Want to switch fibre provider but they're all showing up as unavailable.

Hurley

Hello all.

My contract with Virgin is coming to an end. I wanted to switch my fibre broadband over, but every company I try other than BT shows up as not available in my area.

I am pretty sure when I did this last year they were all available, and BT currently is, so what gives?

It really limits my options if I can't join Plusnet/Sky etc as BT are quite expensive.

Any ideas? Thanks for any help.

[Deleted User]

@Hurley
Try the BT Wholesale checker at https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome BUT click on the "address checker" option towards the bottom of the page.
Why address? Because if you are a Virgin customer, your Virgin phone number will not work for checking availability of services on the BT network.
The results will show what is available at your home e.g. ADSL/FTTC/FTTP and then go to the other providers and get a quote with the "I have no phone number" option for the service you want.

Hurley

Thanks for the tip.

I have tried the no phone number option already but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

The dsl checker read as follows



Does that mean anything to you?

[Deleted User]

VDSL is the technical name for FTTC and the last column says that the cabinet if full (waiting list) which is a shame as the estimated speeds are great.

"FTTP on Demand" you can ignore as it is nearly impossible to get and has installation costs in the £10k plus region.

So currently, only ADSL is available to buy and with speeds (5 to 12Mbps).
Sky wouldn't touch it at those speeds as it would bring down their average speed. And some of the other ISPs will not either.
Plusnet, BT or EE should be able to supply though.

Alternatively just keep checking until the waiting list goes away and says "available" then jump in and buy FTTC. Quickly as there does seem to be excess demand on your cabinet.

[Deleted User]

That probably means that the cabinet is fully subscribed and that there is no available slot for fibre.

[Deleted User]

gsmlnx wrote: »

So currently, only ADSL is available to buy and with speeds (5 to 12Mbps).
Sky wouldn't touch it at those speeds as it would bring down their average speed. And some of the other ISPs will not either.
Plusnet, BT or EE should be able to supply though.

That is well within Sky's range, it's when it gets down to 1.5Mbps and lower that they'll turn you down.

Hurley

Great, thanks for the help. What a shame, got no way of leveraging Virgin now, I'm not paying their full price, it more than doubles at the end of next month.

Just to clarify one thing, BT are showing fibre as available for me when I use the checker on their website, is that a mistake on their part?

DCFC79

Hurley wrote: »

Great, thanks for the help. What a shame, got no way of leveraging Virgin now, I'm not paying their full price, it more than doubles at the end of next month.

Just to clarify one thing, BT are showing fibre as available for me when I use the checker on their website, is that a mistake on their part?

Speak to Virgin and threaten to leave to see if that does anything in terms of a price reduction, might need to serve notice to leave.

[Deleted User]

Hurley wrote: »

Great, thanks for the help. What a shame, got no way of leveraging Virgin now, I'm not paying their full price, it more than doubles at the end of next month.

Just to clarify one thing, BT are showing fibre as available for me when I use the checker on their website, is that a mistake on their part?

Perhaps they're only indicating that it is available generally but you'd have to contact them to see if they have any empty slots.

Hurley

DCFC79 wrote: »

Speak to Virgin and threaten to leave to see if that does anything in terms of a price reduction, might need to serve notice to leave.

Unfortunately this doesn't work, they just quote their website deals. You have to cancel to get retentions to contact you. I can't cancel without signing up to another company otherwise I lose my phone number.

[Deleted User]

Hurley wrote: »

Just to clarify one thing, BT are showing fibre as available for me when I use the checker on their website, is that a mistake on their part?

As @Colin_Maybe said, it is probably "available in general" not "available to order now for you". BT Consumer take the data from the BT Wholesale system so that is the one that would say yes or no. So even in BT Consumer took an order, if the Wholesale system says No then the order would fail and BT would offer to put ADSL in for you.