Plusnet to BT - Questions

Someone in the family has decided to move from Plusnet to BT for broadband, calls and line rental because of billing issues and the fact that they find BT more familiar than Plusnet (30 odd years of custom vs. 1 year of custom).

As they aren't overly confident with broadband and the internet, it was up to me to place the order with BT for them on Thursday. I have a few questions.

I was quite surprised to see the activation date as Monday 10th September, it is just a simple switch of all the services from PN to BT. Why is the date so far forward and is that a bad sign?

Is the sync speed and stability of the connection likely to deteriorate being with BT? They are a larger ISP and so I assume they have larger congestion issues.

Will the telephone number change? I know it's unlikely but is there a substantial chance of it happening?

Also, I take it the Home Hub 3 is better than Plusnet's Technicolor router?

Just to sign off with a laugh, the only thing PN retentions offered my 60 year old relative was free Plusnet Pro for 12 months, probably because they know she won't abuse it LOL.

What did PN say about the time scale for issuing a MAC key?

We have already received the MAC key and given it to BT (did so during the order process).

...and when did you give 10 days notice to PN that you wished to migrate?

Given its a back holiday weekend so nothing much will happen till Tuesday the 10th is not that far away, and BT is probably also allowing for the notification period that has to take place when moving calls and line rental.

Okay, so that's the activation date explained. Probably the notice period. Can someone enlighten me regarding my other questions?

Number should not change - provided you have told BT, or implied that you wish to retain it.

Being a larger ISP BT will have more backhaul than others - which probably means you will see less congestion than with other ISPs as peaks are easier to iron out.

Sync speed will vary over time - as will that of any ISP, and it is unlikely to be any more unstable than others.

Just to add to MHC's post, they'll have both routers so you can see which is better for them. Plus - they will have a standby/diagnostic one.

I'm not sure the HH3 isn't made by Technicolor anyway.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 27-Aug-12 00:36:37)

by the way plusnet is part of bt.

I'm not sure the HH3 isn't made by Technicolor anyway. I believe the HomeHub 3A and HomeHub 3B are made by different manufacturers. Sagem came up as manufacturer in an older thread http://community.bt.com/t5/BB-Speed-Connection-Issue....

Also from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Home_Hub (I can't tell if it is correct, but don't see why it shouldn't be):

"There are two versions of the BT Home Hub 3.0, the A and the B model. The hardware contained within the Home Hub v3.0A was manufactured by Siemens' Gigaset (now Sagem) and is based on a Lantiq XWAYTM ARX168 chipset supporting ADSL2+.

The Home Hub v3.0B was manufactured by Huawei and also supports ADSL2+. The Home Hub v3.0B is powered by a highly integrated Broadcom BCM6361 System-on-a-chip (SoC). The BCM6361 has a 400MHz dual MIPS32 core as well as an integrated DSL Analog Front End (AFE) and line driver, gigabit ethernet switch controller and 802.11 WiFi transceiver.[5]"

Edited by StephenTodd (Mon 27-Aug-12 09:17:55)