UPDATE13 Customers of Broadband ISP Fast.co.uk and 186k Face Shock Cut-off

Sources have informed ISPreview.co.uk that customers of broadband ISP Fast.co.uk, sibling Firenet and supplier 186k are facing a nasty Christmas SHOCK after the provider, which until recently had been quite stable, suddenly announced that they were “unable to continue” the service.

Customers who attempt to contact the ISP via phone are being told to seek an alternative provider for their broadband and a short service status update confirms this message, while also apologising “for any inconvenience this may cause” (spoken as if the collapse of a vital service were somehow a minor or temporary fault).

Status Update (Dec 13, 09:34 GMT)

If you’re currently experiencing an outage with your broadband service please be advised that you will need to find an alternative broadband provider as we are unable to continue to supply your current service.

Please direct any queries to support@fast.co.uk or support@firenet.co.uk.

Other services, such as website hosting and e-mail are unaffected.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Some of our industry sources have alleged that Fast.co.uk or 186k may have failed to pay its Wholesale bills, possibly for many months. As a result it seems likely that the supplier might have cut-off their service (we will query this), although the fact that Fast.co.uk had not made customers aware of the problem until it was too late is a serious concern.

Luckily Ofcom’s new migration rule means that customers can start an automatic migration away from the provider by simply signing up to a new ISP (details). Indeed one of the reasons why Ofcom adopted this Gaining Provider Led (GPL) approach is precisely to help tackle situations like this one.

A number of ISPs, such as iDNET, claim to be receiving calls from Fast.co.uk’s subscribers today and are offering to help out. More as soon as we get it.

UPDATE 12:06pm:

Multiple sources also appear to be suggesting that 186k has been closed down and customer lines ceased (186k is connected to Fast.co.uk and they also supply a number of other vISPs). The problem could be about to get even bigger. We note that the statement put out by fast is also being mirrored on 186k and other linked vISPs, such as Firenet, albeit with email/name details changed.

UPDATE 12:18pm:

Another ISP, Aquiss, has begun circling the carcass with an offer of its own for those affected: “Following a series of calls and emails from Fast customers this morning, it would appear that Fast customers have had their broadband services terminated, with messages on their switchboard that seem to appear to point customers towards looking for a new ISP. Line checks in all cases appear show that broadband services are no longer active on the lines.

Aquiss is offering a helping hand to restore services quickly by offering FAST customers free activation (saving £49.95) for orders placed before December 17^th 2016. Please call Aquiss on 01746708090 or email sales@aquiss.net for further details.”

This offer also applies to those at the other impacted ISPs (186k supplied etc.).

UPDATE 12:38pm

The way that 186k/Fast.co.uk etc. have stopped their broadband service means that customers may be forced to pay for a new broadband line activation since the traditional GPL migration path, which is often free for ADSL switches, might not work. We are engaging Ofcom on this.

UPDATE 12:45pm

A tweet from ISP Andrews and Arnold (AAISP) once again confirms the exodus.

UPDATE 1:09pm

A quick look at the company details for 186k (here) show that they’ve recently had some musical chairs with company names and their accounts are overdue since 30th November 2016, although this by itself is not too unusual (plenty of companies suffer accounting delays).

UPDATE 2:35pm

iDNET confirms that they’ve been able to switch some customers today, significantly faster than other ISPs have been suggesting.

UPDATE 4:15pm

Ofcom has responded to offer this initial comment.

An Ofcom Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We take the customer impact of providers going out of business very seriously and are working to establish the facts of the reported closure of 186k and Fast.co.uk.”

UPDATE 5:22pm

ISPreview.co.uk can confirm that the wholesale supplier, which 186k allegedly neglected to pay, was NOT BT Wholesale (at least not directly). We do know that 186k and Fast.co.uk also had some unbundled (LLU) platforms too, which leaves a few options that are being chased (e.g. Vodafone, TalkTalk etc.).

UPDATE 14th Dec – 7:06am

We understand that TalkTalk Wholesale has no direct trading relationship with 186k, although one of their partners did supply them (we don’t know which one, yet). The complex web of vISPs, resellers and second level suppliers is making this a particularly difficult situation to unravel. Both BT and TalkTalk based lines are involved, it’s just a matter of finding the responsible supplier.

Elsewhere AAISP noted that they’ve been able to get customers with BT lines back online quite quickly, although they’re not the most affordable ISP.

UPDATE 14th Dec – 10:52am

Some of the older 20CN BT lines being picked up by other ISPs appear to be tagged by Fluidata (FluidOne) and they’ve just issued the following statement.

Simon Stokes, Head of Channel for FluidOne, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“FluidOne are the Data Delivery Network and provide wholesale access to Service Providers. Our channel team can provide support to resellers currently affected by this disruption and immediately restore services. We urge all affected end users to contact their partners and for their partners to contact us.”

We did ask if they could offer some extra insight into how the situation occurred, but they were unable to provide anything further beyond the above comment.

UPDATE 14th Dec – 3:52pm

Judging by some of the feedback we’ve seen. Any connection on the FluidOne network can be reconnected without the 10 day wait, provided it remains on the FluidOne network. Any reseller who’s on the FluidOne network and has a BT service can bypass the 10 day wait also. We’ve seen a similar story on the TalkTalk lines, provided they stay with a TalkTalk based ISP / service.

UPDATE 15th Dec – 3:04pm

At present an awful lot of ISPs are keen to say that they’re “willing to help,” but there’s no way we’re posting such identical messages from every provider (it reads too much like repetitive marketing SPAM), although one or two have done an interesting twist. For example, Zen Internet..

A Zen Internet spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We are keen to reassure all residential consumers and businesses that there are ways to get reconnected reliably and quickly. We are happy to help ex Fast.co.uk customers get reconnected as soon as possible.

We have to follow industry lead times, which are currently recommending that all new connections will be live from around 29 December. At the same time, we know that many people will want to connect with friends and family particularly over the Christmas period.

In that spirit, we will happily offer any ex-Fast customer who signs a new contract for broadband with Zen a free hotspot device on loan until they get their service connected. The device will be delivered within three days of agreeing to their new contract with Zen, which means that they can be up and running in plenty of time for Christmas.

The events at Fast.co.uk will have come as a shock, but at Zen we will do all we can to help people get connected in time for Christmas.”

We assume they mean “Mobile” hotspot and we’re double checking the details. UPDATE: It’s a 4G Mobile hotspot on the EE network.

UPDATE 7th March 2017

We’ve been surprised to find that some of the 186k / Fast.co.uk / Firenet etc. customers have continued to stick with the provider(s) for web hosting and email, despite the failure of broadband and an inability by company management to clarify what happened. Such a massive failure is usually a good indication that it’s time to change provider.

Never the less we note that some people, those who remain, appear to have lost access to their emails since around mid-February 2017 (this doesn’t yet impact all of the associated ISPs) and we’re now hearing about problems with web hosting.

UPDATE 28th March 2017

After months of silence 186k just issued a Twitter update on their hosting issues: