People ring me thinking I am Openreach. People ring Openreach thinking they're getting someone like me. Neither understands what the other actually does. Here's the version nobody tells you.
Who Openreach actually is
Openreach is the BT Group division that owns and maintains the physical infrastructure — every pole, every cabinet, every metre of cable between your house and the exchange. They don't sell anything to consumers. You can't ring them. You can't book them. They only work through your service provider.
If your line is dead, you ring Sky (or BT, or TalkTalk, or whoever sells you broadband). Sky raises a fault ticket with Openreach. Openreach books an engineer slot, usually 3 to 10 working days later. The engineer turns up, fixes anything on Openreach's side, and leaves.
The catch is the scope. Openreach is responsible for everything up to and including the master socket on your wall. That's it. Anything past the master socket — extension wiring, your router, your WiFi, the bell wire to the upstairs phone — is not their problem.
The "demarcation point"
Every UK phone line has a fixed boundary called the demarcation point, or "demarc." For a standard residential line, the demarc is the front face of the master socket (NTE5 or NTE5c). Anything on the wall side of that — the dropwire from the pole, the underground cable to the cabinet, the cabinet itself, everything in between — is Openreach. Anything plugged into the front of the master socket is yours.
This sounds pedantic until you have a fault. "Crackly phone" can be caused by something on either side. If the problem is in the dropwire (Openreach), they handle it under your ISP contract. If it's in your internal extension wiring (you), they won't touch it. You'll get a "no fault found" report on your account.
Mrs Okonkwo in Lewisham had a crackly phone — worse when it rained. She reported it to BT three times. Each time the line "tested fine from the exchange." Which it did, because exchange-end tests measure the line at low frequency. The fault was a perished rubber seal on the BT junction box outside her house, letting rainwater into the IDC terminals, causing high-frequency noise that didn't show on exchange tests.
That's the Openreach side. They should have fixed it. They didn't, because their automated test said "no fault." She'd been struggling for months when she rang me. Twenty minutes with a tone generator and I had the bad junction box. Ninety minutes to replace it and re-terminate cleanly. Job done.
Strictly, I was working on Openreach's kit. In a perfect world, BT would have fixed this under her line contract. In the world that actually exists, it would have been another three weeks. Sometimes the right call is to get a private engineer in and have your phone working today.
What Openreach does brilliantly
Three things they're better-placed than anyone to do:
Cabinet, pole and exchange-side faults. If a cabinet card is dead, a pole has been hit, or the trunk cable to your street has water ingress — that's Openreach. No private engineer can or should touch the trunk infrastructure.
Provisioning new lines. Getting a new line installed where none existed before — running a fresh drop-wire from a pole, terminating it at a new master socket on your wall — is an Openreach job, usually via your chosen provider's "new line" order.
Fixes on their side. If your line is faulty and the fault is on their side of the master socket, they fix it under the standard ISP contract. You don't deal with Openreach directly; the provider handles it. As long as you can wait 3-10 days, this is the route to take.
What Openreach won't touch
Anything past the front face of the master socket. The list, in case it's useful:
- Phone extension wiring inside your property
- Master socket relocation, replacement, or move
- Any internal cabling — bell wire, Cat5e, Cat6, alarm cable, intercom cable
- Your router (even one supplied by BT)
- Anything WiFi-related — coverage, mesh, access points
- Data cabling for ethernet, CCTV, smart home
- Fibre optic on your premises (post-ONT)
- Block-wiring jobs in apartment buildings (the riser cupboard is "private")
- Anything urgent (their service level isn't built for "today")
That whole list is private-engineer work.
When to ring Openreach (via your provider)
- Your line is completely dead and has been for more than an hour.
- Your broadband is showing as "no sync" or "sync trained" at very low speeds (under 5Mbps on a line meant to do 40+).
- The drop-wire from the pole to your house is visibly broken, hanging down, or missing.
- You need a new phone line installed where none exists.
- You're moving house and need to take a number to the new address.
In all those cases: ring your provider. They raise the ticket. You wait.
When to ring a private engineer
- You've already had Openreach out and the line "tests fine" but your phone or broadband still doesn't work properly. (Usually internal wiring.)
- You want the master socket moved.
- You want broadband/data run to a different room.
- You've got slow broadband and you want to know why now, not in a fortnight.
- You need WiFi coverage extended, mesh installed, or hardwired access points.
- You're getting noisy line and you've narrowed it to inside the property.
- Anything in the commercial/managing-agent space — block wiring, office fit-out, riser cupboard work.
- Anything urgent. We can usually be there same day.
Pat in Bermondsey is the case I always come back to. Retired, lives alone, careline pendant. Her line went dead on a Friday night when the dropwire from the pole snapped in high winds.
Strictly an Openreach job. They'd have handled it under her line contract, in four or five working days. Pat couldn't wait four or five working days — her pendant only works if the line is live, and she'd had a fall the year before.
Her daughter rang me on Saturday morning. I jury-rigged a temporary connection on the surviving pair in the dropwire (you can do this on a copper line if you know what you're doing and the cable hasn't been completely severed), got her careline talking again, then reported the broken dropwire to Openreach for proper replacement the following week.
Some jobs you handle differently to the others. That was one of them.
Speed vs scope
If the fault is on Openreach's side and you can wait, going through your provider is the right route. You ring your ISP, they raise it, Openreach attend within their service level. Just wait the 3-10 working days.
If you can't wait, or the fault is on your side, that's where a private engineer comes in. The work is the same quality — most independent engineers were trained at BT/Openreach originally. We just have lower overheads (no call centre, no dispatch infrastructure, no compliance department) and we work to today, not next week.
For your specific job, ring me on 020 3633 1131.
The honest summary
If the fault is on Openreach's side of the master socket and you can wait — let them do it. That's their job and they should fix it under your ISP contract. If the fault is on your side, or you can't wait, that's where we come in.
If you're not sure which side the fault is on, ring me. Two minutes describing the symptoms is usually enough for me to tell you whether it's "Openreach, wait it out" or "I can be there this afternoon."
Common questions
Can I hire an Openreach engineer directly?
No. Openreach only works through your service provider. You ring Sky/BT/TalkTalk, they raise an Openreach ticket, Openreach assigns an engineer. You can't pay Openreach to come round directly.
Will using a private engineer void my line warranty?
No, provided we don't touch the Openreach side of the master socket. Everything inside the front of the NTE5c is your property and any qualified engineer can work on it.
How long do Openreach take?
Residential SLA is currently 3–10 working days for a normal fault. London bookings typically land at 5–7 days. Same-day slots effectively don't exist for residential.
Are Openreach engineers better trained than independent ones?
No. Most independents (including me) were trained at BT/Openreach originally. Same kit, same skills. The difference is scope — they only work to the demarc, we work on whatever you agree with us.
Not sure which side the fault is on?
Ring me with your symptoms — crackly line, slow broadband, no dial tone, whatever it is. I'll tell you straight whether it's an Openreach job you can wait for, or a private one you want sorting today.