PhD research in social care disrupted due to the delayed Broadband installation - URGENT

[Ignat]

I made a contract with Vodafone for a Superfast 2 Broadband on the 2nd of March 2020 with the 17th of March 2020 as a going live date.

It has been three weeks now and there is no connection yet. 

I talked with four various agents in the meantime - all leading me through the endless and useless procedures - without having the problem resolved.

I am a PhD researcher in social care and I work from home therefore the broadband is absolutely essential. 

Any clues what to do? Thank you.

[stonefences]

It depends whether an engineer needs to access your property or not. Some installations can be done at the exchange, while others require an engineer to visit your home.

If a home visit is required, you could be waiting quite a while, as Openreach have cancelled all home visits due to the current health crisis. (I've a friend who works for them, which is how I know this). Unfortunately, Vodafone are not allowed to used their own engineers, due to the current monopoly that Openreach enjoy right now. Vodafone agents cannot always see whether a home visit is required, as that information is not always shared from Openreach

If this is the case, the only option will be a Mobile Broadband device or something similar as a temporary measure. 

Hope you get sorted soon!

[aprilthemoo]

There's not going to be any new broadband installations for the entire OpenReach network until at least the 1st June. You might be lucky that an actual engineers visit isn't required. If an engineer visit is required, this won't happen until at least after that date.

You'll probably want to buy a 4G dongle, or bug Vodafone and see if they'd be willing to provide you one whilst you wait.

[Mark]

Hi @Ignat, the information provided by @aprilthemoo & @stonefences is spot on, Openreach have cancelled all home visits and will rearrange these as soon as the current lockdown's been lifted. If you currently have a mobile service with us, pop us a private message through Facebook or Twitter and we'll take a look into the options available to you. If you can include a link to this thread, it'll avoid you having to repeat yourself 😊

[Mark]

Hi again @Ignat, Just an idea, but if you already have a mobile service with us, pop into the Very Me section of your My Vodafone app and take advantage of the FREE unlimited data offer we're currently running. This will give you unlimited mobile data for the next 30 days! You could use this to tether a laptop and get through all that research 💪