topic Our copper is out so no emergency indoor calls possible since we can't get adequate mobile cover in Home Phone

Our copper is out so no emergency indoor calls possible since we can't get adequate mobile cover

Anttut1 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 12:51:16 GMT

On Saturday 21st September or possibly Friday 20th, the copper cable supporting several buildings on our road appears to have been brought down by a tree/branches.

I saw a BT man tidying up and making everything safe on the 21st mid afternoon. He said another team would come to repair the line.

I reported this to TalkTalk via the text typing line on Monday 23rd. An acknowledgement text from BT turned up.

According to TT information there should have been texts from BT before someone turned up. But there was just a call on Thursday 26th from a BT man parked in the next road along wanting directions.

He told me that the TT information alerted BT to provide an engineer devoted to helping a single property, not to deal with a downed multi user line.

He had also discovered that the original engineer had not filed a report on the need for a survey team to turn up prior to a repair team. The engineer said he would do this.

Today September 30th we have no copper landline. We would like it back A.S.A.P

If we have a power cut our fibre connection will go down making Smartphone V.O.I wifi calling impossible'

We get quite a few power cuts since power is delivered by overhead cables and we have lots of trees around here. According to UK Power Networks we have had 30 power cuts since mid 2018. Some have lasted 11 hours. One pre 2018 power cut lasted 3 days .

According to Oftel as elderly (70+) people we are considered vulnerable and should always be able to make indoor 999 calls and ISPS are obliged to check our status and support us.

I gather you can provide battery back ups and it seem that when we are finally deprived of copper will will need this. But how can the one hour battery pack be adequate?

For instance we go to bed at 23.00 and the power goes out at midnight. How long does the router keep on using battery power before all is gone. Say our emergency happens at 6.00, will we be able to make a wifi call?

So in addition to getting our copper line back we would like lots of information on how you intend to support us for indoor emergence calls.

I took a photo of one dual sim phone and two single sim phones. Between them they have sims for Vodafone, Three, EE, and O2.

You will see that all the phones showed no signal

Re: Our copper is out so no emergency indoor calls possible since we can't get adequate mobile cover

Karl-TalkTalk — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 13:06:00 GMT

Really sorry to hear this. If many lines in your area have been affected, Openreach will try to repair them all however this may involve heavy equipment or pole replacements and may take longer than normal.

We will look into this for you and see what can be done from here to prioritise your case.

Please can you add the home phone number or account number to your 'Community Profile' so we can locate your details on our system.

Please do not post this info publicly.

Thanks

Karl.

Re: Our copper is out so no emergency indoor calls possible since we can't get adequate mobile cover

Gliwmaeden2 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 13:43:30 GMT

@Anttut1,

The battery back up solutions are for as and when you might have Full Fibre installed.

Also check that Talktalk has a record of any accessibility issues, as this may not be recorded automatically:

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/TalkTalk-Accessibility/ct-p/talktalk-accessibility

Re: Our copper is out so no emergency indoor calls possible since we can't get adequate mobile cover

Anttut1 — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 14:53:34 GMT

Thanks for your reply

Under accessibility in my account nothing in the accessibility section was helpful. All I could put in was "yes" and "rather not say".

In the TT vulnerability policy PDF age is mentioned, but no option in my account to say because we are elderly we might need help. In our instance in a power cut with no mobiles to help with indoor 999.

Re: Our copper is out so no emergency indoor calls possible since we can't get adequate mobile cover

Chris-TalkTalk — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 06:30:56 GMT

Hi Anttut1,

This is still in hand with Openreach, it looks as though they are having to arrange traffic control measures before they can complete the repair. I've sent you a PM to confirm some details

Chris