My switch to BT Infinity

I thought I would do a log type post on my journey to BT Infinity.

I’m currently with Sky on the LLU Unlimited package and have been since 2009, service has been fantastic. My line rental is still with BT so it should have been a smooth and straight forward switch.

Times below are approximates.

11.12.11 - Phoned Sky and requested our MAC

16.12.11 - MAC finally turned up in the post.

16.12.11 @ 22:00 pm – Logged onto our BT account and placed the order for BT Infinity.

16.12.11 @ 23:00 pm – Checked the online tracking system on the BT website and it was now stating “Your appointment is no longer required, as our engineer can connect your line without requiring access to your premises. The engineer will work to connect your line at the exchange.”

17.12.11 @ 12 am – I had a search for people who had the same problem and found a post on the BTCare forums, fired an email of to the moderators using this form asking if my order had gone through ok.

17.12.11 – Received a reply the very next day letting me know that the department they needed to contact (order management department) was closed on the weekends, but he had put notes on the account reminding him to pass this onto them on Monday afternoon when he was back in.

19.12.11 @ 15:30 – BT phoned but no one was around to take the call, a message was left on the answer phone letting us know that our order had been passed onto them to be looked at. They advised that there was an incompatibility on the line and they have referred it onto BTW and they should have a reply within 48h.

So far BT have been very helpful and I am more than happy at the moment to wait and see what happens, hopefully we should know what’s happening by tomorrow or Thursday.

I will keep updating this post with any news I receive from BT and hopefully this might help someone else who ends up in the same boat as me.

Edited by Matt182 (Tue 20-Dec-11 21:56:08)

22.12.11 – No one from BT bothered to phone back, so a phone call was made to find out what was happening. They were unable to tell me why or what the incompatibility was and to top it of the install date has now been moved to the 3rd January 2012 with no explanation. It’s still showing the same message as before on the tracking system so I don’t think the install date of the 3rd January 2012 will be kept to either, so this log might be cut short with me cancelling the order, we will see.

Not exactly happy at the moment, one of my pet hates is dates being moved without a reason. I should not be surprised though from reading others people’s experiences with BT, not a good start.

You do know about Christmas I presume? The little event means around now BT and other firms go into only fix emergency faults mode.

I suspect the incompatability was just the Sky LLU service, (shared I presume if they gave you a MAC it should be) and someone entered the order in the BT system wrongly i.e. without MAC

Cancelling can often cause more problems, as half completed orders have a habit of then completing even though a cancel is in the system.

23.12.11 - BT phoned to tell me what I already thought might be the case that the install date of the 3rd Jan 11 might not be able to go ahead as planned and they will be in contact next week to confirm this.

28.12.11 - True to there word someone did phone from BT and was told once again the ordered had been cancelled by the supplier and they have no idea why, as everything on the line is fine. Was told it’s been raised with the supplier again and they will phone tomorrow with an update providing they hear back that is.

30.12.11 - BT Phoned to say the problem has now been corrected and the order should now go through, when asked if they found out what the incompatibility was they advised it was due to a flag for broadband from 2000, strange because we never had broadband in 2000 only dial up. But hey ho, install date is set for the 9th Jan 2012 and the online tracking system has now changed from no engineer needed to the arranged date.

Fingers crossed it all goes ahead as planned :x

think yourself lucky you can get infinity

9.01.12 @ 2.15pm - Engineer phoned to inform us that he was heading to the exchange then to the cabinet, then to us and should be around 30min, also said the phone and internet will go down for 5min.

10min or so later the phone line went offline then came back on 5min later; engineer arrived at around 2.45pm and was very friendly. He totally replaced the master socket and not just the removable part so we now have a nice white master socket and not a tinged yellow one.

Also wall mounted the modem. Once everything was all in place he dialled an automated phone number and activated the line, I never bothered to ask for the details on his hand held tester but I'm sure I am connected at the full 39999 and 9999.

The modem is a 3B and running firmware SP10 and is nice and cool to the touch so should not have any heat problems.

We have all seen the pictures of the modem and the master socket, for some this will be boring so I do apologise

Old master socket: (my trusty xte-2005 died over Christmas so I had to put the old face plate back on)

http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww116/Matt_RB_197...

New master socket:

http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww116/Matt_RB_197...

Modem:

http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww116/Matt_RB_197...

http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww116/Matt_RB_197...

Speed test:

http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww116/Matt_RB_197...

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1696935532.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1701178076.png

Downloading at 4.4MB/s so a very nice speed increase from 800 KB/s, pings in game have dropped from 36 to <20. Very happy so far with the switch and hope everything stays the same.

Sorry for boring everyone.

Edited by Matt182 (Wed 11-Jan-12 20:35:11)

Enjoy !

Update your sig

Did you repaint the walls between the old master being removed and the new one fitted?


I can just beat your downstream figure!

http://speedtest.net/result/1699287958.png

Yeah, enjoy. I now get 37.5 megs down and 8.5 megs up ...

On Orange (but supplied by BT and managed by the old DLM), I used to get 135k-160k for a week at a time. With O2 LLU went to around 3 megs.

Also, as reported by others, the new cabs only have a limited number of fibre connections - mine has around 100 (probably 144) and serves a large area, and the standard is 288 slots - so in terms of numbers Infinity to start with is going to be self limiting. So I am hopeful the speeds we are all seeing will continue to be blazin' for some time to come.

Once again, enjoy - and big thumbs up to the engineers who so far as I can tell are being very good with the installations, and fitting new stuff and re-locating boxes in many cases. Great service so far guys and gals, no complaints at all.

It's the uploads which seem to be such an advantage - sending pics to Flickr, biggish attachments in email etc ... makes working at a machine so much more "responsive".

Cheers,

Rob