeable to the owner.

If a request is made, Openreach planners will calculate the cost of providing the service and the holiday home owner will be advised accordingly, as is the case here. The actual cost would be dependent on the work required in each, individual situation.

The only exception is when a holiday home is a full-time residence and the resident pays Council Tax there.”

We’ve long understood that holiday homes aren’t likely to be covered by the USO unless the owner can prove that they’re a full-time resident who pays council tax, although Ofcom’s USO documentation doesn’t appear to specifically reference holiday homes (the guidance for “reasonable request” is generalised – page 85-86). Many such sites are usually covered by a shared WiFi network rather than fixed lines, albeit seemingly not in this case.

We have asked Ofcom to give an opinion on this specific situation and are awaiting their response. Take note that this article is separate from the on-going consultation over a 10Mbps broadband USO, although now is a good time to raise such cases as it may help to inform that debate. Ultimately a line does have to be drawn somewhere, otherwise all kinds of temporary shelters would be included (tents in fields, cardboard boxes on streets etc.).

Advertisement

UPDATE 10th Aug 2017

Ofcom informs us that the decision to exclude Holiday Homes is the result of Openreach’s own interpretation of their USO rules, rather than the rule itself. However, if someone doesn’t agree with BT’s interpretation, they can bring a formal complaint to Ofcom and the regulator would consider whether the operator has breached its obligations.

Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
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 .
Search ISP News
Search ISP Listings
Search ISP Reviews

Comments are closed

Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
100Mbps
Gift: First 3 Months Free
Sky UK ISP Logo
Sky £22.00 - 26.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £23.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £25.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheap Unlimited Mobile SIMs
Talkmobile UK ISP Logo
Talkmobile £11.95
Contract: 12 Months
Data: 120GB
iD Mobile UK ISP Logo
iD Mobile £16.00
Contract: 24 Months
Data: Unlimited
Smarty UK ISP Logo
Smarty £18.00
Contract: 1 Month
Data: Unlimited
ASDA Mobile UK ISP Logo
ASDA Mobile £19.00
Contract: 24 Months
Data: Unlimited
Three UK ISP Logo
Three £20.00
Contract: 24 Months
Data: Unlimited
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
100Mbps
Gift: First 3 Months Free
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £19.00
300Mbps
Gift: None
Sky UK ISP Logo
Sky £22.00 - 26.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
toob UK ISP Logo
toob £22.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
Beebu UK ISP Logo
Beebu £23.00
100 - 160Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Promotion
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms , Privacy and Cookie Policy , Links , Website Rules , Contact
Mastodon