The practicalities of switching ISP

[News]

I keep reading and thinking about switching ISP, but how long does it actually take or, more to the point, is there a period without any connection, or does the service switch from one ISP to another seamlessly, behind the scenes? I have in my mind that the existing ISP, having given the MAC, will terminate service, and the new ISP will take ten days to implement service, but perhaps it is all a little more civilised than that.

Background info. This area is basic ADSL. No superfast, no fibre/cable. Current ISP is Demon, throttled at 100GB, £36 pm. Current phone via Post Office. Phone roughly £60 per quarter, last quarter 707 minutes, various types of line called. Total therefore £56 pm. Plan is to combine the two, with either Zen or Plusnet.

Zen offers broadband capped at 500GB, same price as Demon, but five times the download. Add phone at £18 pm (£54 pq) with 5000 minutes, excluding mobiles, international etc.

Plusnet seems to offer completely unrestricted broadband, anytime calls to UK landlines and line rental for £40pm, discounted for the first 12 months.

Plusnet seem to be the obvious choice?

[F]

Yes. Give them a ring and ask your transfer questions directly with them. That way you'll get facts from one of the parties involved rather than opinion...

You *might* get a better deal than those advertised if you ask/sound reluctant!

[Nick Odell]

Well, (he says, in the hope that the OP will quote themusicworkshop when he signs up and get a nice little earner for themusicworkshop as recommender) I can't advise on changeover because I've never done it, but when Plusnet moved my service from one property to another it was all done exactly when they said it would be. I consolidated my services with them at that point and one year later I did the sums and found that I was saving money - not a lot, but year-on-year I had made a saving despite price rises in between.

A big plus for Plusnet, in my opinion, is that I don't live in a constant state of paranoia wondering where and how they are going to shaft me next. I have found them to be easy, helpful people to buy communication services from and as Marx[1] said, "The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

Nick [1]Je suis Marxiste, tendance, Groucho[2] [2]Jean-Luc Godard

[F]

Hey, I responded first (but thought it inappropriate to ask for a referral). I claim my 25p and he should quote spinningweb!

[Nick Odell]

Hey too. I only claimed honesty and fair dealing for Plusnet - not for myself.

Nick

[tim.....]

better that 2.50 per month

are you expecting them to pay him?

tim

[Tim Watts]

I hate Plusnet. I'd go with zen for price or Andrews and Arnold for quality. The latter are my current suppliers and have been for about 11 years.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I changed from TalkTalk to BT Infinity and had no loss of service at all. BT install the new router etc, and apart from the short time that took had internet access either side of it.

[Andy Cap]

I have found them very easy to deal with and have just struck a 2 year unlimited deal @ £5.99 as an existing customer. I'm getting over 14Mbps.

Andy C

[Huge]

I switched from Demon to A&A. It was seamless-ish. Demon sent a magic code, I sent it to A&A who sent a router. The Demon service stopped working (halfway through a video-conference!), I plugged the A&A router in instead & it all sprang back into life.

[Gordon Henderson]

It's all supposed to happen the same day. My experience is that loss of service is minutes, if that. It takes more time to plug in the new modem/router, or re-configure the existing one than the time the service is offline.

Is it important that you DO NOT tell the current ISP to cancel service. Let the service be cancelled by the gaining ISP taking over the service.

So ask for a MAC, but do not ask for the service to be terminated. Otherwise they will terminate it and you'll page for a service cease, then pay for a re-provide, and very likely not have service for days in-between.

Gordon

[Bob Eager]

+1 for A&A. About 12 years.

[Clive Page]

True, but reports in the press this week say that BT is putting up almost all of its phone and broadband prices by 6.5% - Plusnet is a subsidiary and it wouldn't be a surprise to see them raising prices too.

[Theo Markettos]

Already announced:

Theo

[Brian Gaff]

But it might be best as they are in fact now BT in all but name I understand, but do they talk to each other, that is the problem!

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes, after all apart from Virgin, all the others have to use the BT gear and line as far as I know. Brian

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

I dumped the phone landline a couple of years ago, when wireless BB became available at a low cost.

?30 per month; I have a 60GB cap, and I pay virtually no phone charges, as I piggy-back a VOIP service onto the BB wireless link. Cheap as chips - it suits me because I hardly make any calls anyway and I resented being stitched up for line rental by the phone company. Even when I do make calls on the VOIP service, it costs me a cent/min to call anywhere in the world, and some are free, at that.

[Dave Liquorice]

Only 60 GB? Not enough... 111 GB so far for Aug, 147 GB for July. Summer hols, kids home, netflix/youtube/iplayer... Normally downlaod is just under 100 GB.

This month it's £35/200 GB but I'll drop it back to £25/100GB for September. Another satisfied A&A customer.

Ditto VOIP.

No option other than BT/ADSL. Paid for the rental 12 months up front @ £141 IIRC with Caller ID for Free. Monthly BT bill is £4 for Total

Care.

[tony sayer]

Recommend Zen on customer service grounds alone, they have been excellent in that dept:)...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd rather never need to find out. ;-)