Unable to switch from BT FTTC to any other FTTC because the cabinet I am connected to is showing as

[Bangorman]

I am having a bit of a fight with BT at the moment with my FIBRE 1 FTTC service. I have dropped out of contract at the end of 18 months at £25 a month and now paying £36 a month. I do not want to upgrade to a faster service as it is sufficient for me. Neither do I want to commit to a 24 month contract to get a better deal with BT as I may be moving abroad in 12 months. I would not take any more that an 18 month contract.

I have been looking at FTTC offers from other suppliers and decided the 18 month offer with ******* looked good. I had been with them before and it was a good product and service. HOWEVER each time I tried to navigate the order process, the availability check screen accepted my postcode and telephone number and then told me it was unable to retrieve my details. On speaking to a person at competitor they have advised me that the availability database shows me as FTTP. (I presume this is an Openreach managed database) 

 I went back to BT who have confirmed I am definitely on FTTC but they could offer me an upgrade at very little more thsan the £36 - on a 24 month contract!! I politely refused. 

So - my problem is that I have to stay with BT on an expired contract at £36 a month and cannot order a competitor FTTC product at a lower price for 18 months.  I suspect this has arisen as a result of BT laying fibre along the street with access points for every house during the summer. They have either decided to configure the cabinet I am connected to as Full Fibre only - or Openreach have configured it this way also.

I carried out a couple of checks. I live at no 315 - I checked availability for ******* FTTC using other numbers around me and all houses from 271 to 321 come up with the same unavailable message. I then tried BT as a potential new customer and used another address a few doors away from me and it shows it as belonging to a full fibre area, with a selection of offers, including one at £28 a month at 55mb speed with 3 months free and a 100mb boost for Month 1. This leads me to think BT have decided only to allow Full Fibre from that box and this prevents anyone currently on FTTC from considering competitor FTTC products, such as ******. 

I have raised a complaint on BT.Com and hope to speak to someone tomorrow but if there is anyone who understands what may be happening and can enlighten me I would be grateful. I intend to take this to Ofgen if necessary as I don't think it is right to shut down competition opportunities without notice or explanation. When talking to ******* they gave me the details of the availability checker page - I got this information from it but I do not fully understand what it is telling me. Again - if you can understand and explain I would be grateful

[licquorice]

Can you post a screenshot of the checker rather than a copy and paste of the text please.

[garybs29]

Strange situation but there is absolutely no way that FTTP being available would stop you ordering FTTC anywhere else so hopefully it can be got to the bottom off

[Bangorman]

Hope this helps - best I can get

[pippincp]

Here's the relevant bit from the checker.

"As a fibre priority exchange, FTTP has priority over other products if available at the address".

Have you tried ordering FTTP from your alternate providwer? They should supply on the same terms and price as FTTC.

[Bangorman]

Surely a competitor would want to charge their FTTP price? I am so close to cabinet I get full 55mg speed and don't need any more so I prefer to stay with cheaper FTTC product 

[Bangorman]

"As a fibre priority exchange, FTTP has priority over other products if available at the address". - but if i am set up as FTTC surely I have the right to want to continue this option with another provider?

[licquorice]

Can't comment for other suppliers, but with BT the price for FTTP is the same as FTTC for a given speed. I.e, the method of supplying the service is irrelevant.

[Bangorman]

Thank you - can you tell me what this actually means?
"As a fibre priority exchange, FTTP has priority over other products if available at the address".

[licquorice]

If FTTP is available at a given address, then any order will be fulfilled by FTTP at that address rather than any other legacy technology. Older technology would only be provided in the absence of FTTP availability.

As it will be an Openreach decision, I suspect that that will be the case for all providers.