Hi there,
I shall try to keep this short, I've been trying to upgrade for some time (gigabit became available here in Sept 2020)
I have (or had, until recently) a 330Mbps connection, for about 10 years, through an ECI ONT.
Like many others who've posted, I've been unable to upgrade to any speed above that.
I tried sending an email to the CEO of Openreach, thinking it would end up in spam, asking if after all this time there's a method to upgrade without having to cancel service, and suffer downtime. (I'm disabled and am stuck at home, and rely on my internet hugely, even for Wi-Fi calling)
A day or so later I got a call back from a Mark Lamb at Openreach.
He put me in touch with someone on the Executive Complaints Team at BT.
I tried to get the two of them to coordinate, so that BT could cease my service, and hopefully Openreach would be ready, and get the whole process done as quickly, and painlessly as possible.
This has not happened.
To also be clear, all of my neighbours CAN sign up to the gigabit+ packages, most still have DSL, one has a recent fibre install. No issues for them to upgrade, just me, with my old ECI ONT.
So, sorry, to cut the story short. I ended up having my services, fibre and landline, ceased by BT on Tuesday of this week, 22nd Oct.
I'm currently using an unstable 4G (1 bar indoors) connection.
Last I spoke to the Executive Team Member was Wednesday, 23rd, and she was trying to upgrade me already. I said that surely this won't work, my ONT hasn't lost sync yet! My landline still has a dial tone (though I cannot make or receive calls) and the ONT still has the happy green LED, despite no internet connection being provided by BT.
So of course, the BT Executive Team member was unable to upgrade me to gigabit speeds.
I just noticed that I received an email from her again yesterday, and she said she's still unable to upgrade me, and that she's going to have to put me back on the BT 330Mbps package.
What should I do?
I remember people on these forums discussing a 14 day period that they had to wait, after services were ceased.
While services have been ceased by BT, does this mean Openreach are automatically notified, and that at some time my ONT will automatically become deregistered, after which I can sign up as a new customer, or should BT/Openreach be doing something else?
After having spoken with the BT Executive Complaints Team member on Wednesday I disconnected my ONT from power, in the vague hope that it may trigger something at the exchange if it's left disconnected for a certain amount of time, so I can't see if I still have sync.
Just after advice, really.
Or if any mod has experience with this? The Executive Complaints Team member I'm speaking with doesn't really seem to know what to do. I will suggest NOT adding me back to BT's 330Mbps broadband service, especially after having gone through the process of having my services ceased. But I also can't go on like this indefinitely. I'm disabled, and now the landline is off, I'm more reliant than ever on my mobile (with an almost non existent signal indoors) and need Wifi calling to make it reliable, not to mention..... it's the year 2024, so much is done online!
Apologies for my long, short message.
It's just rather frustrating. I've been trying for years to upgrade, and now I've finally bitten the bullet and taken the (in my opinion) severe option of cancelling services, I'm still having issues. I'd hoped that, like other members of this forum, that some kind of joined up plan could be made, I saw someone a few months ago say he got cut off on a Monday, and got an Openreach engineer around Wednesday of the same week, with his new ONT!)
any mods, any help?
Thank you,
Vin.
EDIT: Or now I think about it some more, was disconnecting my ONT from power the WRONG thing to do? Do Openreach need to deregister my ONT remotely for things to progress, and by cutting power, they're unable to do this? I'm not sure if any mods here are able to help with this issue, but I'd appreciate any guidance, or if they're even able to communicate with this BT Executive Complaints team member, to help get things on track?
