Downgrade from Infinity to ADSL

How hard is this to do? There's no official info I can find about this on the BT website.

Some acquaintances had BT Broadband (ADSL), and were upsold to Infinity by a keen salesperson on the phone when FTTC first arrived in their area... but they really don't need it, they're just round the corner from the exchange and their speeds beforehand were more than OK for them. The 12 or 18 month contract (whatever it was) has run its course.

Their usage is fairly light, but they do have visitors to stay who can push the usage up and they're on a capped Infinity 40GB usage plan rather than an unlimited one (costs £5.60 per 5GB or part thereof if you go over).

I think they'd be better off on a cheaper ADSL package with unlimited usage. It seems likely that it would be easier to downgrade from FTTC to ADSL by staying with the same provider, in their case BT, at least initially (then after the 12 month contract is up they'd have the opportunity to swap).

There doesn't seem to be an established downgrade path from FTTC to ADSL with any of the providers, and attempting to swap provider and do this at the same time seems like a recipe for disaster! They wouldn't want any significant interruption in service, i.e. really anything more than a day.

Would they have to pay the FTTC cease fee? I note from www.bt.com/ceasecharge that BT's cease charges changed on 20 September, to £5.50 for Infinity customers and £31 for ADSL customers (presumably the lower cease charge for Infinity is because Openreach no longer remove the jumpers to the FTTC cabinet as a matter of course but rather now leave them in place?). But I just wonder if there might be some other regrade / downgrade fee to pay that I haven't come across.

Edited by binary (Sat 26-Sep-15 12:49:46)

If within the 12 month minimum term of FTTC then cease fees and other contractual payments may apply. In this downgrade case only 12 month term fees should apply, cease fees should not if standard migration processes are used.

People do switch between FTTC and ADSL, its just a case of the provider ordering the appropriate migration.

Technically, it would appear that OR would have to ensure that there is ADSL available in the Exchange, which is probably the situation with having been on ADSL previously; and ensure that it is operational on the user's line.

I suspect that in terms of the Exchange and the E-side line from there to the PCP and diverted/extended via links to the FTTC for VDSL, that the VDSL Filter in the E-side within the FTTC would at that instant, prevent the ADSL signal proceeding any further towards the house.

OR or contractors would then have to visit the PCP, to simply cut the double-links from the PCP to the FTTC, insulating the link ends probably; and reconnect the Exchange E-side (two) wires directly to the original outgoing D-Side pair to the house (using gel "crimps").

That looks like a 5 minute job, similar in reverse to the previous upgrade to VDSL.


The user would have to either change the modem for an ADSL one; or it may be that some modems are switchable.

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Apart from cost, is it really worth doing?

Edited by eckiedoo (Sat 26-Sep-15 17:31:42)

Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if they could just keep them on the FTTC line but throttle their speed to what they had before and remove the cap?

That would be a 30 second job C side - so why they don't baffles me.

I am not "au fait" enough with that aspect of xDSL; but suspect that your suggested throttled VDSL would still use bins/carrier-channels on higher frequencies than ADSL, so would probably still be subject to greater losses etc, than ADSL.

Possibly someone with greater knowledge of that aspect will clarify.

Its possible - but would be occupying an VDSL2 port that could be creating more revenue, so price drop not likely to be massive.

Exchange based ADSL kit is older and cheaper to keep going as often its being in place long enough to pay for itself.

Exchange based services are also run by different people, i.e. BT Wholesale or a LLU operator rather than Openreach.