Appointment slots are classified based on day: weekday or saturday/sunday; and by time of day: AM/PM or early morning/evening. Based on the tenant-supplier agreement, some of these classifications will be considered "premium".
Appointment slots are sent as 2 date-times to represent the start and end of the timeslot. The Fibre Cafe sends all date-times in the OpenAPI date-time format - this is an ISO-8601 international standard.
Important: time-slots must be sent with timezone or offset information that correctly reflect the local time of the appointment.
For example, the UTC date-time of 2026-01-31T13:00:00.000Z represents 1pm in the UK - however, post BST change, 2026-03-31T13:00:00.000Z now represents 2pm local time. The local appointment time should be the same.
Sending date-times in UTC is acceptable but will require the date-time to be converted appropriately (e.g. use 2026-03-31T12:00:00.000Z during BST). An alternative approach is to use the offset suffix (+00:00 or +01:00) instead of zulu suffix (Z):
For example: 2026-01-31T13:00:00.000+00:00 and 2026-03-31T13:00:00.000+01:00 are both 1pm local time.
Timeslots fall into one of the following classifications:
- WEEKDAY
- WEEKDAY_AM
- WEEKDAY_PM
- WEEKDAY_EARLY
- WEEKDAY_EVENING
- SATURDAY
- SATURDAY_AM
- SATURDAY_PM
- SATURDAY_EARLY
- SATURDAY_EVENING
- SUNDAY
- SUNDAY_AM
- SUNDAY_PM
- SUNDAY_EARLY
- SUNDAY_EVENING
The start and end of timeslots will vary between suppliers and will be set according to the tenant/supplier agreement. Where a supplier is not able to provide the classification (or provides a different classification), the gateway can classify timeslots itself to ensure the tenant always receives consistent timeslot information.
Based on the tenant/supplier agreement, some timeslots will be considered "premium" and may carry an additional charge/premium. Where the supplier does not currently mark timeslots appropriately, the gateway can be configured to apply the standard/premium marker to appropriate timeslots to ensure the tenant always receives consistent timeslot information.
Not to be confused with premium timeslots, some suppliers also offer different levels of service during an appointment. This may include additional work to be performed and/or longer appointment durations. When searching and reserving an appointment, the tenant can specify the SITE_VISIT_REASON characteristic to choose Premium or Advanced. The presence of telecare equipment may also require a different site visit reason.
Where the tenant needs to reschedule or reappoint for a customer, this works in a similar way to booking an appointment. The tenant would find and reserve an appointment slot, then amend the order with the new reservation id to confirm.
In the case of a supplier cancelling an appointment, this would be notified via a KCI - either a REAPPOINT or (if the appointment is not required) via an update with APPOINTMENT_NOT_REQUIRED and no reservation id.
When requesting and reserving appointment slots for a service problem, the SERVICE_ID and CARE_LEVEL characteristics should be passed in the request. Please note the CARE_LEVEL should be set to what the customer has already subscribed to. The appointmentPurpose should also be set to REPAIR.