Something, presumably a RWD BMW with low-profile summer tyres, has collided with the telecoms cabinet across the road at some point overnight. I'm reasonably sure our phoneline doesn't go through that one, which is just as well, as it's now leaning over at a 45° angle.
A work colleague had something similar happen, knocking out his broadband service. Reporting this to BT on his mobile, he was threatened with various punitive charges, should the fault be with his equipment rather than theirs - as he looked out the window at a felled cabinet
Indeed, reversing a vehicle into a cabinet or pole is an established ha-ha-only-serious suggestion for persuading our-favourite-telco to deal with persistent line faults.
Ah, my favourite soapbox. The following will be carefully worded because it’s something I have to approach somewhat obliquely even though it is one of my biggest bug bears of utility privatisation.
BT consumer, who you report your faults too, are a communications retailer, and like other communications retailers we are NOT allowed to talk to Openreach. It’s cost millions of pounds and years of my life to separate the processes and systems set up in the name of effectiveness and efficiency all in the name of <fx:
DEEP VOICE> "consumer choice". Like all utility privatisations, the splitting off of the physical disruption layer of the infrastructure to allow multiple
shyster service provider organisations is completely counter productive and works against quality of service and service provision security. It does however allow
FRIENDS OF THE GOVERNMENT to enter the utilities market where it is most profitable and with little investment. Service is further reduced when
The City "experts" weigh in and tell the operation companies how to run their organisations, because as you know a city boy knows more about running any given business than those with time and experience doing so. This leads to that other favourite money making scam of the
FRIENDS OF THE GOVERNMENT, outsourcing. Once a business has reduced its numbers to
city friendly levels there are inveribslly not enough people to actually do the work, so the company concerned has to get more bodies in. These extra bodies are bough in at the cheapest price offered, which will likely be more than it would cost the company to employ them properly, but it’s from a different part of the balance sheet so the city remain happy, but the bodies themselves will be paid less and have worse employment conditions than the main employees. Of course the outsourcing company have no vested interest in the effective running of the purchasing company, and so they squeeze their employees mercilessly to maximise their profits. The bought in bodies have neither the time nor the interest to do a good job, nor in most cases a safe job either.
Meanwhile, the retail provider happily blames Openreach for all your woes, while screaming about the cost of access, we’ll all the retail providers bar one, as we are categorically told NOT to blame Openreach.
Utilities are natural monopolies and in most cases are vital to the health and wellbeing of the country, running any of them in a fractured model for profit while imposing regulation on the whole "to promote competition" is wasteful, expensive and ineffective.
</rant>
Sorry, something I feel passionate about.