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BT removing fixed speed DSLAMS from exchanges?

Hi, got a letter from my isp saying:

It has come to our attention to inform you of the latest changes that BT are making to the service they provide. In the next few months BT will be discontinuing all Home products and they will no longer be available to any customers or Internet service providers. Keconnect have not been made aware of the exact data but we have been told it will be in the very near future. BT are updating all exchanges to give customers a much faster speed which the home products do not provide.

Over the past few months Keconnect have launched some brand new ADSL Max products to reflect this change and to give our customers the chance to upgrade their connection, these products have become extremely competative within the Market Place also very popular with our customers as they give you a much faster speed and you still get to keep the top quality service that Keconnect provide.

As you are a valued customer of Keconnect we would not want to loose you as a customer so I have done a full account review to see if there is another alternative product which we could upgrade you to intesat of loosing your broadband connection all together.

Currently you are subscibing to HOME 1000 - 1Mbps speed - Totally Unlimited Download £29.99 per month.

They then go on to supply the line checker results, which say 2meg (I ran the line checker myself a month ago and it said they would only gaurentee 1.5meg) and list my usage for the past year which is getting up to 200gb/month these days.

They then go on to sugest that the nearest product that will meet my bandwidth needs is their 8meg unlimited package at £129.99 / month.

Now I'm not too happy about having a forced upgrade that is going to cost me an extra £100 a month and will only get me 1.5 - 2meg. Is this information on the level, or is it just a ploy to force an upgrade out of me because they don't want to make good on the old unlimited contracts anymore?

If this is true, then are the 2meg fixed speed DSLAMS also going to be removed also? The best alternative I've found so far is ADSL24's 2meg unlimited for £39.99 /month, but that package might also be unavailable to me in the near future as well if BT are ditching the fixed speed DSLAMS :(

Anyone have any advice for me please?

Thanks in advance.
 
It sounds like utter bollocks to me.

Treat it as a con and sign up with another ISP. And send the letter to BT, Trading Standards, the ISPA and anyone else you can think of.
 
In the next few months BT will be discontinuing all Home products and they will no longer be available to any customers or Internet service providers.
The email does seem legitimate, although quite what they mean by the above quote I do not know as BT sell products wholesale to ISPs using different names. I would assume they mean the Standard IPStream (512Kbps to 2Mbps), though I wasn't aware that this service was being 'directly' withdraw from existing users. It's usually the ISP's choice if something like this occurs.

I'll send your ISP an e-mail to enquire about precisely what they mean and ask a few other providers about this because I'm not 100% sure what BT are intending to do with the older ADSL wholesale products.
 
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BT are planning to withdraw the Home/Office variants and only offer the MAX/MAX Premium, but this is due to WBC not being designed to support this functionality. There was talk about 'sun setting' these products before the full rollout of WBC for various 'operational' reasons.
 
Shame, at least you could rely on the stability of the older standard services and it was possible to get slower speed / high usage services for an affordable sum.
 
Yes, and on the old fixed connections (like my current 2Mb one) you don't have to waste electricity by being permanently connected so that BT's equipment doesn't think you have a line stability problem and drop your speed.

Quite apart from environmental concerns, leaving the router on when you have no intention of using the internet for hours is no good for your wallet - especially with recent electricity price rises. Being happy with my current ISP, I haven't bothered looking at alternatives for ages, but if the 2Mb offering dies, if there's anything around that does *not* require me to waste electricity/money, I would seriously consider it.
 
Thanks for the info guys, very helpfull.

I'd emailed ADSL24 about it as well, who said that they knew nothing about the removal of old DSLAMs and that if this was to happen they would expect considerable notice from BT. I'm prety set on switching to them now, because even when the inevitable does happen, they've still got some very reasonable 8meg packages with loads of off peak usage that I can dig into, which is more than I can say for Keconnect at the moment unfortunately.
 
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£130/month is jus a bit excessive!
 
Perhaps the isp is working on the basis that the OP is caning the connection for 200GB on a 1Meg line then the likelihood is that they will be transferring a tad more if the speed is upped to 8meg and the costs will most probably be over a ton at least and they have made a commercial decision that this type of usage is not what they want to cater for!!

I'll have to cut down my usage eventually, there's only 1.1TB left on my NAS :p
 
Just a heads up, I've been talking to some industry sources and it's fair to say that everybody is very wary of discussing this matter, with nobody wanting to get in hot water with BT. One thing I do know is that BT do have some sort of plan for retiring their older fixed rate products, though they're not speaking about it much in public.

I've tried to contact the chief press officer at BT and KeConnect to get a comment but have received no response from either, which is pretty poor but not unsurprising. BT love to tell you when they have a new product out but try getting a simple clarification and you'll be stonewalled. This is usually the time when you run a news story and the next day they moan at you for not clarifying with them first :) .

Still, my understanding is that even though the old fixed-speed products are being retired, you should still be able to request a fixed-profile equivalent under MAX that would do the same job. So if they’re not offering this to you and only promoting an 8Mbps alternative then I’d suggest asking why?
 
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/me reads it - and looks for "sawn-off shotgun" ;)

I liked this though. "Michael Eagle reported a perceived disenchantment due to lack of uncertainty".
Yes, we expect BT to be wishy-washy and vague about everything, we get most upset when they're actually certain about something. :laugh:
 
Actually all the providers are now looking at removing the ipstream and datastream lines shortly.

KNow that Tiscali is looking on the same line.

So i think better check if any other provider can give you the same for now.

Regards
 
Unlimited services are extremely expensive, Titan (who I am with) charges around £170 for a fully 'up-to' 8mb connection, BT's fault of course. If you look at the chairman of BT Group, you'll understand why it is this way.
 
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