Procedure to change provider for FTTH (FTTP)

Does anyone know what is involved physically in a change of provider for FTTH (FTTP) ? My searches have been fruitless.

I have FTTH (in West Cornwall) which is provided via an overhead cable from a pole in the road at the end of my drive. As I am a (retired) communications Engineer, I took a great interest in the installation process and the Openreach engineer was kind enough to show me and talk me through it. I therefore know that there is a continuous fibre from a DF in the manhole across the road from the pole to the fibre termination box in my house. The route back to the exchange is "patched" (or whatever the equivalent for fibre is) through other underground DFs.

I wish to change away from BT (almost impossible to talk to, no email, price increased by 25% in less than two years). I therefore spoke to Zen (is there another choice ?).

Everything sounded fine, except the physical changeover. I had assumed that any patching to a different provider would be done at the exchange, but the Zen salesman said it would involve a visit to my house and a change to use a different "tube" (not sure the correct word) in the "box" at the top of the pole. I am confident this cannot be correct, since it would involve a fibre splice at the top of the pole. I am sure that Openreach do not do splices at the top of poles ! They would not even do one half way up my house wall, it had to be done near the ground. Having watched the process, I can understand why.

Does anyone know how it's done ?

As far as my understanding goes it should be a simple GEA migration with no wiring (fibre) changes, i.e. handled via remote configuration changes.

So few migrations like this happen though so it may be a learning process for many involved.

In reply to a post by Dr_Hignett:

I therefore spoke to Zen (is there another choice ?).

AAISP and IDNet are other options for you, though they don't offer anything above 80/20 mbps for residential users on FTTP/H.

http://www.aaisp.net.uk/

http://www.idnet.net/

I would of thought no additional fibre splicing or alteration within the FTTP last mile infrastructure would be needed as you already have a GPON architectured FTTP connection back to the exchange.

The change would either be at the OCR or OLT within the exchange building itself if moving away from BTWholesale network or just a software change if said ISP uses BTWholesale?

Plus the ONT is enabled to allow 4 (I think) FTTP connections from different ISPs, so I wouldn't of thought switching FTTP ISP would require any new fibre.

I would suggest that the salesperson at Zen hasn't a clue about provision of FTTP, which is slightly worrying. As other posters have said you can have multiple FTTP connections using your existing fibre and migrating to a different provider should not require any physical changes. You need to get back onto Zen and ask to speak to someone who has knowledge of FTTP as you have been told a load of nonsense.

Just picking up on a few minor points, and perhaps one bigger (but not major) one. The previous respondents have comprehensively covered the technical side.

First, if I read it correctly you complain that you have no email with BT. For years many of us have recommended against using ISP-supplied email, as it is a big hindrance in situations like this where you want to migrate away. It means you have to change your address, tell everyone when it happens - which may not be on the expected date, and remember all shops/banks/other contacts on top of your close friends.

If you are currently using a free service such as Gmail or Windows Mail/Hotmail/Outlook and don't like that either, you should look at ISP-independent email from a company specialising in mail and web hosting. It costs under £2 per month from many suppliers.

You end up with a domain name chosen by yourself that you never have to change ever again. Moving it between hosting suppliers is fairly easy. You can have it running within hours, (often minutes), in parallel with reading but not sending from your existing one until that dries up as you've told everyone.

Second, very minor, your sig looks to be a bit out of date .

Third, I just checked your thinkbroadband profile and see you used to have a domain but have let it go. So you must be a bit familiar with the process.

Fourth, do you have/use the landline and do you want that to migrate with the broadband. With most broadband suppliers you can choose not to have them from the same supplier. For instance, mine is only £14pm with absurdly cheap call rates, from a reputable company that several on these forums now use. Some also for their broadband, but they don't do FTTP.

My mention of no BT email was intended to say that there is no way to contact BT by email, all their messages are "no reply". Nothing to do with my own (multiple) email addresses. Sorry if I confused you.

Forgotten I had a "sig" not used the forum for a long time. Now changed.

D

Thank you, Andrew, and others who responded, for confirming what I thought.

Bit worrying about the Zen salesman. He sounded as though he was making it up as he went along. Perhaps I will rethink my ideas about moving.

Are you listening ZEN ??

In reply to a post by Dr_Hignett:

My mention of no BT email was intended to say that there is no way to contact BT by email, all their messages are "no reply". Nothing to do with my own (multiple) email addresses. Sorry if I confused you.

Forgotten I had a "sig" not used the forum for a long time. Now changed.

D

The only emails from BT that have a "no-reply" is the automated ones, all emails that I have received from BT (which is a lot) over the last five years have all had valid reply addresses, even the ones from customer support, exec complaints, chairman's office and so on.

I even have some openreach ones too.

So they so exist.

*** update ***
As for phone calls, you will have to phone the FTTH/FTTP team, I have also done this a few times to get stuff resolved, the only grip is the long queue on the line.

Paul

Edited by PaulKirby (Tue 18-Apr-17 21:10:28)

Hi

My experience of Zen and FTTP has been quite a bit different. The sales person I spoke to correctly told me that a port would be activated on the existing ONT without an engineer visit or contact from any branch of BT One of the confirmation mails from Zen did say that I would get a visit, but shortly after a I received a mail telling me to ignore the engineer visit

I think it was 4 working days in total for the process, although I was ordering an additional l service rather than migrating from BT to Zen.