How easy (cheap) is it to change ISP?

Hello!

I'm about to move into a rented house and I have found out the phone and broadband is currently provided by TalkTalk. My current phone and broadband providers (BT and O2 respectively) have said that they will charge me to set up the new house with them. I presume this is because they have to do some LLU stuff at the exchange.

Now I'd rather not go with TalkTalk, but will all other phone/broadband providers charge me to set up the connection with them? As I might only be at the house for 6 months I don't really want to fork out a lot of money (£129 with BT) to change providers.

The exchange is Chandlers Ford and there are lots of broadband providers.

Any suggestions to get a reasonable phone/broadband service at a reasonable price?

Thanks!

STCFORD exchange You have Be* so you could take a short term contract, for bb, your problem is that tt already have the line,
Your cheapest way to get your line back to bt, would be to sign up to a calling plan (12-18mth contract) and pay at the most £30.00 connection fee, and have be* as your isp on short term contract 3mths which i assume you could just extend for another 3mths other than that maybe one of the smaller isp's/resellers can help you, but you may have to use a resold btw wholesale product and put up with shaping/usage caps

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerOrders...

I think the Post Office phone contract is monthly, though you can't avoid their installation fee. The broadband I think is annual so avoid that. You can have other ISPs on PO phone.

BT have a £30 installation option but with 18-month term, so a lot to pay off if you leave as you forecast, but may still be the cheapest option especially if you take the "Pay 12 months in advance" rental.

O2 should do a free house move on your existing broadband contract so long as you don't take the Home Phone, but which O2 broadband product are you on and how long have you been on it? There may be differences with the current ones.

can you stay with T-T for no charge other than the monthly fee ?

Four years ago I moved into a house where the line and broadband was all TalkTalk. They said I'd need to get the previous occupant to terminate service before they could provide me service at the address.

I'd have to pay £125 to BT for a new line (TalkTalk didn't provision lines, they just took-over existing BT lines), £90 to BT for an early termination so I could pay £30 to TalkTalk to migrate. £245 and a month of faff to basically change the name on the contract!

BT wouldn't offer me "return to donor" because I was a new customer.

Every time I've moved before the line had already been with BT and there'd been no charge to re-activate it. All this LLU nonsense cost me £155.

BT has their faults, but at least they don't pick-and-choose which bits of service they'll provide.

The £125 connect fee applies even if LLU is not involved and no broadband is involved at all these days.

Its a side effect of splicing off Openreach

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

especially if you take the "Pay 12 months in advance" rental.

You can't! As you recently quoted, this offer includes the condition:

*£30 Connection Offer. ... Customers who are benefiting from this offer are not eligible for Line Rental Saver

Thanks for all your replies. I've been in bed with the lurgies all day so haven't had a chance to look into it more but I've got a lot of ideas now. I'll let you know how I get on.

Martin