Coronavirus: service updates and supplier information
03 APRIL 2020
Last updated: 17:00 5 June 2020
This page contains important updates from us and our suppliers that may affect our partners or customers during this unprecedented time. We’ve also included useful links and support information and a full breakdown of any service updates as we have them. This will continue to be updated at least once a day, so please check back here regularly.
Key points:
BT Openreach (who help us supply internet connectivity services) have advised that provision and repair of their services are now on a “best endeavours” basis only across the UK and will impact almost all connectivity products: DSL, Ethernet, FTTC, FTTP, FIBRE, PSTN, ISDN2, ISDN30, LLU and SMPF
Openreach will be assisting providers to bring forward certain WLR and MPF new line installs to an earlier date. They will be contacting customers directly to try to agree an earlier install date to complete the work on behalf of the Provider.
Priority restoration of services will only take place for organisations deemed “critical”, including NHS, pharmacies, utilities etc (full list below)
Ongoing repairs will continue for all, but with priority given to critical organisations and customers deemed “at risk” and you will now be asked if you are an “At Risk Customer” or “suffering COVID-19 Symptoms” before they assess priority of restoration
All newly-appointed provisioning will be pushed back to Monday 1st June 2020 at the earliest
All other Gradwell products (Wave, 3CX, SIP Trunks etc) remain unaffected with the exception of number porting, which may be delayed
Openreach/BT have declared that the current situation they and we are all facing is a matter beyond their control in light of COVID-19.
As such, appointments for provision and repair are on a best endeavours basis only, this covers everyone nationwide and will impact the following products that we provide: DSL, Ethernet, FTTC, FTTP, FIBRE, PSTN, ISDN2, ISDN30, LLU MPF and SMPF, including adjustment of orders.
Fault Repair
During this time, priority and restoration of services will take place for critical functions only, such as NHS, pharmacies, utilities, emergency services, retail and wholesale food distribution outlets and financial services. This also applies to customers deemed “at risk”.
Ongoing repairs to the BT/Openreach infrastructure will continue, but with high priority focus being on the above-mentioned critical core services ahead of all others. You will be asked by Gradwell if anyone is deemed within the building or location is considered at “at risk” of exposure to Covid-19:
Customer meets criteria for repair and IS symptomatic
Customer meets criteria for repair and IS NOT symptomatic
Ongoing repairs to the BT/Openreach infrastructure will continue, but with high priority focus being on the above-mentioned critical core services ahead of all others. We appreciate your patience during these times, and we’re sure you understand that the protection and restoration of core services is paramount to sustaining core infrastructure services.
Openreach have advised on Fault repair with immediate effect:
To support efforts to reduce human contact and promote social distancing, all installation activities that require access to a customer’s premises are now being assessed and the customer to state the following criteria to ensure if repairs are deemed essential that appropriate teams can deal with the issue at hand:
- Customer meets criteria for repair and IS symptomatic
- Customer meets criteria for repair and IS NOT symptomatic
Openreach will attempt to complete as much of the inflight orders from outside of the premises as possible, but if internal work is required, these will be done on a priority and risk assessed basis. Any orders that do not require on premise installation will proceed as normal, but we appreciate these cases are limited.
The exception to these rules are those businesses identified as critical national infrastructure. This includes; NHS, pharmacies, utilities, emergency services, retail and wholesale food distribution outlets, and financial services businesses. On site installation work will be permitted for these businesses but we will have to justify the criticality of the service to Openreach.
The Openreach Emergency Helpdesk will remain open. However, all business as usual contact centres have now closed.
Porting of Numbers
Following on from previous updates on BT’s porting backlog, we are pleased to announce this has now been cleared and we are able to place new orders again. There still may be a slight delay in contrast to normal timescales, as it’s likely that BT and our direct suppliers will receive a large amount of new port requests all at once, but this will likely only add on 24-48 hours to the normal processing time. In conclusion, we will not be operating at our normal timescales for another few days, but we anticipate everything to be back to normal in the short term. We appreciate your patience during this time.
New Orders
All new orders received with immediate effect that require BT or Openreach infrastructure (the majority) are being moved to commence from 1st June 2020 onwards. This will be under constant review and may have further delays should the situation worsen. Exceptions apply for customers deemed “at risk”.
All existing orders in the system with BT or Openreach will continue to progress, but with a view to completing the orders as soon as possible and may be delivered well outside of expected and industry standard timelines.
We are still accepting new orders, however, there will be a delivery backlog for any products requiring BT or Openreach provision until at least 1st June 2020 onwards. All other Gradwell products, eg Wave, Multi User VoIP, 3CX and SIP Trunk services, are currently not impacted and delivery times will remain unaffected.
Openreach have announced the below with regards to WLR and MPF new line installs.
Openreach will be assisting providers to bring forward certain new line installs to an earlier date. They will be contacting customers directly to try to agree an earlier install date to complete the work on behalf of the Provider.
Only lines that have relatively simple installation journeys will be eligible for this support. Orders that are deemed to have complex delivery that would require additional engineering work or orders where Openreach feel that it would not be possible to gain access to the premises safely in adherence to their COVID-19 safe working practices will be excluded from this process. For example, orders that require entry to blocks of flats etc will be out of scope.
Core infrastructure service providers
We will of course continue to share more information from core suppliers like BT Openreach on this page as soon as we have it. A full breakdown of Openreach’s current service status is in the table below.
Openreach Critical Functions | ||
---|---|---|
Damage | Open (limited service) | |
Welfare | Open (limited service) | |
DSO | Open (limited service) | |
Product | Repair | Provision |
Escalations (EPOC) | No new work accepted | No new work accepted |
Premium Business Helpdesk | No new work accepted | No new work accepted |
WLR | BAU if non-appointed | BAU if non-appointed |
LLU | BAU if non-appointed | BAU if non-appointed |
FTTC | BAU if non-appointed | BAU if non-appointed |
SOGEA | BAU if non-appointed | BAU if non-appointed |
GFAST | BAU if non-appointed | BAU if non-appointed |
SOGFAST | BAU if non-appointed | BAU if non-appointed |
Migration Services | BAU if non-appointed | BAU if non-appointed |
ISDN | BAU if non-appointed | BAU if non-appointed |
FTTP | BAU if non-appointed | BAU if non-appointed |
Ethernet | BAU if non-appointed | BAU up to curtilage |
BAU: For Total Loss of Service Faults: Openreach will attempt to activate the service remotely. If they are unable to, then they will visit the premises and ask two risk assessment questions:
1) Is there anyone on-site who has Covid-19 symptoms?
2) Has there ever been anyone on-site with symptoms?
3) Has anyone on-site been advised by the NHS via a letter to isolate for 12 weeks?
If the answer is yes to either of these questions then they will not access the premises and the fault repair will be postponed until restrictions have been lifted. If not, they will schedule a repair.
For all other repair faults, Openreach will only resolve if it’s possible to fix remotely and without access to the premises.
Provisions: Will only attempt to access the premises if the provider is classed as CNI/welfare/at risk/specific key worker (see below).
CNI: refers to “Critical Network Infrastructure.”
All Welfare/At Risk/Specific Key Worker cases will be reviewed by Openreach after a case submission by a customer.