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Customer Service Plan
This process will run the relevant tests that are required for specific products and sub products. For FTTP, where the ONT is already in situ, if the test before provision is not successful, we issue a 574 delay informing the CP of the need to send an engineer to the end customer so we can attempt to rectify the problem ahead of the CRD.
The system uses the test results to decide how Openreach progress the order to fulfilment.
For remote activations, after KCI2, when the GTCJ test before provision has been successful, we initiate the circuit activation up to three days before the CAD.
Where the service activation has not been successful (even though the test before provision was successful) an exception will be raised for our DCOE (Diagnostic Centre of Excellence) to review and complete the activation by making sure that the VLAN signal from exchange to premises is set-up correctly. The order is completed with KCI3 at this point and any further failure scenario with the ONT or service in the premises will be resolved as an early life failure after the CP has validated the in-home diagnostic checks with the end customer.
Here is a summary of the remote activation order fulfillment process:
The Openreach systems will review the order requirements and utilised network, this will identify the appropriate engineer and end customer visit journey
If the test before provision failed or we identify the need for an engineer visit to undertake a single to multiport box swap:
When the ‘Decide visit requirement’ process step identifies the requirement for appointments to be reserved in the appointment books then this process block will reserve all the required appointments, including:
To identify the first available appointment slot the systems will follow this logic:
Additionally, in this step, the systems will:
Appointment reservations are valid for 24 hours. If we do not issue the KCI2 before a reservation expires, then the systems will select the next available appointment, based on the rules in the Manage Openreach appointing process above to issue the CCD. CPs should review the committed appointment compared to the ordered appointment date and slot and explicitly confirm to their end customers when the CCD is different to the customer required date (CRD) originally passed on the order.
When the order is cancelled or the appointment reservation has expired, the system will return the slot back to the appointment books to make them available for other orders.
Where the Openreach systems identify that we still need to do some network build to connect the end customer’s property, we’ll plan to do this prior to the end customer appointment date wherever possible so that it’s ready in time. For the GEA-FTTP provision, this more complex type of installation is the KCI2 Assure journey.
This pre-visit activity is typically an un-hosted, unappointed visit. We will need to access the outside of the end customer’s property up to the point where our network connects to the property. During this visit, we will make sure that there are no blockages or issues with the connection between the nearest Openreach network point and that point on the property.
In some cases, the point where our network connects to the property is actually on the inside of the property, for example, if the underground duct comes up in a garage or extension.
No Access on the 1st step of a KCI2 Assure order may occur if the engineer requires access to line plant that is within a customer premises/boundary.
If our engineer has to delay the Step1 task on a KCI2 Assure order due to a No Access issue, we will try to contact the end customer to re-arrange the visit. We will make 3 attempts over 4 days (including evenings).
· If we are able to re-arrange the order will progress. No delay message sent.
· If we are unable to contact the end customer, we will follow the same process as for a Sales Query (see below).
Response code 5197 (Order is delayed as the End User has missed the Appointment) will NOT be sent to ask you to re-appoint the order during the step1 task. There is no change to No Access delays that occur later in the order journey.
Where this occurs as part of the pre-appointment activity, it will be treated the same as a Sales Query. We will work with you to arrange the necessary end customer site access for this pre-work before committing to the final service delivery. This arrangement will take the form of a delay notification with response code 5480 indicating that site details are required:
“Openreach could not provide the service because the end user provided instructions different to those provided by the CP, the installation address was unoccupied, or the premises were not ready. Please contact your customer before returning to Openreach.”
In response to the above delay you should discuss the issue with your end customer (agree new availability) and submit an Amend Request to inform us of the details. You will have 15 calendar days to provide the amendment. When you raise the order amendment, you should use the amend reason, ‘In response to details reqd’. The amendment should be a note about when/how to get site access added to the Special Arrangements Notes or the Site Contact or Access Details fields as necessary.
Please note that when you amend the special arrangements notes or other notes fields: Any existing notes within that tag/field from when you originally placed the order will be overwritten. If the original notes are still required, you will need to re-add them within the Amend Request.
If you do not respond within 15 calendar days, the order will be automatically cancelled with KCI 5818 ‘Order timed out as New Appointment request is not received’ followed by KCI 1519 ‘Order cancellation completed’.
If we re-visit the end customer’s site to undertake the 1st stage of the installation and we have to delay the order for a second time due to the same Sales Query or access issue, we will reject the order with a new response code 8022 (Order rejected due to repeated sales queries or access issues). This will be sent alongside the KCI 501, Order Rejected.
Please note, this only applies to Sales Queries and No Access issues on the Step 1 visit of KCI2 Assure orders and doesn’t impact if these issues occur later in the order journey. Section 7.1.9 refers to sales queries and no access issues that occur later in the journey.
We will not be able to process an order to KCI2 until delays associated with the step1 task are resolved.
The exception to this is if our engineer visits and finds that the network is incomplete and further build is required. In this case we calculate the number of build days required and then send KCI2 with a CCD based on the days required. A further step1 task will then be initiated post-KCI2 once the network build is complete.
Two days prior to the end customer appointment, we will issue an appointment reminder message. Under the View My Engineer capability, CPs may select for this message to be trigged as a message to themselves to onward issue to their end customers, or as a text message that Openreach will issue directly through our systems to the end customer contact listed on the order.
The intention of these reminders is to prompt the end customer to make sure the visit day and timeslot remain acceptable and for them to contact their service provider if the visit needs to be re-arranged. This reminder avoids many costly abortive visits.
You can find more information about the View My Engineer messages that are triggered prior to and on the day of installation in the View My Engineer FAQ document in the How to Guides section of the Help and Support Guides page, here.
We are currently developing an enhanced, AI-managed end customer conversation journey using SMS text messages, to make sure that the end customer is ready for the installation visit. By their nature, these conversations are detailed and beyond the scope of this process description. For example, CPs who opt into these conversational messages may design in an integrated, automated, reappointment interaction if the end customer is unable to keep the originally scheduled appointment. This avoids the end customer having to contact their service provider separately and is a direct transaction, on the CPs behalf, between Openreach and the end customer. If you want to investigate this area further and participate in the FTTP trials of this functionality, speak with your Service Manager who will help put you in touch with the development team.
An engineer will call the end customer on the day of the ONT installation and service activation:
Once on site, before work begins, the engineer will assess the site and discuss the CSP and ONT location with the end customer. When the end customer and engineer have agreed this, installation work will commence.
As part of this conversation, the engineer will determine whether the cabling requirements drive the need for Standard or Premium installation. If you have ordered a standard installation and we are unable to agree a solution with the end customer within the scope of our Standard installation, we will send the job back to you as a Sales query. You can then discuss with the end customer, amend the Site Visit reason to Premium, and reappoint the order to enable us to complete the installation.
If the end customer does not allow us to complete the work, we will further the job with a Sales query and provide notes about what occurred. We will always try to work through any objections and identify a suitable solution. We will only further jobs where we have been unable to reach a suitable agreement within the scope of work you’ve ordered.
The FTTP product description lays out the scope of the various site visit reasons (Standard, Premium, and other site visit reasons) that you can order so that the job can complete successfully.
No Access or Sales Query result in a KCI Delay message being sent and CPs will have 15 days to contact the end customer to resolve the issue and re-appoint the order by placing an order amendment or cancelling the order as appropriate. If no action is taken in this time, the order will automatically be cancelled and a new order will need to be placed, if the issue is resolved, and the service installation is ready to proceed.
No Access types:
If any part of the route is inaccessible, then the job will be marked as incomplete and sent back (furthered). If the access issue was in the network, for example if a vehicle is blocking our access to a footway box in the street, we’ll attempt to resolve the issue and will contact the end customer to reappoint the job. This is not a chargeable Abortive Visit. If the access issue is in the end customer’s premises, for example if we need access to a locked cabinet to access the comms room or end customer/suitable person not present, we’ll expect the end customer to arrange this and will be a chargeable Abortive Visit.
Openreach will attempt this end customer contact three times over a day and a half and, if we’re unable to connect with the end customer, Openreach will send a delay KCI and ask CP to arrange appointment with the end customer.
Please be aware that abortive visit charges (AVCs) will apply for customer no access and sales queries that cannot be resolved on the day. More information can be found in the Time Related Charges product description on the Openreach portal, here.
The Openreach price list also provides useful detail about AVCs, here.
If Openreach have been unable to allocate an engineer on the appointed day, or if we have missed the appointment or failed to complete the work for some other reason, we will issue a KCI delay message. When this occurs, we will keep you updated within the KCI notes until the issue is resolved and a new visit is required to complete the work.
When you are re-appointing a visit due to an Openreach issue, you should use the OR Failed appointment type from where you may find an earlier appointment date than our standard appointment book.
Here is a summary of the key reasons for an Openreach missed event:
• No engineer is available to be allocated to the appointment
• Allocated engineer runs out of time to complete the work on the day (and no alternative resource is available)
• Engineer can’t access network not within customers control
• Engineer can’t safely complete installation at property without additional resources/support (e.g. hoist due to conservatory/flat roof/D-pole/blocked duct)
• Routing of CBT port is not as per order notes (re-route required)
• Re-route on same headend as per order journey
• Re-route to different headend compared to order journey
Expedite / Escalate refers to the ability to request a lead time that is shorter than the standard lead time for the ordered product. The lead time for the appointment date is calculated from the time we receive the amend request.
Expedite refers to amend requests placed with an Amend Reason (AmendReason) of ‘Customer Requested Amend’ or ‘In Response To Customer Delay’ (e.g. following a customer missed appointment).
Escalate refers to amend requests placed with an Amend Reason of ‘In Response To BT Delay’ (e.g. following an Openreach missed appointment).
A CP may not request Expedite and Escalate as part of an order at the point-of-sale and can only arrange these as an amendment to the order.
All of the process steps required for an engineer to pick up work, drive to site, fulfil the tasks allocated and to close the task. This process will also handle task incompletions and resolutions.
On appointed provision orders (where no ONT exists on site), the following activities will take place:
o agree the location of the ONT inside the end customer premises based on the location of the nearest power socket and the length of fibre tail available
o install the FTTP service (ideally within 1m of a mains power socket and no more than 10m from the fibre entry point into the building).
o After providing the network fibre and connection, the engineer will power-up the ONT
o and run a service test on the line from the Exchange to the ONT to prove the Openreach network is working correctly.
o If applicable, the engineer will connect the CP router to the ONT so that the end customer can validate the service is working on one of their devices.
Note – When placing an order, we trust that the end customer has the authority to permit work on site and has all appropriate access arrangements or authority from the landlord of the building. Where it is identified that further, more formal Wayleaves permission is needed to carry out work either leading to or within the end customer premises, this will be requested as part of the job and may lead to delay while this permission is obtained.
Installation of the fibre from the Connectorised Block Terminal (CBT) to the Customer Splice Point (CSP) can happen any time before or after the ONT installation. Openreach usually do this activity before or on the same day as the ONT installation so that the engineer who installs the ONT in the end customer’s home can prove a working FTTP connection during that end customer interaction.
Where possible and practical, we will replace the end customer’s existing copper lead in from the telephone pole to their premises with a fibre only drop wire. We will do this when you have placed a copper to FTTP migration order or included the tag, #removecopper within the notes of a provide order.
When we do this, the end customer’s existing copper services will stop working, so we recommend that it be done with a managed or same-day copper cease activity to avoid faults or continued billing on the defunct copper services.
FTTP Fibre Only Drop-Wire Provision Process (including exception for Copper Restoration)
Openreach will use Fibre Only Drop-Wires (FODW) for FTTP installation and where the CP places an order that indicates that there is no ongoing need for an active copper service (i.e. migration order), the Openreach engineer will remove the existing copper pair drop-wire at the same time. At the point of ordering CPs must confirm that the end customer does not have any equipment that will be incompatible with Voice over IP. They should do this as part of the point of sale customer conversation. If the end customer will need to retain copper, then the CP should reflect this by placing a simple FTTP provision order with no copper cease instruction.
On the Day
The installation engineer will ask the end customer if they have any specific healthcare equipment that could be reliant on a working copper service (e.g. a pendant), if they do not, the engineer will continue to install the FODW. If the end customer DOES have equipment that needs the copper line and if the CP order has provided an instruction to remove the copper drop-wire, then the FTTP installation will be stopped and the order returned to the CP as a Sales Query with notes referring to the healthcare equipment dependency.
If the engineer has any doubt about whether or not the existing copper drop-wire carries an active service, they will leave the copper drop-wire in place to avoid any accidental disconnection.
If the engineer cannot provide service on the day the engineer will re-install a copper dropwire or obtain assistance to do so, to ensure the end customer does not have a total loss of service and to enable active copper service following any systems-driven retention or re-ordering of copper service as described in the copper restoration process.
Copper Restoration Process
Restoring the copper alone will not guarantee service if a copper cease has been ordered.
The engineer will advise the end customer to contact their CP to either stop the cease (where the cease order has not yet been processed) on the copper service or re-order copper service.
To re-order a copper service CPs should follow the Emergency Restoration of Copper (ERoC) process to arrange this. Reference detail for this process is available on the Openreach portal in the WLR Customer Service Plan.
As part of the ERoC process, for swiftest service restoration this copper service re-start order can be expedited by the CP, using the existing expedite process. To ensure that your end customer is not left without service, the engineer will advise the end customer that they must contact you to inform you of the delay. You should then make sure that any related Stand Alone Number Port/Transfer is managed to delay the date of that transaction to align with the revised FTTP KCI3 and the copper cease.
Detailed Fibre Only Drop-Wire provision process and copper restoration exception is covered in the Ultrafast and Superfast Customer Service Plan.
When we are on site, we will try to avoid expensive civils activity. If the end customer is unwilling to accept the solutions we propose, then the order will be delayed while it goes back to our planning department to plan and organise more extensive civils solutions that require additional resources to complete.
Self-dig is optional for CPs and end customers, where new duct provision for fibre service is required, to reduce the amount of ECCs applied to an order. This can be used if required for both FoD and GEA-FTTP orders.
Self-dig will be offered to end customers on the following basis:
High level process overview as part of the L2C order journey:
* Where an end customer fails to complete, or complete within 6 months, then Openreach reserves the right to charge to recover (where not started) or complete (where done but not to specification) and/or remove the self-dig option
Additional information is available in the FTTP process documents section within the FTTP product pages on the Openreach portal (portal account and log-in required).
When it is identified that an installation will require additional, excess construction and approval of eExcess cConstruction cCharges (ECCs), Openreach will inform the CP and request confirmation of acceptance of the ECCs before any installation work proceeds. This allows the CP to discuss / agree with the end customer, if required.
We will tell CPs about any excess construction costs as soon as we identify them. We’ll tell you about them with a Delay KCI and, after KCI2, you will have 30 days to handle the order and raise an order amendment of the ECC banding. If you do not amend the ECC banding in that time, the order will be cancelled and a new order will need to be raised if the costs are ultimately accepted. CPs may then pre-authorise the excess construction cost as part of placing the new order to avoid having to double-handle an ECC delay at the property. See the Agree ECCs section for the process we follow when we identify ECCs prior to KCI2.
Further information on ECCs is available in our Product Services pages.
The scope of chargeable work includes both external and internal work leading to the ONT and is set out in section 4.1.2 of the Openreach Price List.
The customer splice point (CSP) is an external box that enables a safe and robust connection point between the cable that connects to the pole and the end customer’s internal wiring. It allows us to test and repair without necessarily having to go inside the end customer’s premises. This unit does not require power.
Here is a picture of the unit:
In some premises, for example, where the underground duct comes up inside the end customer’s property, this customer splice point will need to be installed inside the customer’s home.
In multiple dwelling units (MDUs), FTTP is typically pre-built to the front door of each unit in the building from where the provision engineer then runs the FTTP into the unit to terminate on an ONT on the day of installation. The customer splice point in an MDU is usually located right above or beside the door of each unit.
We will drill a small hole to install a cable from the external CSP into the house near where the optical network terminator (ONT) is going to be located. The ONT is a wall-mounted, powered device that needs to be within one metre of a power supply. It is the device that converts the light signal into digital signals that the CP router can understand to send the data traffic to and from the end customer’s computers and other devices.
We use equipment from several suppliers and the ONTs that each supply looks slightly different. Here are some examples. They are approximately 13 x 11 x 2.5cm. All the connectors will be plugged into the bottom of the box and there are lights at the top to indicate that it’s powered and working.
After the service has been installed, the engineer will finish any additional installation details based on the scope of the work you have ordered.
The FTTP product description lays out the scope of the various site visit reasons (Standard, Premium, and other site visit reasons) that you can order so that the job can complete successfully.
Inside Out
During the engineer’s order completion procedure, they are required to confirm that they’ve installed the ONT, CSP and external network connection. If there is a problem with the installation, the engineer will prioritise completing the work inside the customer’s property so that the end customer will not need to take a further day off work for a re-visit.
We’ll tell you with a KCI delay message what work remains to be completed and therefore what type of follow-up appointment is required. Depending on the work the engineer completes, you will receive a KCI Delay message as follows:
Once the remaining external work has been complete, we will remotely test to make sure that the service is working and issue the order completion KCI3.
If there is no engineer visit:
We will run a test to make sure that the service has activated successfully. As described in the Activate service step.
Where we have an engineer visit:
Once the engineer has finished, they will initiate the relevant service tests and review the results to ensure a working service before they close the job.
Openreach network and system performs final checks to make sure service is active and updates the relevant Openreach systems and inventory records. Inventory such as eMLC will not display updated information (such as installed ONT) until an overnight run which updates the information from source systems.
When a managed cease activity is not part of the FTTP order, the order orchestration system triggers the order completion KCI3 at the end of the Update Inventory task.
This process block is only used for order types that require a Managed Cease of previous services on the copper pair or fibre. See the Migrations section for more detail..
Where a managed cease is part of the FTTP order, the order completion KCI3 is triggered at the end of the trigger managed cease task.
After we have designed the order connection, we then progress the order to fulfillment, confirming the visit requirements and managing the appointments before sending KCI2.
Key field activities that this process covers:
Survey
Planning after survey
Build and testing of new network
Pre-connection of network path to the end customer
Connection of the service at the end customer’s premises
Definition of Field activity:
Field activity is any work undertaken by an engineer working in and around the end customer’s premises, the Openreach network or the BT exchange.
You can find a summary process flow for order fulfillment in the appendix of this document.