BB outage on Thursday

From	Davey <davey@example.invalid>
Newsgroups	uk.telecom.broadband
Subject	BB outage on Thursday
Date	2026-06-27 09:38 +0100
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<111o273$14etc$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)

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At mid-day Thursday, my Zen Broadband went off. Checking the Fritz!Box,
it said that it was talking to Rochdale, Zen's HQ, but could not access
the Internet. This also meant that I had no 'phone service, and my home
security system could not alert the command centre if there was an
alarm, either intrusion or fire.
During the afternoon, I checked occasionally, at one time trying to
call home from my mobile. It reported no response, but suggested I send
a Text message, which I did out of curiosity, to see what happened.
I called the Zen Technical Support number, but only got a recorded
message saying saying that there were multiple problems with the
system. Zen uses the BT Openreach network, and so I asked a couple of
neighbours, who I know use BT, and they reported full function
available.
On my return from the pub that evening, I had Broadband again, so I had
a short late-night e-mail session, and then went to bed.

On Friday, I contacted Zen, by Chat, and after getting little success
from the welcoming 'bot, I managed to Chat to a person. He confirmed
the times of the stop and start of the outage, but could find no
definitive reason other than the Openreach network having a fault,
probably heat related.

As it happened, it was not a problem for me, this time, but it
highlights the danger of only having 'Digital Voice' telephone service.
A UPS would have been of no help whatsoever. I do not need a 'phone
connection for a medical emergency (I hope), but my home alarm system
was rendered incommunicado, which could be pretty much the same thing.
My mobile network is not bad here, but I am surrounded by not-spots.
Some visitors have trouble, depending on their network.

Soon after I had concluded my Chat with Zen, late morning on Friday,
the previous day's Text message from my mobile arrived. It was in the
blasted 'spoken' form, rather than being the Text that it had been sent
as. But it did get to me, nine or ten hours after Broadband was
restored. How does the spoken form translate characters?

-- 
Davey.

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Thread

BB outage on Thursday Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2026-06-27 09:38 +0100
  Re: BB outage on Thursday Graham J <nobody@nowhere.co.uk> - 2026-06-27 10:34 +0100
    Re: BB outage on Thursday Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> - 2026-06-27 09:43 +0000
    Re: BB outage on Thursday Davey <davey@example.invalid> - 2026-06-27 11:03 +0100
    Re: BB outage on Thursday David Wade <g4ugm@dave.invalid> - 2026-06-27 11:42 +0100
      Re: BB outage on Thursday Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-06-27 12:07 +0100
        Re: BB outage on Thursday David Wade <dave@g4ugm.invalid> - 2026-06-27 15:49 +0100
        Re: BB outage on Thursday Graham J <nobody@nowhere.co.uk> - 2026-06-27 21:44 +0100
      Re: BB outage on Thursday Peter Johnson <peter@parksidewood.nospam> - 2026-06-27 20:57 +0100
        Re: BB outage on Thursday Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-06-27 21:12 +0100
      Re: BB outage on Thursday "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2026-06-27 21:41 +0100
        Re: BB outage on Thursday JMB99 <mb@nospam.net> - 2026-06-29 10:22 +0100
          Re: BB outage on Thursday David Wade <g4ugm@dave.invalid> - 2026-06-29 12:50 +0100
            Re: BB outage on Thursday "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2026-06-29 17:23 +0100
              Re: BB outage on Thursday David Wade <g4ugm@dave.invalid> - 2026-06-29 17:42 +0100
                Re: BB outage on Thursday "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2026-06-29 18:16 +0100
                Re: BB outage on Thursday David Wade <g4ugm@dave.invalid> - 2026-06-29 21:43 +0100

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