Operating safely during the pandemic

Operating safely during the pandemic.

Now, more than ever, the country is reliant on fixed line and mobile communications networks. Telecommunications has therefore been included as one of the critical sectors in new government regulations and legislation in response to dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak.

Works involving network maintenance and fault repairs, customer repairs, network build, and increasing network capacity should be allowed to continue. Gatherings of more than two people are permitted where this is essential for work purposes. [UK Government Dec 2020]

On 11 January, the Business Secretary stated that “firms and tradespeople in the construction sector and its supply chain, including merchants, suppliers and product manufacturers, should continue to operate during this national lockdown”.

Throughout the pandemic, the safety of the public, our customers and our teams remains of paramount importance to us. We have taken steps to ensure we can continue to operate safely following Government guidelines and health and safety advice at all times - on the street, on the doorstep and inside your homes.

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Door Knocking

Our Community Engagers will be visiting people’s homes to provide updates on our broadband installation, particularly when the network is tested and ready to connect.

• Our team will remain outside your home, and stay 2-3 meters away from the door.
• Our team will always wear masks.
• They will sanitise their hands before and after touching your doorbell / knocker.
• They will remain contactless – they will not share pens, shake your hand or ask you to touch an iPad during their visit.
• If you are self isolating / shielding, they will leave immediately.

We are happy to take your phone number and continue the conversation later by phone to keep face-to-face conversations to a minimum.

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Installations

Where it is necessary for you to work in other people's homes you can do so. [UK Government Dec 2020]

• Our installation team will always wear masks when inside your property.
• Time spent inside will be kept to an absolute minimum.
• Our customers must also wear a mask at all times when our installation team is inside the property.
• Government advice states that ‘If you meet people you do not live with indoors, such as someone working in your home, you should make sure you let as much fresh air in as you can without getting uncomfortably cold (for example by opening windows).’
• Please ensure that internal doors are open, so our team can operate a ‘contactless’ installation.
• The team will sanitise any equipment before bringing it into your home, and re-sanitise any items left in your home as part of the installation.

To increase the flow of air you can:

• open windows as much as possible
• open doors
• make sure that any vents (for example at the top of a window) are open and airflow is not blocked
• leave extractor fans (for example in bathrooms) running for longer than usual with the door closed after someone has used the room.

If you or anyone in your property has COVID-19 symptoms, is waiting for a COVID-19 test result, is in a high risk group, or has been asked to self isolate by ‘track and trace’, you must reschedule your installation.

Please note that Customers are to ensure either themselves, or an authorised person over the age of 18 is present during the installation. Authority is required for the cable routing and modem positioning.

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Installation Day

1. Your Engineer checks and logs their temperature at the start of the day to ensure no fever is present and there are no flu-like symptoms.

2. Your Engineer comes prepared with all the appropriate personal protective equipment, including mask and hand sanitiser.

3. You will receive a call in the morning confirming your appointment and giving an expected time of arrival.

4. Your Engineer will show you their ID and introduce themselves.

5. Questions the install engineer will ask you:

     a. Where would you like the modem and Wi-Fi router to be located;

     b. Which areas in your home you currently use the Wi-Fi.

6. The Engineer will then look to discuss and agree with you:

     a. The cable routing from the LF fibre pot to your home;

     b. No work will be undertaken without agreement.

7. Whilst the Engineer will advise on the most practical and economical route, if at any stage there are non-standard install elements, due to either customer direction or practicalities, then the customer will need to agree additional charges before the installation takes place. Non-standard install elements are:

     a. Additional hard dig (paving/mono block/slabs/tarmac/concrete) greater than standard 5m allowance;

     b. Additional soft dig greater than the standard 50m allowance;

     c. Internal cabling greater than the standard 3m from the entry point allowance to the modem.;External fibre cable entry point on the 3rd floor or higher (i.e. GL, 1st, 2nd).

8. Once the Fibre routing and equipment location’s agreed, the installation can start and, in most cases, will take around 2 hours to complete.

9. Once you’re fully fibred up and installed, the Lightning Fibre network team will get to work activating your service.

10. Now you're live! Now the Engineer will perform testing to confirm you're getting the correct speeds and walk you through your setup including Wi-Fi.

11. Once live and demonstrated the Engineer will run through the post installation form. The form acts as a final checklist to ensure both our own and your own expectations have been met. This also presents the opportunity to ask any final questions before the engineer wishes you well and calls in that the installation was a success.

12. Your invoicing will commence the day following your completed installation.