Downtime during migration from LLU

I raised the issue a few days ago whereby the physical migration from BE LLU ADSL happened at around 8am, but Plusnet ADSL PPPoA logins failed until 11pm, resulting in 15 hours of downtime.

I've now read an identical situation with similar downtime from a customer moving from O2: http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Home-Broadband-Home-Pho...

Why is the Plusnet account activated at 11pm and not just after midnight on the day of migration?

I think it's activated when PN receive confirmation from BTw that the work has been completed. PN start billing from when the account is activated so if the account was activated early that day, but then BTw/OpenRetch did not complete the work on schedule the user would be charged for a service they could not use.

Seems like BTw are sending the migration notifications to Plusnet at 11pm then. That's unfortunate since it results in 15 hours of downtime if the physical migration happens at 8am.

If the user contacts PN to say they have synced PN may I think activate the account immediately having explained the risk of the user being charged for a no-working service. That might depend a bit on luck of which support rep. you get.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

Seems like BTw are sending the migration notifications to Plusnet at 11pm then.

Another possibility is that the activation script only runs once a day, late enough to make sure they've collected all the work completed notifications.

In reply to a post by jelv:

Another possibility is that the activation script only runs once a day, late enough to make sure they've collected all the work completed notifications.

Yeah. I wonder if a method can be found which avoids this downtime. I have heard people can ring up and if they talk to someone at Plusnet who knows their stuff it can sometimes be activated in advance of 11pm, but it would be good if this wasn't necessary.

In reply to a post by jelv:

the risk of the user being charged for a no-working service.

PN charges for a non-working service anyway. They charge for the whole day that the service was connected even if it is only activated at 11PM: http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/t/4243512-r...

As does every ISP so far as I know. A non-issue.

I know! I was pointing out the non-issue that someone else had raised.

I think the important factor isn't about payment for a part of a day when the installation/cutover goes smoothly...

It is that payment isn't started for all the days (which may be many) where an installation/cutover fails entirely.