BT Openreach have become a disgrace

Another rant

I recently took on a job for a customer in the rural area of the Cotswolds.Their complaint was that their broadband had become unusable.

I checked the router and when it did sync it felt like dial up speeds.
So i began the usual checks of the internal wiring of the telephone wiring.
I also when to the neighbours who live 20 yards away, with a quick test on speedtest.net i could see they were getting a steady 1 meg/

Sure enough it was not suitable and felt that a re wire from outside with a new cable may help the situation, so i called in a local Cotswolds Telephone Engineer

A new cable was ran still no sync, unfortunately they were with AOL so i insisted that we move them to my Entanet as i am a partner which makes support very quick and easy rather than hours of calls to AOL.

Openreach were then duly called out.

1st appointment:
Faint beeping on the line: Openreach engineer seemed to think that as we had left the faceplate cover off that would fix it, actually we left the faceplate off so the extensions in the house were not on to help the broadband if a fault was found, he left not actually checking the phone, the phone still had faint beeping (crosstalk).

2nd appointment:
Engineer tested line went to the cabinet about 1.2 miles away, said 5 meg speed there. He went to the exchange did a lift and shift on the port in the exchange, phoned us to say it may settle. Still no sync.

3rd appointment:
This time a openreach coach turned up with a another engineer, these guys gave me hope, again i explained that we had ran new wire, so they tested the line found it was touching dead wire which explained the crosstalk, but they then revealed the real reason broadband was poor. Aluminium  lines in the ground, this was something that was laid in the seventies and eighties as a cheap alternative to copper, fair enough broadband did not exist then but now it causes major problems. They began to test every spare pair but the light ran out and they left a note for the next engineer.

4th appointment:
Notes from last visit were ignored, openreach engineer suggested putting the line on 1/2 meg fixed rate line, which i sorted with enatnet for the next morning.

Next morning still no line sync and a note to Entanet from BT that they cannot deliver broadband due to length of line. Blaming the fact that there are to many broadband connections going into the village.

My complaint here
a: I had to tell each enginner from openreach what the last one did as they dont and cant see notes form last engineer visit.
b: They did not test all pairs in the ground.
c: Aluminium needs ripping out replacing with copper, to lose 5 meg in 1.2 miles is disgraceful.
d: when FTTC (Fiber to the cabinet) comes the villagers will still not get anything because of poor lines.
 e: openreach engineers are poorly trained and do not have enough time to repair what needs repairing.
f: BT openreach and BT Wholesale are to concentrated on saving money, not reinvesting where lines need it.
g: No contact can be made with openreach, they can hide behind a invisible wall, the only way something could happen now is if we write a letter to our local MP to explain the problem, as they can communicate with openreach, the local MP for this rural area happens to be David Cameron whether this is a good thing or bad i dont know.

Shame on you BT openreach i really hope that 4G will answer rural communities problems and people cancel their problem riddled telephone lines and replace with a reliable 4G connection.

Openreach should not exist in my opinion and should be broken down into smaller localised companies who understand the local problem with the BT lines.

I would love to here your comments about your problems with the poor service BT openreach have given you.