Phone Rental/Line and Broad Band - Talk talk.......!!

silky180

Hello

I wonder if anyone can clarify something for me. I ahve been a talk talk customer for approximately 5 -6 years and have finally reached the end of my tether!

Approximately 6 months agao I was without a phone line for at least 2 weeks. It was finally due to the line being wet but it took a fair while for an engineer to come out and then I had to promise to pay £100 etc if I was at fault.

At the time I tried to leave TT only to be told that they have what is called an unbundelled line in the exchange and for me to leave TT would cost me £100 because BT would have to take the line back... is this correct? TT persuaded me to stay by giving me half price line rental for 6 months.

I have yet another fault on the line and have not had a phone line since the 1 Nov, so when and if it is ever fixed I am seriously thinging of going this time but is it seriously going to cost me £100? ALso, does anyone have any ideas if anyone else is any better as there is so much conflicting info. AT the moment all phone rental, line and broadband is with TT.

Thanks for any advice.

Mark_In_Hampshire

BT do not have to take the line back, no. However most gaining suppliers can't be bothered to complete the full migration process and would rather cherry pick customers with "BT lines" (BT Wholesale Line rental)

The underlying issue is that the telephone network is an ancient piece of kit creaking under the demands of modern telecoms and broadband, and it doesn't matter who you have as your line rental supplier, some faults have to be escalated to and fixed by BT Openreach so you simply have to wait for them if that's where the fault is (e.g. like water ingress causing a problem with the physical line).

So as far as "is anyone better" - remember that as far as the physical line goes, there is only one supplier (unless you can get cable, or live in Hull) called BT Openreach which they all use, so as far as fixing physical faults goes, the only difference is in how they handle and update the customer and how quickly they escalate the problem.

With a cable phone line the whole thing is "in house" as it were so you don't have to chase one company to chase another. However there is also no guarantee that a similar type of fault would not occur on a cable phone line (though the phone and broadband are unrelated rather than supplied down the same bit of wire) nor any guarantee that it would be sorted quicker.

Heinz

It was previously said that, to move from an LLU provider to anyone else would require you to move your line (free) back to BT on a 'return to donor' basis. That would, of course, mean that you had to agree to a 12 month contract for line rental with BT.

However, the requirement to go back to BT has been disputed more recently and it has been said that it is possible to move from an LLU provider without doing so.

Frankly, I don't know what the position is and can only suggest you make enquiries of the provider you wish to move to and ask them to give you a written quotation (not an estimate) of what they will charge you.

silky180

Thanks guys. It is really difficult to know what to do. As there are so many limitations on the various array of packages and they all want you to sign up for 12/18 months.....

I have sky TV and this is the only reason I am inclined to go with them because you then have the sky TV free of charge (or that was a deal at one point)

So am I better cutting my losses and paying more to go back to BT as the equipment is technically owed by them.....

deklan99

As OCE Emma now says "A number of ISPs can revert the line back onto BT's network......." http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=549444&postcount=12 , just what I and others have been trying to say for some time.

macman

silky180 wrote: »

Thanks guys. It is really difficult to know what to do. As there are so many limitations on the various array of packages and they all want you to sign up for 12/18 months.....

I have sky TV and this is the only reason I am inclined to go with them because you then have the sky TV free of charge (or that was a deal at one point)

So am I better cutting my losses and paying more to go back to BT as the equipment is technically owed by them.....

You may not have any option on line rental other than doing a return to donor back to BT. However, Sky appear to be one of the few ISP's who can sometimes do an LLU to LLU transfer.

silky180

macman wrote: »

You may not have any option on line rental other than doing a return to donor back to BT. However, Sky appear to be one of the few ISP's who can sometimes do an LLU to LLU transfer.

MAcmAn - how do you know this? Thanks

macman

Because some people have reported a successful LLU to Sky transfer on this board.

tinytot143

I have just been on the phone to sky and they asked me if I wanted to change my phone to them from Talk talk. I just said that for me to do that I have to move back to BT and then to you so not worth my while but he just 'no you don't have to do that now you can come straight to Sky'

Don't know if this is just in my area or everywhere!!!!

Mark_In_Hampshire

silky180 wrote: »

Thanks guys. It is really difficult to know what to do. As there are so many limitations on the various array of packages and they all want you to sign up for 12/18 months.....

I have sky TV and this is the only reason I am inclined to go with them because you then have the sky TV free of charge (or that was a deal at one point)

So am I better cutting my losses and paying more to go back to BT as the equipment is technically owed by them.....

Sky's LLU equipment is not the property of BT.

BT's broadband equipment uses something called BRAS profiling which isn't used by LLU kit.

Therefore people - particularly those on marginal lines - are better off avoiding BT kit altogether and having an LLU service.

BT does not own the LLU kit, Sky (in this case) does. That's actually a good reason to move to them.

I_luv_cats

Do the telephone companies have to pay for "Open Reach" to come out??

I had a quicker response with "Open Reach" and BT than when I was with Tiscali who made me go thorough over a week of silly nonsense before they would escalate to the person who requests BT come out!!!

I would really hesitate before I go LLU as it is a pain to get the answers to whom you can move to!!!