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Downgrade forces new contract ?

Gary_C — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:10:54 GMT

Moving home, never again

On FTTH 900 and new home only has FTTC.

BT insist this has to be a new contract (At £64 a month when a new user can get the same for £24 ffs) and would tie me in for 2 years.

B4RN supply the neighbours and its likely that I can get 1G symmetrical for £30 a month but may take some time.

SO the question is, is it true that it MUST be a new contract when downgrading ?

Seems I would be better cancelling and signing up again but that risks a gap in service...

BT prices are insane compared to the competition.

Re: Downgrade forces new contract ?

iniltous — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:43:20 GMT

Who did you speak to about this , BT home movers keeping their service at the new address don’t in normal circumstances start a new contract, it’s only if upgrading there is a new minimum term , as you are downgrading perhaps that’s a grey area but there have been instances of FTTP customers on higher speeds (like you on 900Mb ) being excused early termination charges if the new address didn’t have FTTP available, and the customer wanted to keep the speed they had but were unable to as its in excess of what FTTC can offer .

I’d suggest you need to contact BT again , did you use the specific home movers number to contact BT ?
0800 7830235

Re: Downgrade forces new contract ?

Kodikid — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:43:23 GMT

Am I missing something?

You signed a contract for 900mbps

BT can no longer support you with your order

You should now be able to walk away...plenty free as they haven't keep their side of the agreement

Re: Downgrade forces new contract ?

iniltous — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:59:32 GMT

@Kodikid , Yes you are missing something, BT are keeping their side of the agreement by continuing to service the address the customer applied for service at , its the customer moving home that is causing the variation of the existing contract , namely by wanting service a different address.

Should BT grant a penalty free exit, it’s a goodwill gesture, apparently they consider this , if FTTP can’t be provided at the new address when the customer had FTTP (and a Hyperfast speed ) at their old address , but there is no compulsion to offer a home mover service at all , and if a customer moves , the existing contract is immediately broken (by the customer) and termination charges raised , irrespective of the availability at the new address , but as stated BT don’t do this .

With many new but small scale Alternative Networks this will undoubtedly crop up where the new address isn’t served by that particular Alt Net , unlike Openreach who have ubiquitous coverage.

Re: Downgrade forces new contract ?

Kimberlin — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 21:06:16 GMT

The last time I moved, 4 months prior to moving, I had renewed a contract for 12 months with my old ISP. I was moving into a new build and my ISP at the time couldn't provide the same service as what I had been getting at my previous address as it was only BT that could supply the FTTP to my new premises. No other ISP had a look in for the first two years, some deal that the developer had done with BT at the time. Walked away from the previous contract penalty free because the situation was beyond my control. I'm sure BT would waive a charge in certain circumstances.

To be fair to BT, their prices only become 'insane' if you either don't renegotiate, or you're seemingly so wedged with cash that you can't be bothered to do anything about it and don't care how much money you're paying them after two decades of being an utterly loyal customer, in which case, you absolutely deserve to be paying loads of money.

Re: Downgrade forces new contract ?

iniltous — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 21:48:46 GMT

BT have never had exclusivity on Openreach FTTP , it’s just not allowed by the regulator, your ISP may have said so , but it was a lie , the developer may have said for you said to use BT because they were uninformed , or a provider you wanted to use may have said they couldn’t but in reality it was because they didn’t have the necessary interconnects/backhaul but lied and said it was because BT had exclusive initial rights on Openreach , but that wasn’t true , it never has been .

This crops up on a reasonably frequent basis , even when contributors claim it was their lived experience, the fact is BT have never had any access to Openreach products that’s wasn’t also available to others on exactly the same basis ,wether these others took advantage of this equal access or not was up-to them, and given the frequent ‘bellyaching’ from others in this industry, and the massive penalties for any uncompetitive behaviour by BT , don’t you think these providers would be beating down the regulators doors complaining about this cosy arrangement, yet not a single complaint about this ……ask Ofcom .

Re: Downgrade forces new contract ?

Gary_C — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 16:45:33 GMT

It was BT moving I was talking to, they would not permit me to continue contract due to going from FTTP to FTTC. This meant a lock in for another 24 months which is what I was trying to avoid, especially as they wanted to charge £65 a month. I was well out of the lock in period and could leave with no penalty.

BUT I was trying to avoid being locked in for another 24 months because all my neighbours are on FTTP with B4RN, but it will take time to install due to coming across fields (B4RN are a community internet provided for rural properties and most of the network is installed by the community volunteers etc)

However, the BT moving team convinced me to move to an EE 5G mobile router on an 18 month contract. It turned up and was terrible. Slow and kept on crashing, so rejected on the 14 day distance selling regulations.

So, signed up to a new 24 month FTTC contract, however due to the EE contract in between, I now showed up as a new customer and I could get it for £30 a month rather than the £65 a month they were trying to charge me as an 'existing customer'.

I will jump to FTTP with B4RN if/when it becomes available as they do a £5/month in contract charge, so still cheaper or OR fibre which is due in the next 12 months.

At least I am no longer paying £100 a month for BT FTTP, which in hindsight, was utterly daft (B4RN do 10Gig for that price)