Service upgrade woes (PSTN, WLR)

Hi,

I hope someone here can give me some advice.

I live on a private estate, some might call it a retirement village, which is served only by copper wire. I currently have ADSL 2+ with TalkTalk which gets me about 38MBits down speeds. It was £25 a month for 2 years, but has now gone up to £47 a month which is bit excessive for the speed in my opinion so I tried to get it upgraded and I was offered 60 odd MBits with a reduction in price, which I can only assume was FTTC. I accepted, and waited. This is where the problems start.

So, a month later I saw no increase in speeds and when the bill came it was still £47. I contacted TalkTalk who told me the upgrade had been rejected by BT. I moaned that no one had told me this and that I wasn't happy with the price and managed to get put through to retentions. Had a discussion with a lovely advisor who said they would get it sorted for me, ended up being passed to another department who said they would upgrade the service, reduce my bill, and add credit to my account for the inconvenience. Again, I waited, saw no improvement and got a bill for £47. I rang back and complained viciously. They said they would call me back. Eventually someone did call back and told me that once again BT had refused the upgrade, only this time they said it was because the local exchange had been upgraded to full fibre, and that BT had removed WLR (wholesale line rental for copper wire services as I understand it) and was no longer selling new ADSL or FTTC services from that exchange. Was basically told there was nothing they could do. So I did a bit of research which led me down the rabbit hole of PSTN and WLR etc, I spoke to the estate owners about it, and was told that getting a fibre laid to the park was too expensive and would involve crossing a local farmers field which he wouldn't agree to, and that if I had issues with the cost of my internet I should switch provider.

My question really, is that with WLR removed from the local exchange can I actually switch my provider? Although I live in a retirement village, I do still work, and I rely on the internet to be able to work from home, so this whole thing is stressing me out.

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for any advice.

Edited by Golgo13 (Thu 29-Aug-24 13:30:28)

You could get quotes from Vodafone and Plusnet for supplying FTTP. No need to mention your existing connection. A&A is another company that you could ask but they do charge more.

Thanks for the reply.

I have checked several switching sites, and based on my postcode all providers say they can supply me with 60+ Mbps, which is clearly untrue based on what TalkTalk have told me. I don't want to go through the hassle of trying to get my provider changed, only to be told at the end of it they can't do it due to the local exchange not offering WLR or FTTC any more.

firstly

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

what results does that give you..

you should find

WBC FTTC Availability - unavailable

WBC SOGEA Availability - available.

It’s seems a little naive to simply believe what Talk Talk are saying , but even if it’s true and no upgrade from 40Mb FTTC to 80Mb FTTC is available with them ( you are already on FTTC as your current speed is in excess of what ADSL can deliver ) , OR can stop selling copper based products if FTTP is available, but that has nothing to do with ‘BT’ , frankly it’s an indictment of how uniformed TT are if they refer to BT in this way

Edited by Iniltous (Thu 29-Aug-24 14:48:00)

Address 21, NOTTINGHAM on Exchange ARNOLD is served by Cabinet 53

Featured Products Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) Upstream Line Rate (Mbps) Downstream Handback
Threshold(Mbps) WBC FTTC Availability WBC SOGEA Availability
High Low High Low
VDSL Range A (Clean) help 78.1 55 20 13.3 49 Unavailable Available
VDSL Range B (Impacted) help 76.8 51.7 20 12 44 Unavailable Available
G.fast Range A (Clean) help -- -- -- -- -- Unavailable --
G.fast Range B (Impacted) help -- -- -- -- -- Unavailable --
Featured Products Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) Upstream Line Rate (Mbps) Downstream Range (Mbps) Availability Date FTTP Install Process
FTTP on Demand 330 50 -- Available --
Other Offerings Availability Date
VDSL Multicast Available
Exchange Product Restrictions Status
FTTP Priority Exchange Y
WLR Withdrawal Y
SOADSL Restriction N
FTTP is not available.

As a fibre priority exchange, FTTP has priority over other products if available at the address

As a WLR withdrawal exchange, product restrictions apply

SOADSL is not restricted at the exchange

Edited by Golgo13 (Thu 29-Aug-24 14:54:10)

FTTP isn’t available so it’s not a requirement to take it that is interfering with the availability of copper products , and as SoGEA is showing as available ( so the FTTC ‘cabinet’ isn’t ’full’ ) then an upgrade to 55 or 80Mb FTTC from your existing 40Mb FTTC should be possible, time try a different ISP .

Edited by Iniltous (Thu 29-Aug-24 15:17:19)

TalkTalk are being incompetent. Unless you are on an FTTP priority exchange with FTTP available at your location there is nothing stopping you upgrading your service, but what TalkTalk have probably tried to do is place an FTTC order when that service is now on stop-sell. They need to move you to SOGEA.

My advise if you are out of contract would be to move to a competent ISP.

Edited by jpm (Thu 29-Aug-24 15:31:13)

Ok, thank you. I guess I'll start ringing around.

Golgo13 please do edit your post with your address in it, we do not need that bit.

You can get up to 76mbits at best, which is very good for fttc, you won't get a phone number with the internet offering so if you do need to keep your existing number you will have to port it out ..