This does seem an excessively long delay, even for a residential (basic) line with care level 1 presumably. To help shed some light on why there is a delay fixing faults, and installing new lines (we're seeing delays of 4 weeks +) here is a snippet from an Openreach update sent on the 2nd November:
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Repair
Current fault levels still remain slightly above forecast and work continues to bring the reactive repair work stack back down to a more manageable level. This includes the ongoing use of contractual overtime as well as postponing training and reducing annual leave availability. Improvements are being made in most areas and this is reflected in the lead-time numbers below.
Improvements are being seen in Level 1 Repair with lead-times (ave) having a best performance of 0.83 days being achieved in Northern Ireland and a worst case of 2.77 in the South East of England.
Provision Lead times
Lead time across the country remain high with significant regional variance. The current best case (ave) is 4.95 days in Northern Ireland and with a worst case of 16.09 days in London and the Home Counties. These are regional averages and further breakdowns by major city are available from the service updates page. Work continues to attempt to bring the workstack and lead-times down, however the volume of work continues to remain at a very high level.
<-- snip -->
These lead times don't match KDS's experience, and nor does it match lots of the experiences we are seeing on the lines we're ordering and supporting. However it is good to see that BT Retail are suffering just as much as we are.
I can't help but notice that these delays started to creep in at the same time BT threatened to strike. Would it be wrong of me to suggest "working to rule" since the event?
Paul Barnett
ICUK Computing Services Ltd
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