Orange LLU on WSPTN (Port Glasgow Newark)

Quick question for you Orange Broadband users. As far as I understand, Orange is discontinuing it's LLU services and migrating them to BT 21CN. If this is the case, why is my telephone exchange (Port Glasgow Newark) showing as having had Orange LLU enabled? Thanks.

Where's it shown? Not by BT or Orange?

Do you mean by SamKnows? He's not always up-to-date and I doubt that Orange keeps him informed.

You're on LLU only if the BT SpeedTester can't run. Otherwise you are on BT IPStream (ADSL Max), cuz your exchange is only 20CN.

It is possible Orange might keep you on LLU until your exchange is 21CN'ed, but I doubt it as it is not scheduled.

Sorry for the delay. Yeah, I saw it on SamKnows.com. It tends to be pretty reliable for the most part in my experience despite the lack of updates.

I'm not actually on Orange but I am looking at perhaps moving to another ISP that does bring in LLU. This is what is confusing me as WSPTN has never had any LLU services and the fact that Orange was migrating people to 21CN is confusing.

IMO Orange are poor in giving out information. AFAIK SamKnows still shows LLU on exchanges where Orange have moved to WBC/IPC, and SamKnows Orange availability dates on my exchange have varied wildly over the last 4 years.The decommissioning of their LLU is something I picked up from an investor presentation on their first quarter trading results for the Orange T-mobile joint venture in September 2010 (it was available on the Everything Everwhere website). Again I think it is a consideration with Orange that they (unlike the other LLU operators: C&W and TT; and Sky who acquired Easynet, and O2 who acquired Be) as far as I know, never chose to employ their own landline broadband engineers: they have always used contracted engineers to maintain their LLU, and now (I believe this month) expected to complete their move to being a wholly BT reseller. I suspect the route Orange chose was just too expensive, which is why no-one followed their example, and with a 25% loss of customers for home broadband over the last couple of years (from the stats on their results, and that's before this changeover - the next quarters stats might make for interesting reading) I don't think any business could sustain that sort of loss without changing their business model.

They have however been insistent they want to maintain the triple play offer of mobile/home phone/broadband, so it's hardly surprising they push the marketing gloss! They need to. But my personal view that is that Orange are a mobile operator, and the home phone/broadband offer is seen as a means of tying-in customers and reducing mobile churn - I don't think they are really interested in the broadband market as such; and presumably if they pay BT per subscriber then not that interested in the numbers game either, rather like Vodafone's home broadband offer.

PS: It's possible SamKnows still reflects an earlier Orange intention to grow LLU, as a company would be expected to report a change of policy to investors; but of course there's no duty to keep customers informed, we're only the ones directly affected!! Allegedly they've had (unspecified) home broadband turnaround strategies for as long as I can remember!

Edited by deleted (Wed 29-Jun-11 23:06:46)

Yep they've given up on LLU, so samknows shouldn't even have them as an option. I don't think its necessarily a bad thing. LLU costs a fortune and there's probably not enough room for so many providers - especially considering the deep pockets of the competitors, plus the need to constantly spend a fortune upgrading equipment. I'm pretty sure that BT infinity played a part as well - if they want to provide fibre soon, then they have to become resellers anyway - which kind of defeats the whole point of LLU. They have said that they will be spending the saved money on customer service, so that can only be a good thing, as that seems to be their weak point.

I've just signed up, but only had the phone connected so far (From Sky LLU so not an instant change over ) Customer service has been great, and the price is unbeatable - Quidco.com is giving £150 cashback for Orange BB signups till the end of the year, so it will work out at less than £10 pm for phone, 21CN BB and unlimited off peak calls!

In reply to a post by ciday:

Sorry for the delay. Yeah, I saw it on SamKnows.com. It tends to be pretty reliable for the most part in my experience despite the lack of updates.

I'm not actually on Orange but I am looking at perhaps moving to another ISP that does bring in LLU. This is what is confusing me as WSPTN has never had any LLU services and the fact that Orange was migrating people to 21CN is confusing.

Hi, all I can say to that is; don�t believe all that SamKnows.

My experience with SamKnows http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/which_isp/t/3997253...

SamKnows still says my exchange Knowle Enabled as of 10/09/2008.