Looking for a temporary ISP, thinking ADSL24?

Hi Everyone,

I have posted over in the Orange forums about some issues I have been having with them throttling Spotify.

Originally I was hoping to be on FTTC by now as my exchange was set for December last year. I am now on a different exchange for whatever reason... and that is set for June this year, so got a bit of a wait yet.

I did not want to switch as I have a good price with Orange and I didn't want to start a new contract, however I have since realised you can get rolling contracts.. a provider that seems particularly good is ADSL24, sounds like a nice company, and they specifically say no throttling which would hopefully mean I could use Spotify in the evenings!

However, I have found very little information about this company, does anyone have any thoughts on them? Or a different 1month provider (or 3 month I guess would work also).

As a side note, some brief questions about switching ISP, (hope that's ok in this forum).

- If I grab a MAC code from Orange can I hold onto that for a bit til I decide on a provider?
- Will it just transition over smoothly when I decide? (obviously would need to change settings on my router) by which I mean there won't be a dead period I hope?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Charlie -

ADSL24 are well-known here and pretty well thought of. Like any ISP, occasionally someone has a problem with them, but the boss man monitors these froums and picks up on anything that might have gone wrong.

Once you get a MAC from your ISP you have 30 days to give it to your chosen new ISP with your order, and for them to submit that to Openreach. Most ISPs do that within minutes of your order. It doesn't matter if the actual migration, which is scheduled by Openreach, takes place after the 30 days.

The vast majority of transitions, (migrations), occur smoothly. Depending on the service you choose there may be half-an-hour or so downtime of phone and broadband. Most services there is no phone downtime, (you probably need to choose one of these), and probably no down time on the broadband at all. Except for you restarting your router on the new one. (The old one often continues as well for a few hours).

As ADSL24 provide connections from a number of wholesalers, it would help us advise you on the best package if you put your phone number into this checker and post the URL of the result.

Thanks very much for your thorough and informative reply.

My exchange is this: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/ESNEW (from putting my number in)

I like what I hear about ADSL24 then.. their 1 month contracts sound very intriguing.

The only other quick question is to do with line rental, if I quit my Orange contract to switch to another provider, can I keep my line rental with them, or is that not advisable? I don't really mind as it's only going to be about £1.50 a month difference to move the line rental to ADSL24 (for example) anyway.

Thanks again,

Charlie -

sorry, one other question...

If I do want to transfer the line rental as well (which I think I do, as I have had a horrible experience in the past with broadband and line rental on separate companies) do I need a separate code for that, or does the MAC code do everything..? Sorry if these are basic questions.

Charlie -

Hmm, sorry to add another reply and detail, hope it doesn't count as spam!

I've got a MAC code on the way from Orange. From what I have read now it sounds as though, I will give the MAC code to ADSL24 and then that will transfer my BB to them. My line rental would be a separate hassle, and to be honest, by line rental with Orange is very cheap so I will leave it with them if it's possible.

As I understand it I transfer to someone else using the MAC code and then once it's transferred over call up orange and end my BB contract. I presume/hope that I can cancel the BB on it's own and not have to cancel both the BB and the line rental, otherwise back to the beginning of having to transfer the line rental to the new provider also.

Charlie -

In reply to a post by charliestyr:

line rental with Orange is very cheap so I will leave it with them if it's possible.

It isn't! Orange don't do Phone only.

The MAC only covers the BB. You will need to get your new ISP to take over the line rental, but make sure they don't take over the line itself (Full LLU), keep it as BTw WLR, or you will have difficulty leaving them.

Ok, thanks for the info. I presume once I get my MAC code and call ADSL24 they will be able to explain what they are doing and I can specify that the line rental stays BT wholesale?

Thanks for all the help everyone.

Charlie -

LOL .

It would be easier to answer the questions if you weren't looking at a change to FTTC as soon as possible. That 1 June date is probably just a place-holder though and could easily slip again.

ADSL24 have some very good products available on that exchange, but the choice is affected by the different contract lengths some of them have. Also what to do about the phone line is very much dependent on whether or not you decide to go for BT Infinity for the FTTC, as they require you to have line rental with them as well.

I need a bit more info now.

1) Which products of theirs are you thinking of?

2) How much do you download and upload per month, and could any heavy stuff be scheduled to be downloaded overnight?

3) If you have no idea about the amount of traffic, what do you do on the net? In particular, lots of torrents/P2P, gaming, YouTube, TV catchup and other similar things?

4) Do you know how to find your router stats? We could do with you posting those. See here for help.

The MAC is for just the broadband. The phone line is separate, but if you have a phone/broadband bundle with Orange you need to find out what will happen there. They seem to get confused sometimes and end up cutting off both.

In the past, they used to refuse to accept notice on the broadband until the migration had completed. Which means you have to pay a month after you have left. I believe that to be either illegal or at least outside the MAC rules, but no-one seems ever to have challenged them about it.

At some time, but not yet,( let's discuss the broadband and FTTC first), you need to talk to ADSL24. James might even pick up this thread .

Were you on LLU with Orange before they passed it over to BT Wholesale? I'm wondering if there may be a problem with retaining your existing phone number if and when you move the line rental. Would that matter?

It could be worthwhile considering the Post Office for the phone, as I think the ADSL24 phone rental is 12-months. The PO is on 15 days notice so wouldn't tie you down. You can have most, (possibly all), of the ADSL24 broadband packages on that.

I type very slowly.

Howdy

It's straight forward to transfer your line rental to us too.

Once your broadband order has been placed with the MAC you've received from Orange, and you receive a go-live date, you can then place the order for the line rental with us, and we will be able to process this so that it transfers shortly after the broadband without affecting anything.

If you have any specific queries just ask