As the coronavirus pandemic comes under control in the UK, companies across the country are re-opening for business. Those that have been functioning with skeletal staff, are beginning to operate with a fuller workforce. And businesses that require a physical presence, such as moving companies and construction companies, are now allowed to visit sites.
BT Openreach is one of these companies. They will start ‘attempting to complete’ fibre orders for customers from the 14th of May onwards. This is great news for anyone that had their installation delayed due to lockdown, and for those companies that want to upgrade their connectivity in time for everyone’s return to the office. Because many employees have become use to working in cloud versions of their favourite applications, companies are expected to need more connectivity as they come back to the office.For business owners that aren’t that keen on the idea of upgrading a connection for what may be an empty office for sometime, Openreach are offering a deferred activation date for 100MB or 1GB fibre circuits. The circuit would be installed and then disabled for 90 days or until the business is ready to start using it (whichever is earlier). No rental or connection fee would be payable for the first 90 days. It isn’t just fibre that seems to be available either. VTSL has recently placed some orders for analogue line installs, and these have been appointed within a week. Previously, Openreach had said they would not be making site visits for non critical infrastructure until after June 1st, but it would seem they are able to now. There are many areas of our lives that will take a very long time to get back to normal – flights and holidays to name a couple – but if Openreach is any indicator, we think telecoms will be back on its feet before you know it.