I would suggest to the OP dont tell BE cancel That should reduce the risk of being without broadband if there were problems.

Isn't there a risk that will create a 'forced cancellation' which would mean that BE was within its rights to make the cancellation charge. (The charge they so often make anyway and then admit they were wrong.) It would certainly increase the cost to the OP because of maximum overlap period where he has paying for both.

charge better then the hassle I seen on the plusnet forum, someone now has no internet and lost their phone number.

To me its simple, never ever ever cancel old isp until new one is online. If you pay extra month subs or whatever during that period so be it.

What seems to have happened is that the poster got a MAC without agreeing a cancellation date so that when the MAC was used, this initiated the Express cancellation.

In reply to a post by StephenTodd:

You can't have BE and Infinity at the same time.

But sometimes you order Infinity and get an install date; but the installer doesn't turn up. (See lots on the BT forums)
They then reschedule, often for a couple of weeks later or more.
If you have arranged for your BE contract to end exactly on the Infinity install date, you can end up with no broadband for a while.
You might be able to arrange BT ADSL pretty sharpish in that case; but with complications because the BE LLU might mean work at the exchange to arrange that.
Also, BE are apparently helpful about short extensions to end of contract, but there can be details (line cease or ???) which can mean they can't help even if they want to.
Luckily, this sort of problem is fairly rare, but as I said, not as rare as it should be ....

I think my Infinity install was around 3 weeks after order: I can't remember now.
They do sometimes install at weekends; I don't know how difficult it is to get a weekend appointment, and whether it might mean a longer wait.

Cheers everyone, espically you StephenTodd, been very helpful indeed

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I would suggest to the OP dont tell BE cancel, as they then cease the line which can cause issues. I would only cancel after new service is live.

This cannot happen if the line rental is not with Be. So far as I now we don't know about the OP's.

In reply to a post by ryant704:

I believe a MAC Code isn't required when swapping from a LLU provider to BTW.

A MAC is always required, to be requested from old ISP and then presented to new ISP, if you want to avoid hassle and charges when you migrate any BB, ADSL or Fibre, which is hosted over a BTw WLR phone line.

Be is a Partial LLU ISP so the line is WLR, whether OP has rental with Be or someone else.

And to add with Full LLU providers (the majority of TalkTalk and Sky customers (and some Tesco ones)) there is no need for a MAC, and one cannot be generated.

And to add when migrating to Full LLU providers a MAC can't be accepted just as when migrating from Full LLU providers a MAC can't be generated.

BE can still cease broadband, cancelling before new service is live is too big a risk as far as I am concerned.

I agree there is that risk, though not many people would want to pay a full month after migration. That wasn't what you said though.