Angry villagers have hit out at BT’s Openreach after a car crash left their high-speed fibre-optic broadband connections unreliable – and powered by batteries.
A vehicle smashed into a transformer in Streethouse, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire last month, damaging the power supply.
Since then it has been powered by batteries, meaning engineers from Openreach, BT’s network arm, have to drive to the village every six hours to install a new ones.
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.
Residents in the village of Streethouse, near Wakefield in West Yorkshire, are furious after a car crash left their high-speed fibre-optic broadband unreliable and sometimes down for hours
Self-employed printer John Hollis, 37, described the situation as ‘torture’ and said his internet goes off every couple of hours
A vehicle smashed into the transformer last month and damaged the power supply. Since then it has been running on batteries that need to be replaced every six hours
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
Dog trainer Michael Rudge said his internet is going off at least three times a day. He described the situation as ‘ridiculous’
Many pay around £40 a month for a super fast internet service – but have been left with hours of no internet since the crash 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.
He said: ‘The box got 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.
Warehouse worker Lee Burnham, 33, said residents have been forced to buy data packages for their phones while the internet remains intermittent
Many pay around £40 a month for a super fast internet service – but have been left with hours of no internet since the crash on the night of Friday October 13
Resident Lee Johnson, 29, says his broadband is disconnected more than four times a day while internet engineers replace batteries
‘I rely on the internet both at work and to use my mobile phone because of lack of signal and it has impacted me.
‘At work I have had to stop recording shows and can’t upload others when the internet turns off, it is so frustrating.
‘Just last night it went down for three hours when my daughter was doing homework.
‘You’d think it would be sorted by now.’
Self-employed printer John Hollis, 37, said: ‘It’s on and off all the time. It’s been tortuous really.
‘Sometimes I have to work from home, especially when the kids are off school and so on. But I can’t log into work from home because the signal keeps dropping.
‘It’s intermittent all the time now. It goes on and off every couple of hours. I always see engineers there trying to fix it but it never seems to work.
‘It’s just been torture really. We all rely on the internet these days. The kids have been tearing the walls down because of it.’
Michael Rudge, 35, said: ‘I just think it’s ridiculous it has taken all this time and we’re still looking at this battery as a solution.
‘I need to use the internet frequently, but it keeps going down at least three times a day.’
Dog trainer Mr Rudge added: ‘It’s frustrating – you would have thought a month later we would have seen it fixed.’
The cabinet has not been reconnected to the mains since it was struck by a vehicle.
Another resident, Dan Pearson, 31, says Openreach – an arm of BT responsible for connecting most of Britain’s homes to the internet – told him that the village is not a priority to be fixed.
Another resident, Dan Pearson, 31, says Openreach – an arm of BT responsible for connecting most of Britain’s homes to the internet – told him that the village is not a priority to be fixed
Mr Pearson’s partner recently launched a nursery business from home which requires constant internet access and says the situation could threaten her livelihood
Openreach apologised for the inconvenience and said restoring the mains power connection is an
‘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.
‘The battery is supposed to be used to stop the phone’s going off should there be a brief power cut. They wait until the battery goes flat before they call out the engineers so it can be down between half-an-hour and an hour-and-a-half each time.’
Mr Pearson’s partner recently launched a nursery business from home which requires constant internet access so parents can monitor their children and says the situation could threaten her livelihood.
He suggested installing a street generator but was told that due to the location, the risk of theft or vandalism was too high.
And warehouse worker Lee Burnham said: ‘It’s just a massive inconvenience – I’m sick of coming home and the internet being on the blink.’
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 re-connected.’