Excellent. Nice to know things can go the other way.

Well I've been sent the Sagem (?). Totally unfamiliar with this brand. We'll see how I get on with it.

I'm just leaving Sky. The BB was good, but beware the prices. It went from free, to £5 to £10 to £15 - then should have gone back to £7.50 (if I had tied myself to another 12months contract) but was missold by their staff. It used to be fantastic value, but now not so much.

The big issue with switching to Sky is that if you want to leave, then the problems begin. It will cost you upto £125 to get the line switched away from Sky, and they wont hand over your number, so you lose your telephone number. Something they don't exactly shout about when they sign you up.

In reply to a post by Spacemanc:

The big issue with switching to Sky is that if you want to leave, then the problems begin. It will cost you upto £125 to get the line switched away from Sky, and they wont hand over your number, so you lose your telephone number.

Sounds like they are breaking OFCOM guidelines then.

From: http://ask.ofcom.org.uk/help/telephone/switching_pro...

If you�re staying at the same address and your number is active, your current provider must allow it to be transferred to a new phone company.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by Spacemanc:

The big issue with switching to Sky is that if you want to leave, then the problems begin. It will cost you upto £125 to get the line switched away from Sky, and they wont hand over your number, so you lose your telephone number.

Sounds like they are breaking OFCOM guidelines then.

From: http://ask.ofcom.org.uk/help/telephone/switching_pro...

If you�re staying at the same address and your number is active, your current provider must allow it to be transferred to a new phone company.

Im not sure if the rules even apply to LLU - even if they do a quick internet search will show you that many people have problems with losing their number when switching from LLU providors - Sky included.

Do you think any of these companies give a **** what Ofcom say? I get the impression that they dont.

In reply to a post by Spacemanc:

Im not sure if the rules even apply to LLU

Can't see why it wouldn't.

even if they do a quick internet search will show you that many people have problems with losing their number when switching from LLU providors - Sky included

Yes, that's a shame.

Do you think any of these companies give a **** what Ofcom say?

Probably not, which is why we need to make complaints to OFCOM more often.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

Probably not, which is why we need to make complaints to OFCOM more often.

I agree wholeheartedly - but have you tried complaining about issues such as this to Ofcom? You cant even do it! All complaints are pushed to ADR with the supplier

Or just don't go for LLU for phone service, just broadband.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Or just don't go for LLU for phone service, just broadband.

It does limit ones options a bit though, which hinders competition. But above all else it's just plain deceptive to tell customers wanting to leave that they will lose their telephone number, probably as some devious retention tactic.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Or just don't go for LLU for phone service, just broadband.

Yep - I've learnt the hard way.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

It does limit ones options a bit though, which hinders competition. But above all else it's just plain deceptive to tell customers wanting to leave that they will lose their telephone number, probably as some devious retention tactic.

Competition in telecoms is a bit of a joke - there is competition and I actually believe we get a pretty good deal in the UK despite what the press often reports, but theres also alot of monopolistic behaviour and misselling from all the big providors.

I think that what needs to be done is something similar to railways - a non profit single nationalised network, with providers selling services on it. I suppose Openreach is meant to be something like that, but it clearly isn't. The LLU providers have spent billions, trying to compete with BT - as soon as they become real competition, BT lays fibre and we're back to square one. Are the LLU providers expected to now install 10's of thousands of their own street cabinets to compete? Not going to happen, so countless billions wasted on duplicated tech, which could probably have been spent on providing FTTP for all.