Fault charges

[#1]

Why do ISP's have to pay openreach to fix faults?  Surely that's all covered in line rental etc.

[#2]

I believe we only pay if the fault is caused by the customer's equipment, wiring etc, the visits are only chargeable where the fault is not caused by Openreach.

[#3]

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@glloyd wrote:

Why do ISP's have to pay openreach to fix faults?  Surely that's all covered in line rental etc.

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It is covered by "line rental etc" if the fault is unambiguously in the Openreach network system. This includes everything in the local loop up to - BUT NOT BEYOND -  the consumers Network Terminating Equipment (NTE) fixture at the consumer's premises.

This is the BT/Openreach NTE in your premises. If you have a NTE5 master socket then you will need to remove the bottom faceplate to break the connection between your home wiring and the Openreach network to establish where the fault lies to avoid the charge. NB - If the fault is in the consumer removable bottom faceplate itself, then it is deemed (AFAIK) to be a fault in the consumers side wiring. i.e. You pay.  

Apologies if you already know all this.

The average consumer has never actually had this clearly pointed out to them.

[#4]

BT Wholesale try to make ISPs pay towards the investigation of broadband faults by only providing the ability to report faults by ordering a chargeable service.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFdZcEx8oog

[#5]

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@Chris wrote:

I believe we only pay if the fault is caused by the customer's equipment, wiring etc, the visits are only chargeable where the fault is not caused by Openreach.

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 It's also the case that if the engineer reports 'no fault found', Plusnet, and subsequently you, will be charged the callout fee (£65 charge to the customer, probably around double that to PN.)

[#6]

When we report a fault, as a company we have to agree to engineering time related charges if there is no fault with the BT network. If applicable, I believe we do only pass on a portion of this charge to customers.

[#7]

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@JayG wrote:

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@Chris wrote:

I believe we only pay if the fault is caused by the customer's equipment, wiring etc, the visits are only chargeable where the fault is not caused by Openreach.

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 It's also the case that if the engineer reports 'no fault found', Plusnet, and subsequently you, will be charged the callout fee (£65 charge to the customer, probably around double that to PN.)

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Yeah. That's the 'killer' with this whole arrangement AFAIAC.

[#8]

That's terrible it makes ISP's reluctant to report a fault so make customers suffer poor service instead.

[#9]

It's not that we're reluctant to report faults, however it is why we stress that the customer should go through the troubleshooting guides in the first instance to try and rule out their equipment or internal wiring.

Following this, it's also why we must have acceptance from the customer that there will be a charge if, off the back of an engineer appointment, the fault is found to be with their own internal wiring or equipment.