Providers don't appear to know I have FTTH

Hi, we have had 300Mb FTTH for 18months, installed by Gigaclear. Our contract is coming to and end and I want to compare prices. Every where I've checked BT/Sky/JL etc tells me i can only get ADSL. I'm assuming a database somewhere hasn't been updated. In the first instance I would like to contact Gigaclear, but it would be useful to know what they haven't done and request they do it properly. Assuming there isn't a better way to go about this?

Gigaclear have their own fibre network totally separate from Openreach. You will never get a service from the likes of BT or Sky etc.

Thank-you for your response. I didn't know that, their renewal notice includes this option:
<snip>
3 Switch to a different provider
You may also get a better deal if you purchase your TV, broadband and landline services alongside any other services you have as part of a combined deal with another provider.
</snip>

So this is not a real option?

I took a closer look at their website, they do have a few select partners, but none of the big guys. Doesn't look like any deals are likely to be forthcoming.

In reply to a post by APH999:

Thank-you for your response. I didn't know that, their renewal notice includes this option:
<snip>
3 Switch to a different provider
You may also get a better deal if you purchase your TV, broadband and landline services alongside any other services you have as part of a combined deal with another provider.
</snip>

So this is not a real option?

I believe you do have a small selection of ISP's to choose from after the initial contract with Gigaclear comes to an end. You may need to contact Gigaclear direct to get the list as it will not be the same list as for the Openreach network.

This is one of the problems with these networks, you are stuck with what they offer. i notice Gigaclear is not cheap either, for a 30Mb/s, which is a less than what I get with FTTC, it is £39 a month, ok so the upload is faster, but still a bit pricey.

So you can not even get FTTC where you are?

In the next 14 months or, so we are having FTTP here, from a company called Zzoomm, i am not sure if i will bother or not, for very reason you posted about, but their prices are better than gigaclear.

https://www.gigaclear.com/our-partners no need to contact them it is on the website

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

https://www.gigaclear.com/our-partners no need to contact them it is on the website

Thats good to know

No, we are somewhat in the sticks. The Gigaclear offer we took up was a good one, free installation and a £35/month contract for 18months (300mb). Their service has been 1st class, I've only had to restart the Gateway once in that period (last week!), there have been no other unplanned interruptions with only a handful planned overnight that didn't affect us. The main worry is what might happen going forward, but may be there will be more competition at some point. Thanks all - I will make a few speculative phone calls just in case there is any wiggle room.

That's the Ofcom-mandated notification. You have the option of switching to a different provider - this could be ADSL, satellite, LTE, fixed wireless etc. It's not saying you have the option to move to a different provider using their infrastructure.

While end of contract notifications are an Ofcom thing, the wording itself is very much down to the control of the ISP.

zoom is the same person that started Gigaclear till he sold it and made a fortune (proably)

In reply to a post by APH999:

No, we are somewhat in the sticks. The Gigaclear offer we took up was a good one, free installation and a £35/month contract for 18months (300mb). Their service has been 1st class, I've only had to restart the Gateway once in that period (last week!), there have been no other unplanned interruptions with only a handful planned overnight that didn't affect us. The main worry is what might happen going forward, but may be there will be more competition at some point. Thanks all - I will make a few speculative phone calls just in case there is any wiggle room.

The problem is, once one company decides to do an FTTH or high speed network, somewhere, other companies tend not to bother, certainly if the amount of customers is few.

You say about reliability and this is my thing, apart from the time when for some reason nothing else but a Huawei modem would connect, my broadband using FTTC have been rock solid. Sure sometimes it goes on a bit of a slowdown, but nothing too bad.

Oh yes, make some phone calls, see what you can get, at least there is some competition on the network, I don't know if their prices are any better.

To be honest you are more or less stuck with staying on the network if the only other option is ADSL. I suppose you could use 4G, if you can get a decent 4G signal where you are.

In reply to a post by Fastman3:

zoom is the same person that started Gigaclear till he sold it and made a fortune (proably)

You must put the extra z and m on, it is Zzoomm

Yes, I read all the blurb about it and realised that it was the same person that started Gigaclear. Sadly it happens that these people start something, sells it for millions and then start again for some reason, I don't get it.
By all accounts Gigaclear is around here as well, but i do not know where, I don't think they are in the city.


I am still wondering why Zzoomm is coming here, I suspect they have had a load of money chucked at them to come here, from fastershire and our council, and they will boast about it, with look what we have done for Hereford.
Just a shame the city itself is falling apart and the roads are like something from a third world country, but they painted new road markings on the road to my place. They should have painted look out for this dip or look out for this pothole.

Sorry, went of on one then


I think it will be a good thing as long as it is reliable and the prices stay right, I do think they need to get rid of charging extra to uncap uploading speeds and £10 a moth extra for a static IP is why over the top.

i have chatted to a lot of people over the last few weeks since I have known about this and most people are fine with what they have got. There were some with a few people living in the house that says it will make a difference with video streaming. But for one or two people will it really make a difference?

I at the moment live on my own, but things may change in the next 12 months, so for me unless the price for Zzoom is on par with what I pay Plusnet, then I really don't see the point in chaging.

We will see.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

The problem is, once one company decides to do an FTTH or high speed network, somewhere, other companies tend not to bother, certainly if the amount of customers is few.

Similar here, I have Virgin cable as I needed faster uplink, FTTC degraded to 2 Mbps upload, good for many, but poor for my needs of home working. I would have preferred an open network (e.g. Openreach), but there will be little commercial return in this town as we are cabled. Still waiting for a date for VM to upgrade the network to Gig1 too.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Similar here, I have Virgin cable as I needed faster uplink, FTTC degraded to 2 Mbps upload, good for many, but poor for my needs of home working. I would have preferred an open network (e.g. Openreach), but there will be little commercial return in this town as we are cabled. Still waiting for a date for VM to upgrade the network to Gig1 too.

I still have awhile to decide what I want to do,
Do you really need 1GIG network?

No I don’t, but I’d like lower latency on the network. I’d also like higher upload!!

In reply to a post by jchamier:

No I don’t, but I’d like lower latency on the network. I’d also like higher upload!!

The higher upload would be nice, The problem with Zzoomm is that i would have to pay another tenner a month to get it.

i certainly don't need faster download, 34Mb/s is fine for me.

I have been a Gigaclear customer for the past 5 years. In my case the alternative is about 1.5Mbps ADSL. I prefer to pay Gigaclear rather than any of the alternatives as if there are problems it is Gigaclear who would have to make any corrections. Recently I had their box changed to bridge mode and I now have a pfSense router running on a Qotom box.