Ofcom has recently announced a ‘Code of Practice’ to make sure new customers are given a realistic expectation of the speeds they‘ll get with their broadband. You may remember us blogging about it when it was first announced. During the signup process we’ll now provide information about the speeds they can expect on their line once broadband is activated. This information will then be made available on the member centre for later reference. An important thing to remember is that there are many external factors to take into account when measuring speed. Once you have been provided with your estimated speed, we’ll give detailed information on why this is only an estimate and why your speeds may vary. As well as providing an estimate of the speed you should get, the line-checker will also show up any potential problems that may occur during signup, such as there already being another broadband service active on the line. If this happens then the signup journey will request a MAC code to be able to transfer the service. At the moment we will only be making this change for signups to our residential products. We do want to add this on to the business signup journey but that will follow at a later date. If the line-checker isn’t available due to a problem outside of our control then it will still allow the customer to continue with the signup. But they will need to tick a box to confirm they are happy to do so without the line-checker information. If the problem has occurred within our system then the customer will be given the option to restart the line-check or call support to complete the signup. Occasionally the line-checker may not be able to find information about certain lines, this sometimes happens with a line that has only just been installed. In this instance the line-checker will ask for a postcode and provide slightly less accurate information than it would with a phone number. The customer will also be advised that this information may not be as accurate as it would if they had provided a telephone number. The linechecker will also be a part of the housemove and upgrade process from the 5th December. If you want to read more on this at the Ofcom site, have a look here: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/copbb/ Chris
Ofcom Linechecker Code of Practice - What's that all about then?