sidewinder Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Moving to a new flat next Saturday, and being a geek (plus I need it for work) I want broadband as soon as is humanly possible. We've been in contact with the current tenants a bit, and they are currently with Sky. I have the phone number and they are moving out this Saturday - presumably their Sky account will be cancelled from then. I did think that would make it easy to go with Sky but from a bit of quick googling it sounds like it could still take weeks. But I am assuming that if the line is rented from Sky, it would take time and money to get it back to BT, and thus be able to use other providers? I am assuming that other ISPs only deal with BT lines? Is there a way to check whether a phone number is Sky's or BT's? And if it is Sky's, anyone done something similar and have any tips for getting it done as fast as possible?
kylewilliamson Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Doubt it'll make any difference wether or not go with Sky or BT or any other Local Local Provider - whatever the activation day they'll just go down and plug it in anyway. When the existing Sky line is disconnected, it's probably disconnected from Sky's kit at the BT exchange anyway. Find yourself the best deal, order it, and get a 3G stick for the interim..
MatthewL Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Another one here for 3G, either Three or Vodafone for a decent connection.
jonnykewell1 Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 have a scan see if any of your new neighbours have an open wifi
rad Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 If you currently have an internet connection at your current flat, I am sure its easy for them to move the line across, nowadays most of the back end is done electronically, its only the wiring on the street the engineer does. When a friend moved, they had a BT engineer at their door on the day they moved in and it was a rented accomodation they moved from/to
sidewinder Posted January 11, 2012 Author Posted January 11, 2012 Only problem is the current one is Virgin cable! And new area isnt cabled I'd prefer to go with another provider, used ADSL24 a while ago and they were great, but it's going to be hard to persuade flatmates to go with that when Sky is free for 6 months! So when the line is actually controlled by Sky (eg paying them rather than BT line rental) it's still converted back to a BT line when the account is closed? Good shout on the dongle. Also there is a cafe across the road with free wi-fi so I should survive
DT2 Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 When I moved into my new place it took 2 months for sky to remove the previous owners service...... I had no internet at home for 4 months, what with waiting for BT to pull their finger out and and sort my line out. Didn't bother me so much, but the Mrs went mental (well she was already mental, it tipped her a bit further). In fact thinking back, I don't remember a time when it didn't take weeks to get a new service. Tiscali was shocking. Pipex was pretty good, only two weeks but that was for business, and talk talk, don't even get me started. Problem is with my area is that virgin fibre only seems to be provided for the dole dossing chods..... Why the hell is sat broadband so expensive in this country??? My inolaws in Canada pay $20 a month for a 2mb synchronous sat service!!! I'll second the dongle, not much price dfference from a standard service, you can certainly acquire it quicker, and most are on a rolling one month contract. DT (disliker of shoddy ISPs)
dave.81 Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 I've just moved between 2 rented places, Sky cut me off in the morning of the move and would have reconnected me that afternoon if i'd given 10 days notice, as it was i had to wait 2 days.
crc-ict Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 When I moved into my new place it took 2 months for sky to remove the previous owners service...... I had no internet at home for 4 months, what with waiting for BT to pull their finger out and and sort my line out. We had the same thing - over 2 months without internet and phone because Sky wouldn't relinquish their hold over the line. And after over a month, the best BT would offer us was a Vodafone dongle - useful when the house is in an area with absolutely no Vodafone signal!!
featured_spectre Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 If you are with anyone now, say you want to move it to your new address. They'll do it the day you move. If a new customer, ring now and tell them as it can take weeks with any supplier. I would recommend BT and ask for the dongle (an additional £10) but the usage is capped at whatever your broadband is, so you can use it anywhere in three country and its tied to your home broadband
tommej Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 When I moved into my new place it took 2 months for sky to remove the previous owners service...... I had no internet at home for 4 months, what with waiting for BT to pull their finger out and and sort my line out. Didn't bother me so much, but the Mrs went mental (well she was already mental, it tipped her a bit further). In fact thinking back, I don't remember a time when it didn't take weeks to get a new service. Tiscali was shocking. Pipex was pretty good, only two weeks but that was for business, and talk talk, don't even get me started. Problem is with my area is that virgin fibre only seems to be provided for the dole dossing chods..... Why the hell is sat broadband so expensive in this country??? My inolaws in Canada pay $20 a month for a 2mb synchronous sat service!!! I'll second the dongle, not much price dfference from a standard service, you can certainly acquire it quicker, and most are on a rolling one month contract. DT (disliker of shoddy ISPs) Funny you should say that! Pipex was taken over by tiscali and then by talk talk
soveryapt Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 The one thing I would say is AVOID SKY BROADBAND / PHONE LIKE IT'S THE PLAGUE .. I went with them because on the all in deal with the TV (which on the TV side I can't really fault them) it worked out far cheaper than any other company. 1) it took them about 2 months to get the install done as they didn't believe that the phone line was active on their systems (previous owner was with BT, do you dial 150 and find out that you get the Sky customer services and dial 17070 and find the number is also different so ...) 2) every time (and I mean every) they have done an upgrade to their service we've been cut off, only to be restored 2-3 days later having argued the point with them with a worse connection than we had previously (I mean I'm rural, so 2mb is a good connection, but at one stage their upgrade reduced that to 0.13mb - I could probably have done better on dialup) - this has been about 4 times with 1 of those times they actually managed to give our number to someone else completely ..! GAH... 3) their customer service is shocking in that they don't really give a monkeys and it's only after you've spent a number of hours on the phone that you actually get put through to someone who has a vague knowledge about the internet and how it works and even then they can be a bit arsey about it. For 1 fault I had 8 engineer visits to get it resolved, each time the engineer (OpenReach) said "it's not our fault, Sky are capping it at source and we can't change that" or some similar thing that Sky were at fault .. I could go on listing all the issues I've had in the 14 months I've had internet with them, but all I would say is avoid avoid avoid .. People I've not had issues with in the past are Orange (though customer service is based somewhere with a script, but they get things sorted) and Demon Internet and BT Direct. Obviously there's Virgin, but you've already said that they're not cabled at your new place so there goes that idea ..
Norphy Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 https://www.bethere.co.uk/web/beportal/homepage Not the cheapest but so worth it. Never had a problem with the line, support was excellent when my modem died, speeds are fast and consistent and a truly unlimited connection. If they're doing maintenance, they let you know in advance. If the service goes down, they let you know by text message. Be are about as good as you can get for DSL in my experience! 1
laserblazer Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 The one thing I would say is AVOID SKY BROADBAND / PHONE LIKE IT'S THE PLAGUE My daughter moved recently you would not believe how Sky messed her around. On my recommedation, she went to Plusnet and they were quick. When she introduced herself to the neighbours and said how her Ebay sideline was suffering, they gave her access to their wifi. The only place she could get a decent signal was the downstairs loo. It might be worth introducing yourself to the neighbours, invite them in for coffee and then give them a sob-story.
Paul_Warner Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 The one thing I would say is AVOID SKY BROADBAND / PHONE LIKE IT'S THE PLAGUE ... Wow, I have to admit I would be the complete opossite of that, I am with Sky with there all in package and find them very good when we moved and had any issues, I rung them up and told them when we were moving and to where etc, sent through the details and on the day of the move the interent got cut off and actiavted straight away, they even sent us an entire new kit for the Internet, As well as that they even activated the TV signal at the new house staright away, Very good I thought and they really were good Again, I don't think I have had a singal issue with there service (TV, Phone or Internet) and there customer service in my opinion. That is all my opionion of them but I really do think they are one of the best companies going, However on the other hand AOL is just awful entirely including there non UK / English Speaking Customer Service Team, That is an entirely diffrent story all together. Thanks
JoeBloggs Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 I'm a new Sky customer after being with VM for my whole internet life since Dial-up. They got me connected on the day they said and been fine since. Not the fastest but I'm pretty far from the exchange but it's stable. I went for the whole phone, broadband, TV package.
soveryapt Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 That's fair enough, if you've both had a good experience then that's great, it's like any company I guess, but I have to say, I've spoken to quite a few people who have Sky Broadband and you're both in the minority of thinking they're good .. but there we go .. it's one of those things ..
nicholab Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 I recommend be unlimited also make sure you get some of these XF-1e - Professional Microfilter - adslnation.com
RobFuller Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 If you get the Post Office Broadband to take over the current tents line, you can then swap straight away to any other provider as you’re not tied into any 12/18 month contracts. This was brilliant when I moved into my first house and didn’t already have a provider but had to have a BT line in order to take up the offer I wanted at the time.
witch Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 I'm a new Sky customer after being with VM for my whole internet life since Dial-up. They got me connected on the day they said and been fine since. Not the fastest but I'm pretty far from the exchange but it's stable. I went for the whole phone, broadband, TV package. Me too - moved from Virgin - had a couple of issues sorted out very quickly. They've been great
HarryMonkey Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 I've ben with Force9 (Plusnet) for years now. The service is excellent, their tech support is superb (although I've only ever needed it twice). The customer service people are very friendly and helpful. Can't recommend them highly enough.
denzal2k4 Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) recently moved house had massive 4 month headache with sky/ BT/ talktalk, before trying plus net and they had it working within 2 weeks and the connection fee was cheaper than the rest and good quidco cashback, £40 i believe. EDIT: just wanted to add we were with Sky at our last place and had no problems at all, decent speeds never lost connection in 2 years, great value when combined with phone and tv, i personally think all internet problems stem back to BT, words cannot express how much I hate that company. Edited January 11, 2012 by denzal2k4
Sirbendy Posted January 12, 2012 Posted January 12, 2012 My advice? If it has a BT line in, plug a handset in and check it's operational. Phone BT, request connection if needed, and don't be fobbed off - I've been fobbed off in most of our rentals, everything from "you need a new line" (no I don't), to "it doesn't show on our system". If they ask about the line/wiring state, tell them it's fine. I've only found 1 BT guy who was not military about me doing my own wiring..he was good. "What state is the wiring in?".."well, it's on the floor at the moment, I'm ripping it all out back to the incoming 2 wire line box and starting again with proper NTE5's etc".."oh, fair enough - I'll put "excellent" there then..". If they insist on playing silly, or threaten a reconnect fee Google is your friend...I found a way to get into the exchange automated test system via handset on a deactivated but live line, and presented them with the virtual circuit ID, last known number etc...that surprised them..heh. "Oh, yes..we can see it now..."..
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