Contracts

[Paulus47]

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.   

[Kimberlin]

@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.

[garybs29]

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

[iniltous]

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.

[Paulus47]

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.       

[garybs29]

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

[Paulus47 · Accepted solution]

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

[iniltous]

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 .

[andydenyer]

@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.

[Paulus47]

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.