Renew Contract or switch provider - optimum timeline...?

[#1]

Hi,
When is the optimum point to think about renewing my Broadband/line rental contract with Plusnet, or switching to a new provider to avoid any unnecessary fees?
How far ahead of my current contract end-date should I think about doing this?
TIA

[#2]

@UKDJ 

Any move should be made in the last month of your contract unless there are compelling reasons to jump before hand.

Note that if you move ISP you will probably lose your landline.

You can renew your PN contract as is (ie phone and internet) for the time being by phoning PN.

Brian

[#3]

Thanks - @bmc

I will look at Renewing/changing provider within about the last 28 days before my current Contract end-date. When you say you can Renew the Contract with Plusnet 'as is', do you mean I could change to a different Phone/Bb package without penalty before the 1-month to end of current Contract you mention? I notice Plusnet have a faster Bb package for less than I pay now...!
I am aware that fairly soon, unless you pay around double to keep your landline, you will lose that facility - and I believe the option to keep a landline will disappear altogether by about 2027! Seems like a backward step to me, given the unreliability of modern 'tech'! (when was the last time my landline 'went down'? Never...)

[#4]

@UKDJ 

You can renew your contract for phone and internet with PN by phoning them. No need to pay double.

You will lose your analogue landline by the end of 2005 unless there are exceptional circumstances (care alarms etc). It may be sooner if PN pull the plug.

If a landline matters then you need to start looking at either VOIP providers for phone (PN for internet) or moving to an ISP that does both - though the phone will be VOIP.

Brian

Edit - I do not believe you can change your package without losing your landline. You can upgrade with PN at anytime at the cost of a new contract and losing your phone.

[#5]

@UKDJ 

"How far ahead of my current contract end-date should I think about doing this?"

Another point to consider is: how important is broadband for you, or put another way: how much of an issue would it be for you if you didn't have it for a while? For example, do you work from home and rely on it totally?

My Plusnet FTTC contract doesn't end until early next year, but my current plan is to move to another provider on an AltNet FTTP service. There is no sign of Openreach installing FTTP around here any time soon.

The  AltNet has told me that their lead times are in the region of two weeks from order to installation, providing that they have staff available and there are no unforeseen problems - i which case it could take longer.

To allow for this, I'm intending to order the new service around two months before the end of my PN contract. Hopefully this will be enough time to allow for the above and also allow a period of dual-running with both services: I have seen quite a few reports on various problems of the physical installation being OK, but configuration issues, (for example), prebent the service from operating as expected.

All being well, I should then be in a position to give PN the 30 days notice to coincide with contact end date.

Obviously, this will cost a bit more than stopping one service and starting another, so you might need to consider how important not having service is to you if you are moving supplier and technology.

.

[#6]

My experience moving to another ISP via an Altnet (Zen via City Fibre) was that the installation was booked exactly two weeks on from ordering but Zen said that my location was marked as having a possible issue (I cannot recall the exact terminology) and it could take up to three months! I think the issue was that we are supplied underground via a 50mm BT duct and there can be problems if the duct is blocked. In the end all went well and installation was completed on the due date.

City Fibre actually came out the day after the order was placed with Zen to prove the duct and install their mini duct within it from the house to their cabinet (about 140m total distance). They did not need access to the house for this. The City Fibre installers arrived on the due date then installed their junction box on the outside wall of the house above the duct, and the ONT inside the house at the same location. They then then blew the fibre through the mini duct from the junction box to the cabinet. This took about an hour but would have taken longer had I wanted the ONT positioned at a distance from the point where the duct emerged from the ground as they would have had to run a fibre line around the house to a point outside where the ONT was to be positioned.

[#7]

@jgb 

"My experience moving to another ISP via an Altnet (Zen via City Fibre)"

Thanks for the info - that is exactly the same move, (ISP and network), that I am currently planning on making early next year!

.

[#8]

@Mr_Paul I think you find they all use 'solid'  fibre cables these days - I know it used to be blown when they first started, but the technology has moved on since then.

[#9]

Sorry - as this is my first Post/Thread, I don't know how to "quote" as part of a Reply (using Android device) , hence the Copy & Paste...

"You can renew your contract for phone and internet with PN by phoning them. No need to pay double."

My understanding, having read the Plusnet site, is that if you switch to 'full fibre' but want to keep a landline - for now, at least - you have to pay a 'line rental' fee on top of the full fibre cost, hence the 'paying double'!

[#10]

I probably have enough monthly mobile data allowance to use that for a few days (via mobile hotspot) but I don't want to, for example, be without Internet for a month between ending one Contract and a new one starting! That's why I originally asked about the optimum timeline between giving notice to Plusnet (if switching providers) and a new provider taking over, without incurring 'cancellation fees' from Plusnet...

[#11]

@UKDJ 

Look at the options when you're posting a reply. If you want to quote, reply against that particular post. Adding images has it's own icon.

You do not get charged a line rental as such - it's included in the contract price. If you look at PN and see what offers there are that is the price you pay. There is little saving in going phone free as the cost is in the line itself, not the phone services provided over it.

Perhaps a better question at the moment is do you need your phone. What's the mobile signal like at your house?

Brian

[#12]

@jab1 

Maybe they use solid fibe for  the main "cables" but for the thin single element fibre from my house to the cabinet they did definitely blow it, setting up a small compressor and another gadget with the single element cable reel mounted on it. I watched the operative do it. That cable came in a length appropriate to the length required ( it comes in lengths of multiples of 25m with connectors on both ends)  with any excess coiled within the junction box. City Fibre installers are not fibre cable jointers. My installation was less than a month ago.

[#13]

@jgb  I watched my next door neighbour get their new fibre service fitted yesterday by 3 lads from City Fibre. They used that same process to blow fibre to the cabinet 70m away, after they had connected up some.conduit to a distribution spider thingy via ducting that was installed when the property was built 30 odd years ago.

I will monitor their experience but need to wait until my current contract is nearer the end.

[#14]

@jgb They may still do that for U/G installations -  I honestly don't know, but 95+% of the houses around me are O/H fed, and I know, because I saw them them do a lot of the work, even the cables to the chambers was solid - OK, it was BT doing the work, not  City Fibre,

Connect Fibre, who are the altnet round here also use solid cable.

[#15]

@jab1 

From what I have seen around here where many houses are overhead fed and others underground, the overhead fibre cables are solid cables as are the main underground cables to the chambers or cabinets (dependent on the firm involved). I think this applies to both Openreach and City Fibre overhead installation. 

I have not been around when an Openreach underground connection is being made and so I don't know what is used by them in those circumstances, but City Fibre certainly install mini ducts and then blow sheathed single filament fibre through them. I suppose that method allows them to ensure a fibre path before the final installation team arrives. If the initial duct proving reveals a problem then, according to the team that proved mine,  City Fire then send out specialist teams with cameras and other kit to clear problems before the installation team arrives. In the event that the fibre to the house link fails then replacement should be simpler via the mini duct than having to pull another solid fibre cable through a congested duct.

We also have You fibre around and they seem to have installed their main cables in the underground ducts but have not yet connected any houses up in my immediate vicinity..