BTW Cancellation Charge starting 1st May 2007

With BT Wholesales new cancellation charge coming into force tomorrow, does anyone know of ISP's that are going to waive this charge?

Ideally I'm looking to see if there will be anyone who will be offering a short contract (say no more than 3 months), do not have a connection charge (for migrations in) and will not be charging this new BTW fee so that when It comes time to cancel my current service I can migrate for free to another provider and then cancel my service and not incur a charge.


And yes I know I am asking an awful lot, but it has to be out there somewhere as I know one reseller (Entanet) have stated that they will not be charging their vISPs this fee.

IIRC, the fee only applies if you cancel ADSL altogether - it does not apply in the case of migration, which is what you appear to be anticipating.

We are not applying the cancelation charges for our allowance products, and contracts are monthly.

How long will you be able to hold that position though in such a situation as this? The OP's ploy was glaringly obviously going happen. The only thing that surprises me is that he chose to explain it in public.

Surely you, and any others who do not charge, will have to alter something for recent migrations in?

A migration in is not a problem for us right now, although we would not be able to offer free connection and no contract, that has been tried before with out much success.
If it becomes a magnet for such customers, then it would have to be looked at again

Vivaciti are Enta resellers (they also resell Griffin services) and I spent some time discussing this very issue with Enta when BT made the announcement.

I analysed the details of all new activations, migrations and cease orders over the past few months at UKFSN and determined that, based upon the UKFSN figures, it is possible to absorb the cost of cease orders if the activation charge remains at

I don't think I made my point clearly in my first post, which is if you offer free migration in, 1-month contract, and no cancellation charge, (I think that is what you do), then you have created the magnet. You (or ENTA) pay BT to connect them, you pay BT to cease the line. The OP and his ilk avoid the cease charge from wherever they migrated in to you.

"If it becomes a magnet for such customers, then it would have to be looked at again " Exactly!

Please see my response to vivaciti below.

The question is specifically about people migrating in, in order to cancel. Not signing up and paying an activation fee

If that does become a problem then it would have to be looked at again yes. Considering such potential (short term) customers how many do you think will have planned their cease 6-8 weeks in advance?

My experience is that few customers plan their cease requests so well.

Yes, I thought about that while I was getting ready to go out.

Obviously you/vivaciti/Enta have actual historical figures to go on, whereas I am just wondering about user behaviour changes due to new circumstances.

I couldn't easily think of many reasons a user would cease BB anyway other than address changes and leaving the country. Most of those I assume actually are planned 6-8 weeks in advance, let's not go into reasons why some may be more urgent!

So I think the problem has not got the potential to be widespread, as you had already worked out. It occurred to me a while ago but the OP was the first occurrence of it I have seen, which is what triggered my post.