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The boss UK broadband ISP Andrews & Arnold (AAISP), Adrian Kennard, has tabled an interesting argument for why the charges still being levelled against them by BT Wholesale and Openreach for Special Faults Investigations (SFI) on hybrid fibre SOGEA (FTTC) and full fibre (FTTP) lines should “not exist any more“.
The SFI service is a chargeable engineering visit that is usually requested by your broadband provider when you report a persistent broadband or line issue, but where standard remote tests do not automatically detect a clear fault. Such issues were much more common on older copper line based broadband and phone services, which could be caused by all sorts of unusual faults (external electrical interference, line corrosion, problems caused by extension wiring etc.)
In theory, Openreach should be responsible for fixing any broadband faults that exist within their own realm at their own cost, which reflects most of the fixed line network that runs up to the ONT (optical modem) or NTE5 (Master) socket in your home (excluding extension wiring). But it’s not always that simple.