Broadband switchover - is this normal practice?

uganda

Hi everyone,

I wonder if you could tell me if the following is normal (not looking for a debate on whether it is right or wrong at this stage, just to know if it is common practice and if all broadband providers do it the same way).

I agreed by telephone to join Talk Talk this morning (I am already regretting this and think I may abort this process, but that is for another thread) from Virgin.

I have to give Virgin 30 days notice, which seems reasonable and normal. I was advised to do this once I had received my welcome letter as I would then know my start date with Talk Talk. However, it appears the phone line takes less than 2 weeks to set up, then the broadband takes up to another 3 weeks after this.

So it seems impossible to avoid an overlap of a few weeks where I will have to pay both Virgin and Talk Talk for their phone lines when I only require one at a time. I asked if they could simply do the phone line and broadband at the same time, but they say it takes 3 weeks to set up broadband once the BT phone line has been set up. Does it take that long with everyone else too? Why?

Now granted, presuming the set-up goes smoothly and I receive a great service from the off (not likely, according to other threads!), I will only be a tenner or so out of pocket, but the point is Talk Talk sales staff were in turns shifty and aggressive when I asked why I couldn't avoid paying two providers at the same time for several weeks, and they have already put me in a position where I don't trust them (and these are the staff trying to SELL it to me!)

So tell me, aside from BT and Virgin who do their own lines on the same day, do all the other ISPs take so long to get everything up?

Many thanks

Mark_In_Hampshire

Virgin have their own network and can provision multiple services (TV, broadband, phone) on the same day - this is how it worked when we had ntl in the past.

The underlying infrastructure for the phone network is operated by a privatised monopoly called BT Openreach. Your phone supplier will "order" the line and that will be connected, then the broadband can be "ordered" also.

It has to be this way around, since not all lines can support a broadband service anyway - that isn't known until the line has been set up (another key difference to cable)

Talk Talk's behaviour is not unusual. It does not normally take 3 weeks to add ADSL to a line however. In any event, would you not want the two to overlap so you have a continuous service in case something goes wrong with the line or broadband provisioning?