A Talybont man who shared his “awful journey with Openreach” in a bid to get broadband has finally been connected.

Mick Fothergill’s “drawn out nightmare” left him without the internet for months, and he couldn’t believe it when Openreach put “a new pole in the middle of an entrance to a field, blocking it for the farmer”.

“It's crazy,” he said in a story on our website earlier this month.

“I can see the post I need to connect to but it seems beyond the capabilities of Openreach to deal with the problem.

“I can't talk to Openreach and have to go through my provider, EE, to complain. This is incredibly frustrating.”

The story started last December. Mick’s copper-based broadband contract was coming to an end.

“The service had been very poor, so bad I thought it was time to upgrade to full fibre broadband (FTTP).

“On checking Openreach’s website I was delighted to find FTTP was available to my property.

“However, when I tried to sign up, EE said it wasn’t.

“It took weeks and many phone calls to sort this out, but eventually I was given the green light for FTTP in January and allocated a port on a pole not far from my house.

“In mid-February I received a visit from Openreach engineers. There was much head scratching and they decided the pole was too far to run a cable directly to my house and the fact it would have to span Afon Leri meant they’d have to call for a specialist river team. Rather than that, they decided the installation of an extra pole would carry the fibre via an existing pole and then to my house. This meant a three-month delay while the pole was installed.

“Jump to June. A sub-contractor turned up and installed the new pole in the entrance to a field, restricting access to the field and causing great stress to the farmer.

“Naturally, the farmer complained and after initially refusing to remove the pole Openreach agreed to remove the pole.

“In August I was given two separate dates for connection - both were missed.

“The irony is I have since discovered underground conduits exist to supply my neighbours with FTTP and the pole was unnecessary in the first place.

“There is a compensation scheme in place and I am eligible for compensation. However, I Openreach inform me they are limiting my compensation to just 60 days. I consider this unfair, firstly as they have failed to deliver for over twice the length of this period and secondly because it removes any incentive to resolve the problem.”

The offending pole was removed on 25 September and Openreach said they would connect Mick on 12 October, then postponed that to the 28.

“It's a complete shambles!” Mick added.

The ‘Cambrian News’ asked Openreach for a comment. They apologised for the delays and said Mick needs to speak to EE about compensation.

However, Mick contacted us this week to say: “Openreach turned up out of the blue on 14 October and connected us. They routed the cable via a neighbour's house - something they could have done back in January. I think this activity was due to your intervention - so thank you very much.”