This topic

Contracts

Paulus47 — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 07:53:11 GMT

Apologies if something similar has already been answered anywhere.

Last year I took out a two year contract with BT to provide me with a Halo 3 Part Fibre Broadband. Last month I had Full Fibre installed. Whenever I speak to an adviser about a new deal due to the change to my Broadband, all they offer me a switch to a new more expensive contract. I no longer need or want all the bells and whistles that come with Halo 3.

I would like to switch to something like a standard Full Fibre 150. If they are able to change my contract upwards, logically I would have thought they should be able to change it downwards. But obviously BT don't want us to do that.

On a legal point, as the contract that I accepted was to be provided with Part Fibre Broadband, doesn't the fact that I am now on Full Fibre make that contract null and void? It is a material change and has an impact on what my requirements now are.

Thanks for an y advice.

Re: Contracts

Kimberlin — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:17:22 GMT

@Paulus47 Although you have just had full fibre fitted, if you are now out of the 24 month contract and are now on the 30 day rolling contract, if you don’t want to continue with Halo 3 and you wish to downgrade, just call BT, be firm, very firm, and tell them you want rid of Halo and to move you to a cheaper package.

Anecdotally, there appears to be problems with customers calling BT to get rid of Halo only to be given the runaround and seemingly persuaded not to come off Halo, be told they cannot come off the Halo package or are somehow persuaded to take another package which may or may not be suitable. The upshot is, BT doesn’t want you to come off Halo3 because it’s an absolute money spinner.

You might call and be offered a migration to EE, which, to be honest, apart from a brand name change, you’ll still effectively be with BT just with a slightly different but still essentially the same package albeit using EE branded equipment and with a EE account with the added bonus that it will probably be cheaper.It’s just all smoke and mirrors.

If you really don’t want to waste your breath talking to BT, just switch online using One Touch Switching selecting the package of your choice. Remember, if you have BT Email and you switch to another ISP, your email will be downgraded to the basic email service unless you pay £7.50 a month to retain it at a premium level.

Re: Contracts

garybs29 — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:07:10 GMT

You agreed a 24m contract last year, you're not going to get cheaper options whilst in a contract no matter what. What would be the point in any contracts if they allowed that?

Also your old contract never becomes null & void, in the first 14 days of a new contract after changing you can cancel new one but you'd go back to old contract

Re: Contracts

iniltous — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:35:22 GMT

On what basis did you switch to FTTP ?

If it were not really your choice , some are offered FTTP at the same time as the compulsory migration to Digital Voice , Openreach (not the ISP) can offer you the option to take FTTP ( an option you don’t need to accept) as it suits Openreach to get you off copper , this doesn’t really involve BT although they contact you with the option , in those cases the original contract terms continue (same minimum term , the same speed 40/55/80Mb it even says so on the invite ) .

In your case if this wasn’t anything to do with changing to DV , but BT contacting you , or you contacting BT once FTTP was available and they offered you the opportunity to upgrade ( or you called and requested it ) again this was optional , not compulsory, you could have said no thanks if they contacted you and obviously if you were not interested you wouldn’t have contacted them , but if you did agree , this starts a new contract, with its new minimum term , and the Halo part is incorporated into the new deal .

Often as an encouragement to take FTTP there may be an incentive, like 150Mb for the price you were paying for 80Mb , taking FTTP on any other basis doesn’t benefit you so you may as well wait until the minimum term is close to expiry , unless the better speed is worth renewing the minimum term .

What you seem to want to do is drop the Halo products , but you agreed to a 24 month minimum for Halo , and those 24 months have not expired, when you took FTTP that commitment to Halo was either part of your re-contracting arrangement if you initiated the change to FTTP , or still has months to go if the terms of your original contract apply if this were an Openreach offer to take FTTP , and not you or BT instigating it, either way you are committed to taking Halo until the minimum term expires.

TBH , you may even find that your 24 month Halo minimum as well as the broadband contract was renewed when you took FTTP (if you initiated the change ) so a new 24 month minimum including Halo started last month and dropping Halo is not 12 months away but 23-24 months away .

Most providers offer inside minimum term changes if they benefit by you taking something that generates more income for them (so upgrading or adding products) but should you want to ‘downgrade’ to something cheaper , understandably they point to the minimum term you agreed and say you can’t do that unless you pay for the early termination of the existing deal .

Nothing unique to BT with that , it’s pretty universal.

Re: Contracts

Paulus47 — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:35:42 GMT

Thank you for your very comprehensive reply.

I was already on DV when I received an email informing me that I would be contacted shortly by Openreach to arrange an appointment for the installation of Full Fibre. When it came through I was given the opportunity to confirm the appointment or refuse it. As I had turned down the chance to have it installed last year, I agreed to have it done this time.

I don't remember seeing anything about contracts at all from BT, so as far as I know I am still on that original contract that commenced in September 2025.

So what you are saying is that basically I am stuck with it, even though the installation of Full Fibre has effectively meant a change to that contract.

Re: Contracts

garybs29 — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:46:33 GMT

You'll be on faster full fibre for the same price on the same contract end date if it was a migration so yes will have to see out the original 2 years

Re: Contracts

Paulus47 — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:06:45 GMT

OK, thanks to you and everyone that replied. I'll just mark yours as the accepted solution.

Re: Contracts

iniltous — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:13:16 GMT

Did your speed change , as stated , upgrading from say F2 on FTTC getting 70Mb to FTTP F2 and getting 80Mb in my opinion isn’t worth committing to a new ‘deal’ unless there was also a price reduction….in my case when FTTP became available, the offer was 150Mb for the same price I was paying for 80Mb FTTC (and getting 80Mb as I’m close to the cabinet) ,I understood this was a new minimum term , my FTTC minimum term still had 12 months , so effectively an extra 12 months commitment from me .
The installation of FTTP didn’t mean a change to your terms , you accepting an offer from BT did …..as stated those offered upgrades to FTTP where it suited Openreach , its specifically states that this won’t affect your speed or minimum term , and in those cases the customer effectively arranged the installation of FTTP with Openreach , it simply was BT sending out the DV migration notification that alerted the customer , the FTTP part was an Openreach invitation.

It’s still a little unclear what your ‘beef’ is ….12 month to go on your Halo contract or 24 months to go (as far as minimum terms are concerned) means you can’t downgrade now without penalty, in that respect being on FTTC or FTTP is irrelevant .

Re: Contracts

andydenyer — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:14:58 GMT

@Paulus

It sounds like you were upgraded to full fibre at the same price you were paying previously? In which case, you've got a good deal TBH.

I was able to upgrade to Full Fibre 500 earlier this year at the same price I was paying for a 35Mbps service, so I was well happy with that. I was also aware that I was taking out a new 24 month contract (I was about 18 months in to my current one). But getting a speed over 14 times faster than what I was getting before at the same price for the next 24 months (apart from the annual increases in March which I would have faced anyway), then that seemed a win-win to me.

Re: Contracts

Paulus47 — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:19:28 GMT

Well my "beef" is now that I am on Full Fibre, the coverage in my house is better so I don't need the Wi-Fi extender that was provided. On Halo 3+ I thought I was supposed to be getting a 4G Mini Hub in case of outages, not just after an outage has already occurred (unless my information was wrong), which I have never seen. In short I don't need nor do I want any of the Halo add-ons which BT are disgracefully trying to force on people.

Re: Contracts

andydenyer — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:49:55 GMT

If you're on Halo 3+ then, yes, you should have a Hybrid Connect device. If it's just Halo 3 (without the +), then you don't (but you do still get the Wi-Fi disc).

Re: Contracts

iniltous — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:56:00 GMT

Full fibre in itself doesn’t improve WiFi connectivity , and as you already had DV from your FTTC , no change to the router was needed , just an Ethernet cable to connect the existing router to the ONT , so any improvement to WiFi around the home is purely coincidental.

TBH , my understanding of Halo 3+ is that a 4G device is supplied and connected ready should the landline based broadband fail , being sent one out should a problem arise isn’t Halo 3+ but Halo 3 , these are different products.

If you are paying for a whole home WiFi type benefit that you now don’t really need , ( unless you disconnected it when FTTP was provided how do you know it’s not needed ?) , it can’t really be FTTP that has improved your wireless performance, unless you took the opportunity to relocate the router when FTTP was fitted , perhaps your ONT location is no where near the master socket or extension socket previously used (and therefore also a new router location) is this is the reason WiFi is now better than it was ( assuming you did disconnect the WiFi extenders to establish this ) but unfortunately you did agree to take Halo for a minimum number if months .

Re: Contracts

Paulus47 — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 12:22:08 GMT

No, it turns out I am only on Halo 3 (not +), but I still don't want the Halo benefits and it's wrong that BT that are only offering Halo packages to exiting customers (or so it seems).

Re: Contracts

iniltous — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 12:39:27 GMT

Not sure I follow , ‘BT (that) are only offering Halo packages to exiting customers’ , I didn’t have Halo on FTTC and wasn’t offered Halo when exiting FTTC and moving to FTTP , clearly they can’t offer customers exiting (leaving) BT completely, so what is it you mean ?

Halo benefit packages have always been optional, clearly salespeople will be salespeople and offer it hoping to get a ‘sale’ , and they understandably accentuate it’s positives to get someone to take it , (it’s caveat emptor though , don’t take it if it’s benefits won’t actually benefit you ) but ultimately the customer agrees to it , and they get the cooling off period to reconsider if they feel pressured into taking it , once committed, no use complaining, simply exit it at the earliest opportunity if it’s such an issue.

In your case you presumably already had Halo 3 on FTTC and you still have it on FTTP , as stated , unfortunately taking FTTP doesn’t absolve you from the commitment you made when you took it originally, even if you realise now it’s not really beneficial in your circumstances.

Re: Contracts

gg30340 — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:26:31 GMT

@Paulus47wrote:
Thank you for your very comprehensive reply.
I was already on DV when I received an email informing me that I would be contacted shortly by Openreach to arrange an appointment for the installation of Full Fibre. When it came through I was given the opportunity to confirm the appointment or refuse it. As I had turned down the chance to have it installed last year, I agreed to have it done this time.
I don't remember seeing anything about contracts at all from BT, so as far as I know I am still on that original contract that commenced in September 2025.
So what you are saying is that basically I am stuck with it, even though the installation of Full Fibre has effectively meant a change to that contract.

Being moved to FTTP as against FTTC is not a change in your Fixed Term Contract. BT or rather Openreach can deliver the package you are presently on by wet string as long as it works. There is nothing in your Fixed Term Contract that stipulates it must be delivered by copper or fibre.

If you were offered and accepted a free upgrade of your broadband package to FTTP and you accepted your package is not changed and the length of the Fixed Term Contract does not change, it will still be the same end date as when you were on FTTC and none of the other T&Cs change.

If you check in your MyBT it will show you what your broadband package is and the termination date of your present Fixed Term Contract.

Re: Contracts

Kimberlin — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:31:05 GMT

Thank goodness for that, finally a post that makes sense 👍

Re: Contracts

Paulus47 — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:37:58 GMT

Yes, I agree with you. Plain and simple. All I can say is well done to those people (unlike me) who were never suckered into taking out a Halo contract in the first place, because otherwse "you'll never leave".