This topic

Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 10:39:19 GMT

I currently have BT Home Broadband FTTC 80/20, (don't know what the current package name is), that I am generally very happy with: speed, reliability and resolution of problems have all been very good in my experience. My only reason for even considering a change would be cost, (I know, you get what you pay for!), but for this question please ignore that:

I have been reading on these forums about people who have moved in to a new, (to them), home, where the previous occupant had BT FTTC and the new one wanted to take the line over and keep the same BT Broadband service. It appears that the procedure is that an account at an address cannot be taken over, but has to be ceased for the old occupant and a new account opened for the incoming one. This triggers a cease of the line and the broadband port in the cabinet is handed back to Openreach. Normally this would immediately be re-allocated to the new account at the address, but if the cabinet is full and has a waiting list of FTTC customers from any ISP that uses Openreach, then the released port is allocated to the next in the Openreach queue. The implied outcome being that an address that may have previously had a good connection may not be able to continue to receive it.

So, my question is: does the same apply when an existing line changes ISP, and therefore is there a risk that by effectively ceasing my BT line and moving to, (say), Sky, I could lose my FTTC connection and only have a far inferior ADSL instead? (If the cabinet is full, until the capacity is expanded).

Or have I misunderstood the process?

Apart from asking the next Openreach engineer working in my cabinet, is there a way that I can check port capacity in the cab?

This is the BT Availability Checker for my line, in case it helps:

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 10:47:17 GMT

@Anonymous

The answer would be yes, you would lose your current connection, and if the cabinet became full, then you would not be able to get a fast connection.

Only the availability checker would be right, but this is only updated once a week, so the cabinet could easily fill up with pending orders from any provider, especially as more people are working from home.

If price is the issue, then speak to BT Customer options on 0800 800 030, and see what they can offer.

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 10:50:21 GMT

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 10:53:42 GMT

Its always a risk, and you could then wait a very long time for a connection, as others have discovered.

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 10:58:38 GMT

As a follow up question, are the ports in the cabinet allocated such that each ISP has a certain number? ie, BT have 50, Sky have 40, TalkTalk have 20 etc, or are they all shared ports on an Openreach fibre link back to the exchange, (or where ever the node is), that is then broken out there amongst the ISPs?

In other words, is it possible that TalkTalk's capacity might be full, but Sky had availability? (for example).

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

pippincp — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 11:04:37 GMT

No, ports are allocated on a first come first served basis. At the exchange ISP's either have their own backhaul (LLU) or use BTWholesale.

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 11:10:06 GMT

@Keith_Beddoe @pippincp

Thanks for you prompt replies and answers.

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

CJT80 — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 11:18:31 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
I currently have BT Home Broadband FTTC 80/20, (don't know what the current package name is), that I am generally very happy with: speed, reliability and resolution of problems have all been very good in my experience. My only reason for even considering a change would be cost, (I know, you get what you pay for!), but for this question please ignore that:
I have been reading on these forums about people who have moved in to a new, (to them), home, where the previous occupant had BT FTTC and the new one wanted to take the line over and keep the same BT Broadband service. It appears that the procedure is that an account at an address cannot be taken over, but has to be ceased for the old occupant and a new account opened for the incoming one. This triggers a cease of the line and the broadband port in the cabinet is handed back to Openreach. Normally this would immediately be re-allocated to the new account at the address, but if the cabinet is full and has a waiting list of FTTC customers from any ISP that uses Openreach, then the released port is allocated to the next in the Openreach queue. The implied outcome being that an address that may have previously had a good connection may not be able to continue to receive it.
So, my question is: does the same apply when an existing line changes ISP, and therefore is there a risk that by effectively ceasing my BT line and moving to, (say), Sky, I could lose my FTTC connection and only have a far inferior ADSL instead? (If the cabinet is full, until the capacity is expanded).
Or have I misunderstood the process?

@Anonymous to clarify are you asking about changing providers at an existing address?

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 12:39:20 GMT

@CJT80

That is correct. I have lived at this address for 9 years, always with BT Broadband. I was considering moving to another broadband supplier solely based on cost, but the potential for a drastic reduction in service, (albeit slim), back to ADSL2, is making me re-consider.

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

CJT80 — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:01:45 GMT

@Anonymous

If you migrate from one provider to another at the same address there should be only a brief loss of service.

It would only be if you moved that you would face an issue.

I left BT and joined another provider and the transfer was done at 5 am, I didn't even know.

You join the new provider who handles the migration. You don't contact BT to cancel, or this causes more issues.

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:04:35 GMT

@CJT80 wrote:

@Anonymous

If you migrate from one provider to another at the same address there should be only a brief loss of service.

It would only be if you moved that you would face an issue.

I left BT and joined another provider and the transfer was done at 5 am, I didn't even know.

You join the new provider who handles the migration. You don't contact BT to cancel, or this causes more issues.

Its still a cease and re-provide. The cease would release the port to the next Openreach order, but there may not be a port left to do the provide, so the order will fail.

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

CJT80 — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:09:33 GMT

@Keith_Beddoe

Well that's interesting because I was told my CAB was full and swapped providers and it didn't affect me... so how does that figure?

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

licquorice — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:35:17 GMT

You were either extremely lucky or although full, there was nobody else waiting for a spare port so you just got your old port back without anybody else diving in.

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

CJT80 — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:54:25 GMT

@licquorice @Keith_Beddoe

Then I stand corrected, sorry @Anonymous

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed?

-Richie- — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 17:34:44 GMT

Another thing to factor in is the wholesale provider, once the connection leaves the exchange then it comes down to the peering/transit agreements of the new provider.
This is why you see people having different speeds with different providers, the backhaul is the bottleneck.

Re: Changing Providers: Is There a Risk to Speed? - I have assu

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 19:36:38 GMT

@-Richie-

I am aware that different ISPs each have their own backhaul arrangements, and assumed that this is where the cheaper providers make some of their cost savings?(Cheap things are cheap for a reason).

I was more concerned about the potential for my local link dropping from the current 80MBits down to a possible max 15.5MB!