Cant Get full fibre but Broadband now going up by an extra £15/month

loaf1912

Hi, Openreach site they have no plans to upgrade my service to full fibre even thought the rest of the village has full fibre and im at the start of a lane.

Onestream has informed me that dur to Openreach removing PSTN service if i dont sign a new SoGEA contract for 24month my existing contract goes up by an extra £15/month. i have 11 months left of my contract and currently paying £34.50 (yes thats high).

Part of the letter says due to this increase i can leave penalty free by giving 30 days notice. So i have given them notice. The question i have now other than how i can be charged extra but Openreach arent going to upgrade my service which is unfair to say the least. The question is my current contract now ends 31st of August so i need a new provider from the 1st of September, how can i get the new provider to take over only on the 1st of Sept? as when i check out options they estimate 2 weeks - but OneStream tell me if i end earlier than the 1st they will charge me the early exit fee of £380. In the past when i switch i just except the date and end up paying for both during the over lap.

Is this right that they can charge me the early exit fee if i switch early? i know and fine with paying the full month, i just dont want to be without internet for the day or more if there are issue.

Thanks for any advice.

Cheers

D.

luci

Could you use mobile data while your internet is being transferred? They usually say that you may be without internet for a couple of hours. Any time I have switched, it has been seamless and I haven't had any downtime on the day of the switch.

iniltous

Are you saying you have no SoGEA available, even though your provider has said you need to take a SoGEA service to avoid your WLR service going up in price ?

WLR withdrawal is effectively linked with the PSTN retirement in Jan 2027 , to encourage providers like Onestream to get their customers off WLR and into products that can exist after Jan 2027 , Openreach are increasing the price of the WLR products companies like Onestream pay to encourage them to get their customers off WLR and onto other cheaper products , if they don’t move they pay a financial penalty and ultimately if they do nothing will have a decision made for them in Jan 2027 .

Have a look at this article .

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/11/openreach-raises-prices-on-copper-lines-to-boost-uk-fibre-broadband-adoption.html

Depending on what service you currently have , ADSL from the exchange, or VDSL from a FTTC cabinet there is almost certainly an alternative non WLR product you can take , if you chose not to take any of the alternative products , that’s up-to you but your provider (that’s who Openreach are increasing the WLR rental price for ) will doubtless charge you their customer more to cover the extra charges Openreach are making on them .

If your choice of provider Onestream are making it difficult or unclear for you , that’s really a consequence of your choice of provider in the first place, unfortunately there are plenty of negative comments about Onestream and it’s somewhat dubious business practices, like retrospectively charging the installation fee if customers leave before the minimum term expires, and adding that to however months of the minimum term remain (making the leaving fee much larger than what other providers would charge for the same early termination) so them extracting more ££ should come as no surprise, but ultimately you have choices , stay with them transferring from WLR to SoGEA if fibre to the cabinet, or SoTap if ADSL , for your broadband , and depending on which of those Onestream products you choose (or can get ) if that means re-contracting that’s your choice , they may have a telephone offer available if you need to keep a landline type service with your broadband, or you leave then and join someone else , it’s not clear at all if leaving them attracts early termination charges or not , if it does that’s between you and them …clearly if your choice is to pay a little more for the month notice rather than a hefty ETC bill , that’s obviously the thing to do .

Hopefully you don’t think if you can’t get FTTP you can’t have OR service, FTTC and ADSL will remain for some it’s still a copper pair service but delivered as SoGEA or SoTap , which basically means no legacy PSTN phone service is included , service over copper pairs are not being removed , for some it will be the only Openreach service available for quite some time .

Ectophile

Does it say you have to give 30 days notice, or you have to give notice within 30 days?

When I have left a service previously because of a price rise, I have notified the current provider and then started the switching process with my new provider. It happens on whatever date Openreach picks to do the changeover.

loaf1912

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82089565#Comment_82089565

Unfortunately we dont get a great 4g signal so not an option

loaf1912

In reply to @iniltous

Sorry i wasnt very clear, im on VDSL fttc 80mbs connectio, they have offer to move me to sogea but that will start a new 24month contract which i dont really want to do as compare sites i can get cheaper starting at £19/month then upto £24/month in the last year so £34.50 for 2 years is a lot more.

I get why they are needed to charge me more, but its another unfair demand from openreach as they seem to have failed their commitment to upgrade everyone for years and its annoying just 500 yards up the road they have FTTP.

So far Onestream have been fine for me, but i havent ever had any issues or needed support from them, so its just worked, im sure if i did have issues it would be another story based on other experiences.

They have said i wont be charged ETC dur to the large price increase as long as I dont swap during the 30days notice, which means i have to speak to a new provider as see if i can book the 1st Sept install or later, but will be without internet if longer, again doesnt seem right again.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

loaf1912

That

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82089626#Comment_82089626

Thats what they say:
"Due to the unplanned price increase we have done everything we can to make this change as easy and affordable as possible, if you are still not happy with the options we have presented to you, you may terminate your current contract with no penalty provided you give us 30 days notice."

I have servered notice so end of 31st of Aug is my 30 days notice - What every happens they will get the full 30days payment, but if i swap any time in Aug they will charged me £303 termination fee.

Like you before switching they give you a date and you start paying new and finish paying old, but seems not in this instance. Just have to try and plan as close as possible after 31st to get a new connection i guess

QrizB

If you speak to other ISPs (rather than trying to switch online) you might be able to choose your changeover day.

littleboo

Its Onestreams choice to start a new 24 month contract. I was migrated to SOGEA a few months back by BT whilst on a one month rolling contract and I'm still on that now, Openreach aren't making Onestream commit for 2 years

I'm not sure if now have a cease order on your line will cause problems for a new provider.

iniltous

You blaming Openreach is completely unfair, if you are on PSTN/WLR with Onestream , when SoGEA has been available for years , and Openreach have been encouraging the likes of Onestream to move customers off WLR since then , for the last 10 years the industry has known about the PSTN retirement and WLR removal that’s why SoGEA etc were introduced, at any point of you joining or renewing with Onestream they could have put you on SoGEA , but they continued to offer you a product they knew had no future , in fact the original switch off was December 2025 , which Onestream and others clearly took no notice of at all…..given that the soft encouragement to get customers off WLR clearly didn’t work with this company , implementing a financial penalty for remaining on it is because nothing else worked , what’s more Openreach have increased the cost to Onestream not you , if Onestream have put your costs up , although understandable in a way , because you never agreed to that increased amount they know they can’t arbitrarily increase your price , hence the offer they made you to leave penalty free ….its Onestream decision to require a new minimum term if you decide stay , that has nothing to do with Openreach , if you can switch to someone else that will use SoGEA but it comes with a new minimum term , that’s the same as renewal with Onestream so what’s the issue ,don’t like Onestream price or anyone else’s price , give up service and use mobile , if you don’t want a new minimum term with anyone you are out of luck ,

The availability of FTTP (or its unavailability) is irrelevant to the PSTN/WLR retirement.

J_B

Have you considered Starlink?

100Mbps for £40 per month