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Hometelcom disconnection of Bulldog ADSL service

Frances

Member
Hello - I wonder if anyone can advise me on the issue of the withdrawal of the old Bulldog ADSL service - my ISP is now Home Telecom (since 2012), and I never spoken to them until 2 days ago. I have had this service since 2004 when Bulldog was part of C&W and in all honesty been very stable across the years.

I was surprised to be informed while calling my ISP that my services will cease on 31st October as the ADSL kit is being withdrawn. lucky I called 😮 as I had not recieved any notification.

A few questions in my mind and wonder if any advice from techies 🙂

How easy will it be to transfer to the new fibre service they have offered - what will the Openreach engineer actually do ?
Currently there are two live connections at my address - one I need to really cease (with BT) as not used - and my normal ADSL connection with home number - will 2 lines cause any connection issues when they upgrade to fibre connection ?

I hope someone is able to give some advice - thank you - its tight for time as 31st October is like 3 weeks away - Brexit, Halloween and potentially no broadband 🤔
 
This assuming you can actually GET a hybrid fibre service.
Have you checked??

I remember reading a report that Bulldog were doing this many, many months ago, on this very forum; I am very surprised you never got so much as an email from them about it.
I seem to remember them saying that some of their customers WOULDNT be able to get fibre, but they were discontinuing ADSL anyway.

The actual wires to your property wont be changed, and having two sets wont be an issue; I had my line stolen by Talk Talk and had to have a 2nd line fitted, then a few days later, a fibre connection made on that new line.

What costs are they quoting; if you dont really need fibre, it might be worth shopping around, plenty of people still do ADSL, and with the government commitment to go fully fibre over the next few years, your "new" hybrid line will need to be changed again.
To be fair, fibre prices have dropped to the extent that there is only a few £ difference for (hopefully), a lot more speed.
 
Thanks for response Capt Cretin.

They say I am in fibre area and conversation cost is just delivery cost of new router.

They claim they sent an email to an old AOL address - but they had both my home and mobile number, which was never tried - and have since sent me the email and a letter.
I believe my best course of action is let them action the transfer to ensure I do not lose my home number... and once all sorted onto a newer network move to another provider in a month or so time as no new contract.
I just hope 2 lines into home already does not stop the engineer sorting it all out .
 
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Mark Jackson (ISPreview) highlighted this last month.
According to Vodafone they wrote to Bulldog users months ago. clearly not. I would have thought that they would have offered a Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) VDSL service to you. The fact they haven't suggests that they can't and are prepared to let you go as a customer.

ADSL speed varies by distance from the exchange but two individual telephone pairs can behave quite differently. If you do indeed have two Broadband services currently I would first speed test each to see which is the best and seek a new ISP on that line. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/speed/#1

ADSL is slowly being abandoned as providers cease their old LLU provision.

BT OR has announced that they will be upgrading their ADSL users to FTTC (VDSL) at no charge by next summer (if covered by FTTC). Those left on ADSL only areas will continue but the number of ISPs offering ADSL broadband will continue to reduce.

A 4G alternative to ADSL is now mainstream (THREE and EE leading) and you could consider this option if your ADSL speed is insufficient for your needs. Home Broadband via mobile will become increasingly competitive and be upgraded to 5G soon. BT will be offering hybrid Fixed/5G solutions early next year and others will follow.

The permutations are many depending on your post code, whether you need a fixed telephone line etc. But I hope this helps.
 
Apologies. Should have refreshed. Looks like a simple comparison of FTTC ISP cost/service.

I view them charging for the delivery of the Router a bit of a cheek, as the change is their responsibility. I would push the point.

Each line should be identified separately. Changing to a new provider should not inhibit you keeping the same number but ISPreview currently indicates Vodafone are cheapest of the national ISPs.
 
Thank you for the info Meatball.

They have offered to upgrade and I take your point about the router charge. The other line does not have broadband on it - it was put in a few years ago by old employer who wanted a dedicated line and was just not used, it used to run a Zen service. I will cease that as I dont use it now, and connection box is at far end of the house in conservatory. My Bulldog line has my home number, which I really want to keep, and I am hoping the exsistance of the other line to the house does not stop the update to the ADSL line.

I have one cable from the street pole to the house which is split by a connector above front door - then 2 cables off it, one to the front which is the ADSL socket and one to the unused but currently live BT number at rear of house.
 
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