Brsk - coming soon; a few queries

David_Watts2

Had a couple of (cold) callers from brisk this morning, will be starting work in the area soon, keen to get mobile number or email address so they could keep us advised but I suspect more from a sales perspective. Hadn't had any advance notice of their imminent arrival so been looking at their website.

Apparently they'll be "bringing full, fast, fibre broadband" to my community, via the existing telegraph poles with the possibility of some civil work. If I've understood correctly they'll be stringing fibre cables to each home from the existing telegraph poles so that, if you ordered their product, they could then install fibre into the homes.

After they've done that does that mean I can switch to full fibre with any provider (including my existing one) or, as I suspect, just with them? And, assuming the latter, can I opt out of having the home hooked up to their network (on the basis of no interest in taking up their product) or is it mandatory?

My feeling is that the work they are doing is worthwhile to me if it my makes my home "full fibre ready" but I have no interest in my home being made "brsk ready" only.

Having read a bit more I get the impression that this phase will only go as far as them connecting to the telegraph pole and that from pole to house would be part of the installation process IF you placed an order. So I guess this doesn't get me any closer to being able to have FTTP with the provider of my choosing, just with them.

iniltous

They only put a wire into your property if they get an order, don’t order they don’t touch your property , they use PIA , physical infrastructure access that allows them to put their kit in or on Openreach structures like telegraph poles ,
BRSK isn’t a network provider to other ISPs  , if you use them , they are the ISP you use , you cannot use anyone else on their network .
If  at some point Openreach FTTP also became available and you ordered via an ISP that uses OR , they wouldn’t touch the BRSK  kit ( that’s if you went with them ) the BRSK cable and ONT remains in situ on and in your house irrespective of being an active customer , the OR FTTP kit would be additional to the BRSK kit , so another wire from the pole , another ONT .
 BRSK shouldn’t touch the existing copper dropwire, OR could take it down as the OR FTTP is installed.
If City Fibre also we’re available, potentially there could be 3 dropwires and 3 ONTs inside the house , that’s if the householder signed up with each network at various times.

pallyman

Brisk is in my area & they put up a LOT of telegraph poles.They come round often canvasing as they have not had a big take up in my area.

David_Watts2

Thanks for the replies, I think I've got my head round it now. They're basically going round the area sticking their boxes on all the telegraph poles and will then be trying to sell their product to all the relevant homes. Presumably they're hoping to generate a lot of business before Openreach FTTP is available, though as someone who has only just upgraded to FTTC I'm more than happy with that for the time being. My current plan would be to move to FTTP when it becomes the only show in town.

I've no interest in Brsk for now so it's just a matter of putting up with the inconvenience while they're doing their work on the street and, no doubt, repeated attempts to sell us their product.

Huffnagel

Bringing up this topic as they knocked on our door, never heard of BRSK before (the salesman pronounced it "brisk").

I've been with Virgin Media for yonks, hardly had an issue and even when there's an outage, they respond promptly. It's OK to sell a new service saying it's cheaper, and say the network is their own, but it's quite another thing to provide a reliable ongoing service in this day and age of hybrid working.

So please, share your experience with their customer service, engineers etc.

Btw. a friendly advice to not just BRSK but any company who sends door-to-door salesmen around: please make sure they have the bare essentials of personal hygiene, i.e. a proper shave and a full set of teeth, as they won't be taken seriously. First I thought some rough sleeper had knocked on my door.

oscarward

We’ve had BRSK in our area for about 6 months now. The alternative was virgin which has a patchy reputation.  People are singing the praises on price and reliability, but it’s not a saturated service so will be good.

one word of warning the sales guys try and get you to commit by offering to refund any cancellation charges on an existing contract up to a certain level, retrospectively paid out. I have seen comments that having signed up it is very difficult to get them to fulfill that promise as they now have you on a new contract with them. so be wary.

David_Watts2

oscarward said:

We’ve had BRSK in our area for about 6 months now. The alternative was virgin which has a patchy reputation.  People are singing the praises on price and reliability, but it’s not a saturated service so will be good.

one word of warning the sales guys try and get you to commit by offering to refund any cancellation charges on an existing contract up to a certain level, retrospectively paid out. I have seen comments that having signed up it is very difficult to get them to fulfill that promise as they now have you on a new contract with them. so be wary.

My OP related to them calling at my mum's and they've been back recently with their Black Friday deal. Very good on price and seem to be a lot of satisfied customers from what I've been able to gather. Still mulling it over for her with contract renewal approaching on current FTTC product. I'm leaning towards an Openreach provider for any upgrade to FTTP rather than end up potentially with multiple ONT boxes being installed over time but won't be able to match them on price.

The salesman did offer several months free but when I clicked through to the quote there was no mention of that and it all just appeared to be standard terms. That made me a little wary of them; i.e. ending up chasing inducements that were offered verbally on the doorstep. It was also a little fuzzy in terms of how the switch would work. He seemed to be suggesting running the products concurrently until the current contract expired. That left me unsure about the timing (and success) of the phoneline being transferred across. If we're going to switch I'd prefer it to be "once and done" for the broadband and landline.

My perception of the sales guy was positive but I didn't trust their systems and processes to deliver everything that was promised in a smooth and hassle-free way.

Rob5342

Never sign up for anything with a salesperson or door knocker. Always do it online so you can check the details and compare to other providers. Also, if you use TopCashback you can get some cashback yourself instead of the salesperson getting commision.