Incident Details

Resolved [27/10/2022 09:25]

Update [04/10/2022 11:06]

Following on from our communication in August regarding the BT Industrial Action, we have been notified by Openreach that there will be another 4 days of industrial action.

- Thursday 6th October 2022
- Monday 10th October 2022
- Thursday 20th October 2022
- Monday 24th October 2022

== Broadband (ADSL, FTTC, SOGEA, EoFTTC, EFM & FTTP) ==

• Existing Appointments: Even though Openreach have a limited amount of appointment spaces for these days, there is 15% more capacity than previous strike days. Once the threshold has been reached, they will close the appointment books and anything over the threshold will be rescheduled to a later date. If your customer currently has an appointment booked for Thursday 6th October, Monday 10th October, Thursday 20th October or Monday 24th October 2022, Openreach may rescheduled to a later date. Your customers will receive text messages from Openreach confirming this and they will be provided with details of the next available appointments that can be selected.
• Repair: Openreach will prioritise Repair and endeavour to hit their SLA's using contractor resource & direct labour but will prioritise Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) as per COVID definitions. We have listed below the experience you get expect based on care levels.
• Care level 1: The engineer appointment book leading up to and following Industrial Action will be reduced therefore we could see a delay of up to 5 working days. E.g., fault raised on Thursday 6th October may result in an appointment date of Thursday 13th October.
• Care Level 2: The engineer appointment book leading up to and following Industrial Action will be reduced therefore we could see a delay of up to 5 working days. E.g., Fault raised on Thursday 6th October may result in an appointment date of Wednesday 12th October.
• Care Level 3 & 4: Openreach will endeavour to honour Repair targets for these SLA’s.
• General contact: This will be unaffected, as it's run by an offshore contractor.
• Escalations: Openreach escalations are processed by onshore direct labour, so we may see some degradation in the 4-hour SLA both during the strike period and 2-3 days after. Please only escalate further for critical orders. The business as usual routes of DSO/Welfare/CNI remain available.


== Wholesale Line Rental (PSTN & ISDN) ==

• We expect these to be handled in the same manner as broadband (above).


== Leased Lines ==

• Leased line survey appointments: These are booked a week in advance, but Openreach will not be offering Survey Appointments for Thursday 6th October, Monday 10th October, Thursday 20th October and Monday 24th October 2022. If there are any booked for these days, then these will be rescheduled and the contact on the order will be contacted to discuss.
• Leased line Fibre and Fit & Test appointments: Openreach intend to appoint a limited number of these jobs, which will mean that you or your customers may see Fibre and Fit & Test appointments scheduled for Thursday 6th October, Monday 10th October, Thursday 20th October and Monday 24th October 2022. If Openreach need to re-arrange these, either before or on the day, then these will be rescheduled and the contact on the order will be contacted to discuss.
• Service Desk: Openreach use onshore direct labour to process service requests therefore we may see some degradation in service levels both during the strike period and 2-3 days after, please only escalate for critical orders. Openreach will prioritise DSO, followed by high level escalations and then General Enquiries.
• Repair: Openreach will prioritise Repair and are confident they can still hit the 5-hour fixed SLA. If repair activities slip outside of this SLA, the priority staircase listed below will be used.
• Escalations: Openreach escalations are processed by onshore direct labour, so we may see some degradation in the SLA both during the strike period and 2-3 days after, please only escalate further for critical orders. The business as usual routes of DSO/Welfare/CNI remain available, using the priority staircase listed below.


== Priority Staircase ==

Openreach have confirmed, if necessary, they will implement a priority staircase in line with prioritisation during COVID.

This covers the following:

• Blue light – repair and provision – emergency services
• Welfare and vulnerable repair
• Critical National Infrastructure repair
• Critical National Infrastructure provision
• Major service outages, major incidents, and emergency safety incidents (prioritised on volume and effect/impact)
• Repair for loss of service
• Repair
• Provision
• Proactive build
• Business as usual build
• FVR (fault volume reduction) proactive repair of the network

Below is a reminder of the Critical National Infrastructure definition, please ensure your order meets this definition for CNI before escalating orders:


== Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) ==

Openreach have shared the following information regarding the CNI:

In the UK, there are 13 national infrastructure sectors: Chemicals, Civil Nuclear, Communications, Defence, Emergency Services, Energy, Finance, Food, Government, Health, Space, Transport and Water. Several sectors have defined ‘sub-sectors’; Emergency Services for example can be split into Police, Ambulance, Fire Services and Coast Guard.

Not everything within a national infrastructure sector is judged to be ‘critical’. The UK government’s official definition of CNI is:

‘Those critical elements of infrastructure (namely assets, facilities, systems, networks or processes and the essential workers that operate and facilitate them), the loss or compromise of which could result in:

a) Major detrimental impact on the availability, integrity or delivery of essential services – including those services whose integrity, if compromised, could result in significant loss of life or casualties – taking into account significant economic or social impacts; and/or

b) Significant impact on national security, national defence, or the functioning of the state.’

CNI is focussed on providing advice and assistance to those who have responsibility for protecting these most crucial elements of the UK’s national infrastructure from national security threats. Openreach uses these criteria to define CNI orders.


Please feel free to direct any enquiries to our support team.