A Bracknell neighbourhood has been left with limited and no access to internet after a BT exchange box was hit and seriously damaged by a supposed ‘drunk driver’.

The residents on Wychwood Avenue, where the box is located have been relying on the use of a power generator since July 13.

This is swapped on a 12 hour basis according to a twitter post by Openreach.

After ‘three weeks of limited or no service’ the ‘frustrated’ residents are at their breaking point.

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Marianne Buska, a resident of Wychwood Avenue in Martin’s Herron told the Bracknell News: “This has been reported to different service providers like Plusnet, Zen, TalkTalk etc, who are in turn relying on input from Openreach and receiving mixed messages about a potential fix date.

Another resident Vikesh Patel contacted Openreach on Twitter to discuss the issue of the limited broadband and the generator that had stopped working on July 31.

They have said in a statement that their engineers are ‘working hard to repair a cabinet on Wychwood Avenue that is affecting broadband service to dozens of customers.’

“We attended and made the area safe, but repairs of this nature are complex.  Power was cut to the cabinet and so we arranged temporary battery power, but the batteries were being drained quickly so we installed a temporary diesel generator to keep the cabinet running,” Openreach said.

The company has been responding to residents on this continued issue however the amount of frustration through the estate is growing about ‘lack of communication and sense of urgency.’

“It is unacceptable that we have to be without or intermittent internet since the 13th July! How are people supposed to go about their daily lives especially for us that are working from home??” Buska put to Openreach in a tweet.

For people who are working from home a strong connection to internet has never been more important. Particularly as hybrid working has become the norm for commuters living outside London.

Marianne said: “Nowadays it is really difficult to manage your day-to-day life without internet access as a lot depends on it, especially as I am working from home full time, and my daughter couldn't work on her school assignments.

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“We had to get by using mobile hotspots which didn't work particularly well, as everybody in the neighbourhood was using mobile data, which slowed down the mobile data speed.

“The worst in all of this that there was no clear communication from anybody to the affected users, and that there was no sense of urgency by any of the companies to get it resolved.

In regard to the incident, a spokesperson from Openreach has said: “We are working closely with our partner electricity company and both power and connectivity to the cabinet should be restored later today. 

“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”.