You can only migrate a line to another service provider if you are the named account holder of the existing service.

So doing what you suggest would not work. Also it would be fraudulent, as ISPs report to credit reference agencies, if the new homeowner did not pay the bill, this would be reflected poorly on the previous occupiers credit which may impact their ability to get a car loan, credit card, mobile phone contract etc.

the previous occupant never had fibre anyway.

So am I screwed then until either a new cabinet is installed or someone leaves the service? I do notice that EE can offer me fibre in that area but Sky and BT can't as BT says it's over subscribed. How is that possible?

It isn't, it would appear that EE's checker isn't as up to date.

Sorry to resurrect the thread but I have just moved into the area over the weekend and will be on the same cabinet (36).

I have seen on the residents Facebook page that the cabinet will not be upgraded or a new one built until January !

Extremely poor from Openreach in my opinion, the area is rapidly expanding and there are lots of young families, fibre is an essential utility these days,

In reply to a post by welshy1812:

Sorry to resurrect the thread but I have just moved into the area over the weekend and will be on the same cabinet (36).

I have seen on the residents Facebook page that the cabinet will not be upgraded or a new one built until January !

Extremely poor from Openreach in my opinion, the area is rapidly expanding and there are lots of young families, fibre is an essential utility these days,

That's a bit poor! I've just got the BT ADSL for now....1.3meg!. Ridiculous.

You on Red Deer Rd too?

I'm on Red Deer Walk, cabinet isn't far from me but I'm still not expecting anything more than 3mb.

Will be sore as we were down the other side of Westburn previously and I had a solid 60mb.

I have seen that Openreach can upgrade the cards in the cabs now to add ports rather than having to put another cabinet, but suppose that depends on how many ports are needed.

In reply to a post by welshy1812:

I'm on Red Deer Walk, cabinet isn't far from me but I'm still not expecting anything more than 3mb.

Will be sore as we were down the other side of Westburn previously and I had a solid 60mb.

I have seen that Openreach can upgrade the cards in the cabs now to add ports rather than having to put another cabinet, but suppose that depends on how many ports are needed.

Ah right ok, where did you get that info? I'm on cabinet 36 as well. 1meg is horrific.

On the cards - the fibre cabinets rarely had their full stock of line cards installed when new, so always was add a couple of cards before they got full.

For some cabinets now there is a higher density design (i.e. more lines per card) so can swap out a line card and fit more people in, though given this will mean downtime for all those on that card might be a difficult one to arrange with an ISP, i.e. its not just rock up, take card out of package and slot in.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

That would nicely screw up the Telephone Book.

I have a lot of respect for RobertoS, a long-time poster who is very knowledgeable. So there is nothing personal attached to the following comment.

Who uses the phone book these days? How many strangers do you want to look up via surname and have a chat with? If they are someone belonging to an organisation who you would like to arrange to give a talk, then surely the internet is a better source of reference than the ever-more-skinny (which iis 70% adverts) phone book?

Just thinking aloud. And of course this doesn't invalidate your original point.

Flattery will get you anything .

I agree few use the phone book itself, but bear in mind we are talking about a private residence, not a business that would be expected to have a website.

Tommy seemed to be suggesting that if Mr Jones moved out and Mr Smith moved in, and Mr Smith started paying the bills, all would be well. However, the line still belongs to Mr Jones and Mr Jones is responsible for paying it if there is a default.

Directory Enquiry services all depend on the digital version of the phone directory. The phone book is a very localised extract from that anyway, so I was using it in the generic sense of "all phone books".

No Directory Enquiry services would be able to supply the correct number for Mr Smith. They would only be able to give the number at his previous address, or maybe he has moved three times so an even older one. They wouldn't know that he was to be found on Mr Jones's number.

Enquiry by address would be a different question. As far as I know that isn't easily available to the public, if at all. Can Directory Enquiries look up by address if you don't know the name of the line owner? Surely the full address only comes into the question if there are two identical names+initials in the directory?