Well it all went well, Openreach (MJ Quinn actually) came at the appointed time, installed the new fibre line, removed the old copper and installed the new line exactly where I wanted. It was my second choice but my first choice would have meant he would have had to splice the cable up a ladder – just not practical !! All done very neatly, connected up, and running within 90 minutes which apparently is the allotted time for the job.
Curiously (to me anyway) I was using my FTTC when he arrived and chopped the old copper off at the pole and when the fibre was connected it registered almost immediately and I was back on line at the full 75Mbs. None of this wait for 24 hours etc, etc.
He was still in his van in the street when I applied to my VOIP supplier (Virtual Landline) to port my old number to them. They replied within the hour saying they had applied to the LCP (Loosing Communication Provider) to transfer my old number and this morning (18 hours later) they sent me an email to say the losing provider – Plusnet had agreed and given a date 12 days from now at 11:00am ? So far so good but after some of the horror stories of lost numbers I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed until it’s done !
I was a little surprised that the OR man was alone considering he had to climb the nearby pole in the frosty sub-zero temperatures – health and safety being what it is nowadays !
My new deal with Plusnet involved a gift voucher which they sent the application email for the day before the installation date ? so that’s now applied for as well.
The point of this ramble is to show that sometimes, probably most of the time (for the silent majority) things do go to plan and the technology works as it should.
