BT Broadband Provision: Local Businesses

Gordon Henderson Excerpts

Thursday 10th March 2016 Westminster Hall

[Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman) on securing the debate. She highlighted an issue of concern to a number of businesses in my constituency. She is right, and there will be a sense of déjà vu, because she could have written my speech for me. As she said, the way in which BT treats its customers sometimes borders on the farcical, to the extent that I sometimes wonder how it survives. To demonstrate my point, I will highlight one case in which I have been involved for many months.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

My hon. Friend asks how BT survives. Does he agree that it does so by having a virtual monopoly? There is no real competition out there, especially in rural areas, so it can treat its customers abysmally.

[Gordon Henderson]

I could not agree more. My hon. Friend is perfectly right, but even monopolies come a cropper eventually if they do not provide a service.

In my constituency I have a family-run company called Bennett Opie, which manufactures and supplies to the retail trade a range of pickles and preserves. If any hon. Member here likes pickled walnuts, no doubt they will have tried one of Bennett Opie’s products, because it is the only company in this country that makes pickled walnuts. Bennett Opie has two sites in Sittingbourne and, as in the example that the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland raised, it wanted to link those sites with an internal computer network. On 21 January 2015, it approached BT to find out the cost of installing a short -haul data services circuit—we both now know what one of those is.

Bennett Opie provided BT with the addresses of its two sites on 26 January 2015, and on 4 February it signed an agreement with BT. It was confirmed on 6 March that a survey for the work had been completed—all was going swimmingly for Bennett Opie. The company was then advised on 9 March that additional civil engineering work was needed at the first site. Bennett Opie signed a contract for that additional work on 13 March, because it was happy to pay. BT confirmed on 19 March that the civil works had been completed and advised of an end of May move between the two sites.

The broadband line was scheduled for installation at the first site on 25 March, but the installation failed. A month later, on 20 April, the broadband line was finally installed successfully at the first site. The full SHDS circuit was predicted to be installed on 22 May, but it failed. The end fibre at the second site was successfully terminated and tested on 26 May, and two days later, on 28 May, the end fibre at the first site was terminated and tested, but it failed. The full completion of the SHDS circuit was due on 29 May, but it failed and a fast track was applied to the order—Bennett Opie hoped that that would speed things up.

The list goes on and on, so I will pick out one or two more events from the subsequent period. BT notified Bennett Opie on 19 August that civil works, which were due to be completed, would be completed by the end of November, extending the installation almost to the end of 2015. On 14 September, BT advised Bennett Opie that plans for the works drawn up from the August site meeting had been submitted to Kent County Council with no response. Kent highways department, on behalf of Kent County Council, confirmed on 21 September that BT had not supplied it with drawings or plans. On 2 October, Kent highways confirmed misinformation and failings by BT relating to the location of works, the status of permits and the time needed for traffic management. In addition, Kent highways advised that the civil works had been rescheduled for 4 November.

On 18 November, BT provided a revised completion date of 27 November and provided details of the permit reference number for the works. Kent highways confirmed on 20 November that the permit number given to Bennett Opie by BT was for the civil works cancelled on 4 November and that BT had not applied for a replacement permit—I could not make this up.

I will skip a few entries. BT confirmed on 8 December that rod and rope engineers were on site and estimated that the tubing work would be completed by close of play that day—whoopee. On 9 December, BT confirmed that engineers were still working on the rod and rope task and that completion was expected that day. BT told Bennett Opie on 15 December that it could not complete the rod and rope task because traffic management was needed in order to access a manhole.

On 17 December, BT gave a traffic management survey date of 21 December, and on 22 December it provided Bennett Opie with details of four permit numbers for the job and confirmed that it would now take place on 18 January 2016, a year after the original agreement.

On 4 January, BT told Bennett Opie that Kent highways required night work to be done on the permit numbers quoted and that the work would slip to 8 February. Bennett Opie, quite understandably, contacted Kent highways, which confirmed that the permit numbers provided were wrong—two of them related to work due to take place in Brighton, which is some way from Sittingbourne, one did not exist on its system and the last was an incomplete number. On 18 January, workmen were observed working at night on the pavement outside the first site with a large reel of plastic tubing. Despite BT’s claim that two-way traffic signals were needed, the van simply parked on the pathway, a “keep right” sign was erected and a small barrier was put around the manhole. No other traffic management was used.

When Bennett Opie contacted Kent highways on 19 January, it confirmed that BT had requested full traffic light control; that the fibre tubing job was completed and ready for the fibre to be blown; that BT could have proceeded faster with the work due to the lack of traffic management actually needed or used; and that night work would not have been prevented during December, so the work could have been done then.

That comedy of errors is symptomatic of the way in which BT treats business customers, but of course it is no laughing matter for companies such as Bennett Opie, which lost business because of BT’s inefficiency. The good news is that Bennett Opie now has a working connection, 15 months after it signed its agreement with BT. As its chairman, Philip Opie, told me, the Great Eastern laid a transatlantic cable in 1865, and it took just one month. So much for the age of technology.