Can I move home AND Migrate?

MerseyLad

Im moving address on Friday and wanted to take my Newnet connection with me but the ISP said it would cost £47. I said "no chance".... It annoys me that I moved ISP at my current address in October and it cost nothing - yet if I want to move they charge me nearly 50 notes.

So Ive asked for a MAC code as im only on a 1 month contract. Can I transfer ISP's at the same time as moving address?

EG - Move from Newnet to say Pipex and give them the new address and phone number to apply it to?

Also, anyone recommend a decent ISP. I moved away from Pipex in October due to speed issues. Newnet have been sound - but im annoyed with them and their connection fee of £47. Maybe I can goto Pipex on a 1 month contract, and therefore avoid connection fee. Then after a month transfer back to Newnet and avoid fee again?

Or is it all tooooooo cunning?

- I would like an ISP with a 1 month contract if possible [but willing to look at others]
- I use the net mainly for viewing pages [although this can be used for full 12 hour days at times due to work] and for bit of music downloads [between 10-20 albums a month]. I dont download films etc. Therefore about 20Gb should well cover me.
- I dont really want to pay too much in excess of £20 p.m
- Im within 5 miles from the exchange, but we can only get speeds of upto 2Kbps at the moment in our area.

normanmark

When moving house, MACs arent applicable. When you move to the house you'll be taking over the line in that house. So you'll have to start from fresh.

MACs are only applicable in moving the service on the existing line between providers.

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Merseylad,

If you wanted to migrate from Newnet you would only be able to do so from your existing line where Newnet have installed their connection. A migration is only possible when you want to change to a different provider using a phoneline that is already enabled for broadband.

I like Newnet, I met Peter Milford from Newnet and he's a real upright guy. And looking at their site their charges seem pretty fair.

From Newnet's perspective, here is what I think that they're thinking....When you first signed up for the contract they probably provided you a free connection as a welcome to their services. They actually have to pay BT a sum to to enable this connection. Guessing from the moving home charge, it's probably around £47.

When they charge you £47 they're simply saying 'look, we covered you the first time BT charged to get you connected, you've got to pick up this one'. There really isn't a huge margin in offering broadband and paying for one customer to be connected twice is a pretty big hit for an ISP.

Because the cost of a connection is so expensive to an ISP if an ISP doesn't charge you up front for the connection but advertises as a monthly contract then there is probably something fishy going on. For example Virgin provide a free connection and advertise 'no 12 month contract' however when you read the small print you'll see that they charge a £50 fee if you leave prior to being with them for 12 months. Pipex used to advertise the same kind of contract, however it looks like they've clearly labelled their products now as 12 month contracts, which is a lot more honest.

Some ISPs will charge you up front for the connection and these are usually the true monthly contracts.

I know it's never fun to get hit with an unexpected charge, however I hope that this helps shed a little light on the industry for you.

Kind regards,
Samara

andrew-b

MerseyLad wrote:

Im moving address on Friday and wanted to take my Newnet connection with me but the ISP said it would cost £47. I said "no chance".... It annoys me that I moved ISP at my current address in October and it cost nothing - yet if I want to move they charge me nearly 50 notes.

Shame you didn't ask this question sooner as i could have saved you a fair bit of cash! I recently moved house....but a couple of months before i migrated my adsl connection to Zen (a monthly contract) in order to take advantage of their free house move service.
The actual process is more complicated than a standard migration and involves what's called a "simultaneous provide" of the BT line and broadband service. There's only a few isps that will do this..zen are one, nildram are another (although they charge something less than £47).

My simultaneous provide actually went wrong leaving me without internet for a few days but i didn't have to pay a penny..other than a higher monthly subscription than the equivalent at NewNet.

MerseyLad wrote:

So Ive asked for a MAC code as im only on a 1 month contract. Can I transfer ISP's at the same time as moving address?

You can't use a MAC code for this purpose...as the MAC code is a reference to the physical line

MerseyLad wrote:

EG - Move from Newnet to say Pipex and give them the new address and phone number to apply it to?

Also, anyone recommend a decent ISP. I moved away from Pipex in October due to speed issues. Newnet have been sound - but im annoyed with them and their connection fee of £47. Maybe I can goto Pipex on a 1 month contract, and therefore avoid connection fee. Then after a month transfer back to Newnet and avoid fee again?

Or is it all tooooooo cunning?

nooooooooo.....not s*itex ...please dont! Pipex have a minimum 12 contract so you'd be stuck with them with no way out for a year. Based on bitter experiences, I wouldn't touch any of the Pipex group of companies My recommendations for isps to look at at the moment are Zen, IDNet or UKFSN (an EntaNet reseller). The forums at thinkbroadband.com (formerly adslguide.org.uk) is the place to go for adsl advice.

MerseyLad wrote:

- I would like an ISP with a 1 month contract if possible [but willing to look at others]
- I use the net mainly for viewing pages [although this can be used for full 12 hour days at times due to work] and for bit of music downloads [between 10-20 albums a month]. I dont download films etc. Therefore about 20Gb should well cover me.
- I dont really want to pay too much in excess of £20 p.m
- Im within 5 miles from the exchange, but we can only get speeds of upto 2Kbps at the moment in our area.

Any of my above recommendations should suit you if your willing to stretch to £25 a month...else UKFSN with 30GB (300GB offpeak) for £19.99.

Andy

MerseyLad

Thanks,

So its a case of either bite the bullet and pay Newnet £47 to move.

or

Cancel Newnet and move to new address and get a new ISP.

andrew-b

MerseyLad wrote:

Thanks,

So its a case of either bite the bullet and pay Newnet £47 to move.

or

Cancel Newnet and move to new address and get a new ISP.

Yep...and if you take the second of your options most ISP will charge the same £47 to activate the line anyway. Incidentally Samara's madasafish have free connection at the moment but you'll be tied to 12 months...though you can pay £25 to migrate out early.

Andy

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hey Merseylad,

If you are taking the option of leaving Newnet, make sure that you know what kind of contract you're in.

I had a glance at their T&Cs and they refer to a few different contract lengths, including a 12 month contract.

If you cancel outright and you're still within contract you may find yourself incurring a cancellation charge. I'm not sure what the Newnet policy is on this but I would highly recommend calling them to find out. It's possible that the cancellation charge is equal to or greater than the cost of moving home.

Incidentally Samara's madasafish have free connection at the moment but you'll be tied to 12 months...though you can pay £25 to migrate out early.

Thanks for the plug! I'd like to expand on what you've just said as I don't want to mislead on our cancellation fees. The cancellation fee of £25 is only applicable if you migrate in and don't take free hardware when you sign up. If it's a new provision then it's £55 + the cost of any free hardware taken. Our cancellation charges reflect the expense incurred to enable a connection.

Kind regards,
Samara

MerseyLad

Thanks Samara - I wouldnt be taking up any hardware if I joined.

I emailed Newnet and this was thrit reply - so I pressume from this that I would not pay cancellation charges as they have not mentioned it at all.

Hi Andy

This is a charge payable to BT wholesale which all IPs using BTs service will have to pay to connect you, you will either be charged the £47 connection fee up front (like we do) or you will be tied into a annual contract as the IPS will need to get back th £47 from you.
To cease the service with us we do require 1 months notice in writing s therefore please arrange to send us a signed fax or letter include username and/or phone number and requested cancellation date.
Many thanks
Heidi
Sales Administrator

Hi Andy

All new customers do also have to pay the connection fee (unless you are migrating then there is no connection fee payable to BT) Although you are an existing customer reconnecting your service at a new address is to BT just classed as another new connection and since all the ADSL services we offer are only on monthly contracts we do have to charge this fee upfront.
Many thanks
Heidi