Product Process descriptions

CPs can refer to the T2R Portal User Guide for hints and tips on solutions to issues that may be resolvable without an engineer visit.

You’ll need to obtain the end customer’s service ID (OGEA reference) to initiate the service test.  You’ll also want to confirm with the end customer that if their service is working (albeit perhaps slower than they are happy with), a service test is a disruptive test and may cause their service to be restarted.  If they are on a digital voice call with you through their router, the telephone call may cut off as the Openreach service test is running.

To help with diagnosing where the problem lies, we have some basic structured questions to check with the end customer before submitting a fault report.

The questions:

1. Is the ONT switched on and connected?
2. Is the fault a connection or a performance issue?
3. Is the problem intermittent?  If yes, please provide the relevant details about when it occurs and what else is happening at the same time it occurs.
4. Is it a problem with the Battery Backup Unit / Batteries?  This, of course, will only be relevant if the end customer happens to still have an Openreach-supplied BBU which was withdrawn from new supply in early 2020, however, this question might prompt an alternative about any CP-supplied Universal Power Supply.
5. Is the problem related to damage to the ONT or wiring?  If so, confirm the nature of the damage.

During the end customer conversation, while diagnosing a connectivity issue, it is smart to ask about the condition of the lights on the ONT.  And to re-boot the ONT if there are any error conditions.  The Openreach Supplier Information Note 506 contains the light behaviour for each of the ONTs in the Openreach network.

In general, it is advisable to re-boot the ONT if there is a red LED, either solid or flashing.  Green or Orange flashing or solid LEDs all indicate normal operation and do not require a re-boot.  A re-boot is performed by powering off the ONT using the power button or switching off at the mains, waiting for 10 seconds for the device to fully power down and disconnect from the network, and then powering back on again.

If the end customer is using a telephone connected to the digital voice connection on the CP router, then it is unlikely that a connectivity issue exists on the ONT.  If you attempt an ONT re-boot in this scenario, the end customer’s digital voice call is likely to be disconnected.

There are two key ways to reboot the ONT depending on whether or not the device includes a power button.  The power button is positioned on the bottom of the ONT, next to the sockets where the cords are attached to the device.  Simply press this button to power down the device.  Wait 10 seconds to allow the device to fully power down and disconnect from the network, then press the button again to switch back on.  The ONT lights should come back to green / green flashing status if the ONT has successfully re-established its connection to the network after a minute or so.  The CP router may then take a few seconds more to re-establish its connection after the ONT has re-booted.

If your end customer happens to have an older ONT that doesn’t have a power button, they can restart the ONT by unplugging the power cable from the device, or switching it off at the mains, waiting 10 seconds and then plugging the power back in, or switching it back on at the mains.

We do not recommend that the end customer power-cycles the ONT regularly or frequently, for example by turning it off when not in use.  Doing so may impact the proactive monitoring functions of the GEA-FTTP service.

If your end customer has a multiport ONT installed with more than one CP router plugged into it.  It is smart to make sure that they have not inadvertently plugged the wrong router into the wrong port.  This could most likely occur if they’ve momentarily unplugged the routers to reposition them, for example if they were tidying up the wires.

When you run through the service test and trouble report journey on the Openreach portal, you will be asked to enter the end customer’s contact details and site access details before reviewing the service test results.  

Note that you should select email or KCI in the Acknowledgement preference field if you wish to receive proactive notifications as the fault report progresses.  The Portal option is primarily for test purposes and only displays the relevant KCI notifications within the fault-tracking screen.  We don’t recommend this option for general operation.

In July 2022, Openreach launched the Openreach Speed Test which is included as part of the GEA Service Test. This Openreach Speed Test isolates anything outside of the Openreach network and can be used to determine the actual speed of the service between the Layer 2 Switch (L2S) in the exchange and the Optical Network Termination (ONT) in the end customer premises. The Openreach Speed Test is for use where an end customer reports a concern about the speed of the service they are receiving, but there are no apparent issues on the Openreach network following a Service Test being completed. The Openreach Speed Test can help identify if the end customers speed issue is in the premises and could be resolved without the need to send an Openreach engineer.

The Openreach Speed Test is available through the GEA Service Test (via B2B, Portal and Siebel/Sabor) and may be used when a CP sets the intrusion consent flag on the GEA Service Test to Y and the GEA Service Test returns a main fault location of OK and a Service Test Outcome code of 0000.

The Openreach Speed Test is invasive and will temporarily point the end customer service to itself, whilst it carries out a Downstream and Upstream Speed Test. If the end customer is using the FTTP service to contact the CP, the CP must ensure that they maintain communications with the end customer via another means whilst the Openreach speed test is running.

Once complete, the Speed Test will return the end customer service back to the CP, check for connectivity and return a Downstream and Upstream speed value to the CP.

Due to the invasive nature of the Speed Test, CPs shall only use the Speed Test when an end customer contacts the CP with a speed issue and the Service Test has returned a main fault location of OK and Service Test Outcome Code 0000. Failure to adhere to this will result in unnecessary impact on end customer service.

CPs shall not proactively run the Openreach Speed Test on end customer’s FTTP lines. The Service and Speed Tests shall only be run as a result of the End Customer reporting an issue to their CP.

After you have entered the end customer and site details, you will be prompted to review the service test result:

You should proceed to raise a fault (trouble report) if the Fault report advice field is set to ‘Y’ for Yes.  The MFL (Main fault location) field may give you some insight into where the fault is along the route to the end customer.  If the problem appears to be with the ONT or the network near to the end customer’s premises, we’ll also indicate whether we require a hosted/appointed visit to investigate the issue further with a ‘Y’ in the Appointment required field.

Here is a summary of the main fault locations:

If this service ID is on a part of the network that is impacted by an incident that our proactive monitoring team are investigating / fixing, you’ll receive an indication of that from the “Open GEA Proactive faults” field.

If the service test does not advise reporting a fault, but you and the customer still have a problem that you expect is in Openreach’s domain and remit to resolve, you may still proceed to raise a fault. There may be a charge for our handling of such a fault if we find that there is no issue in the Openreach network.  Our engineers are unable to diagnose and resolve connectivity issues between your router and the customer’s devices.