Failed switch and disappearing fibre

For several years we have enjoyed fibre internet at our home. Earlier in the year we came to the end of contract with Sky and they naturally put our prices up. After looking around for a better deal I attempted to switch to PlusNet but a week later they informed me that due to an issue on my line, they weren’t able to complete the switch and cancelled the order. I discussed the situation with Sky and agreed to take up a Black Friday deal with them to save any further hassle.

Unfortunately the OpenReach issue (a pending cease) persisted and despite calling Sky every day for nearly two weeks and getting repeated assurances that they would get the cease cleared, my phone line and then broadband disappeared the following week. Calling Sky, they said that they couldn’t do anything about reactivating the service until it showed up as stopped on their system which took another two days!

At this point I had hoped that it would just be a case of getting everything switched back on again but was told that they would need to place a new order for a new line and this would take another 14 days. Worse than that, for some reason, they are no longer able to offer us fibre internet and have told us we will only receive basic broadband of 7Mb/s.

Has anyone out there had similar experience or have any advice on why fibre availability might have suddenly evaporated at our location? Or how to get fibre back?

Thanks in advance,

It is probable, (the usual cause of this), that there were no spare ports at the fibre cabinet when the migration actually happened.

Openreach, in their internal systems, screw it up. They swap the provider by placing internal orders, first to cease the existing service, and second to connect the new.

They place both these orders at the time the migration is ordered, but don't seem to execute them as one job. By the time they come to connect the new service the port yours was on has been snapped up by another "provide" order.

That would (probably) be why Plusnet could not complete the order, and Sky could not reinstate your service.

It's a long-standing farce often complained about on these forums, I'm afraid.

Edit: Typo correction.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 20-Dec-20 22:12:21)

Hi Roberto,

Thanks for responding so quickly to the post. The confusing thing in this case is that the planned new provider (PlusNet) claim that they simply weren’t able to place an order with OpenReach in the first place (because of a pending cease) so a migration was never raised. Both PlusNet and Sky claim they have neither the authority or motive to ask for a cease so it’s not clear to me why OpenReach were doing anything in the cabinet in the first place.

In recovering the service, Sky said they planned to issue a “start of stopped line”? But this wasn’t possible in the end - again, no explanation as to why. But perhaps as you suggest demand is so high, the line was snapped up immediately.

Thanks for the input.

Did you give Sky notice before you ordered from Plusnet?

I didn’t, no. Reading the blurb online it seemed that switching between OpenReach suppliers could all be handled by the provider being switched to. Perhaps not?

Should be. That's why I asked, to make sure that was what you were expecting.

If you had given Sky notice, even by just saying to a rep on the phone that you were going to leave, an over-zealous rep might have taken it as giving notice and messed it all up.

'Tis a mess, but I don't know the best way out .

In reply to a post by HolmsiEE:

I didn’t, no. Reading the blurb online it seemed that switching between OpenReach suppliers could all be handled by the provider being switched to. Perhaps not?

You should only ever contact the gaining provider and never should you need to contact the losing provider.
Contacting the losing provider can cause the type of issue you have, with them ceasing the line.

That doesn't appear to be the case here if you never contacted Sky.

Plusnet should not have been able to place an order.
Migrations usually can't take place when a cabinet is full, specifically to stop this kind of thing happening.

Losing a fibre port during an attempted switch used to be very common years ago but it's a very rare occurrence now.

In the past when you tried to switch ISP you were allocated a new port.
On the day of switchover someone else was allocated your old port.
If the cabinet was full you could easily lose your existing Port.
The system was changed meaning you stay on the same port when you switch, meaning it "shouldn't" be able to be taken.

Someone has made a screw up.

My guess...
Plusnet have tried to migrate you, triggering a cease with Sky.
OpenReach have rejected Plusnets order as the cabinet is full.
The end.

Sky could have cancelled the cease. I believe Plusnet couldn't.
It can be difficult to get through to Sky's team who manually process orders and cancel ceases.

There's absolutely nothing that can be done until more capacity is added or a single port becomes free on the cabinet.

You need to keep checking the broadband availability checker for FTTC showing available and not a waiting list.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

When it shows available, get an order in quick. It may not be more capacity but just a single port.

I do hope Sky are willing to let you leave penalty free despite recontracting.

Edited by j0hn83 (Mon 21-Dec-20 13:28:32)

Hi j0hn83,

Thanks for replying. I agree that the scenario you have outlined seems the most plausible. Its not how either ISP tell it though.

Sky tried to cancel the cease several times, although they said they couldn’t do this until 48 hours before it was due to go through due to Ofcom rules? I spoke to several teams during those 48 hours, but evidently it was too late.

As far as leave penalties. Sky’s stance is that the only way back to fibre (with them) was to set up a basic connection and wait for a fibre upgrade to become available. I’ve looked around, but I can’t see that this would be any quicker with any other ISP?

To their slight credit, Sky have at least covered the cost of getting a MiFI and mobile broadband set up to cover the gap.

Thanks again,

Sounds to me like plusnet have not communicated that the line was no longer going active. Hence a cease occurred. Sky could have stopped this, but normally it would work like this:

I have sky now. I choose to switch to plusnet.
If I want to cancel that transfer to plusnet for any reason (change of mind, other issue etc) I would ring plusnet and they would cancel the switch at their end. Sky would then just continue as planned. It sounds like when plusnet communicated they couldn’t place an order, the cease on sky services remained in place, as they didn’t remove it. Perhaps they thought the failure that they saw had automatically stopped the services trying to switch, and the pending cease.

Now - sky can stop the cease. Eg
I have sky now. My neighbour accidentally orders plusnet under my address and not their own. I get a notice from sky that my line is being taken over. I would ring sky and say “I don’t want this switch - what the hell is this?” And sky would sort it out not plusnet. Obviously sky failed here also. When you said I’m not switching they should have made sure that wouldn’t go ahead as you didn’t give permission any longer for the line to move sway from sky.

In all - you got unlucky that both sides failed and it’s very rare. As your port is now allocated to someone else they have fibre. You will have to go for ADSL and then check the open reach checker, as soon as it becomes available (either bt install extra capacity or just someone moves houses and that frees up their one port) upgrade immediately and get your hands on that port. It could literally be just one.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 22-Dec-20 12:04:12)

In reply to a post by HolmsiEE:

As far as leave penalties. Sky’s stance is that the only way back to fibre (with them) was to set up a basic connection and wait for a fibre upgrade to become available. I’ve looked around, but I can’t see that this would be any quicker with any other ISP?

That depends on whether you can upgrade online via Sky and if their system places a live order immediately with OpenReach.

While you're waiting on Sky's call centre opening to place an order with Brenda on the phone, wee Jimmy 2 doors down just ordered online and took the only port.

If they don't allow such an upgrade to be placed by you online and you need to call them, personally I would be pushing to leave them

The BT Broadband Availability Checker is usually the very 1st database to tell you VDSL/FTTC is no longer on a "waiting list" and is "available" instead.

In my past experience it used to update shortly after midnight with any free ports.

My cabinet was full for around 15 months and i successfully ordered FTTC for myself and then later helped a couple neighbours order by spotting individual free ports pop up late at night and then immediately ordering online.
By the time i woke in the morning the cabinet was back on a waiting list (full) and my order was confirmed.

OpenReach eventually built a whole new 2nd fibre cabinet for my full cabinet.
They very rarely build a 2nd cabinet now and instead put the equipment in a vented pod attached to the PCP.
Your cabinet might just need a new line card, it might need side pod.

Your ADSL might be fast enough that you can live with it and wait.
My ADSL was sub 3Mb/s so I was desperate to switch to FTTC.
I checked the waiting list status a couple times everyday for a couple months before i got my order in.