'Unacceptable' internet outage leaves Sheffield people cut off for six days over Christmas

Lots of houses in Crosspool and other parts of the S10 postcode area of Sheffield have reported having no internet connection and the problem has impacted a variety of service providers, meaning the issue is with the Openreach network itself.

The connection reportedly went down on Christmas Eve, and has still not been fixed.

One customer has been told by Openreach that an engineer will not be able to fix it until December 30 – five days after the problem began.

And with many forced to stay at home during Christmas due to the Covid pandemic and tiered lockdown restrictions, the internet was their main way of staying in touch with family members.

Speaking to The Star a Crosspool resident said: “There are people who were relying on the internet to stay in touch with family members, including vulnerable people.

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"We reported it around 1pm on Christmas Eve and were told an engineer would be out and would fix it by December 30. Six days after the problem started.

"Not everybody has a mobile phone with unlimited data, and not everybody can afford an extra £25 to pay for more data over the Christmas period.

"I think letting people go six days without internet when they are in Tier 3 is unacceptable.

"For some people, six days without internet at the end of this year might be too much.

"It might not seem like a massive problem in the scheme of things, but for some people’s mental health this is massive.

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"Openreach should be going the extra mile and getting out and fixing this as soon as it was reported.”

S10 residents using BT Broadband, Plusnet and Virgin have all reported outages since Christmas Eve. It is not yet known exactly how many houses have been impacted.

Openrech has confirmed that engineers are now on site and are working on the issue as of December 28.

An Openreach spokesperson said, “Our engineers are working hard to fix a broadband outage in the S10 area of Sheffield. They are on site today and will restore service as quickly as possible.

"We understand how frustrating this must be for anyone is affected; we encourage anyone experiencing any disruption with their phone or broadband service to report it to their service provider who will then inform us”.