http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/i/3953.html £30,000 fine for Prodigy

I think what the poster meant was it can take Murphyx 3 days to provide the MAC and it then takes 5-7 days for the user to submit that to a chosen new ISP and the migration to be effected by BT.

That makes sense and is perfectly reasonable. The implication is that Murphyx, who have no contractual liability to the user, would disconnect them immediately on request of the MAC on the grounds that the goodwill they are showing by continuing service was not being returned.

If the user accepts the switch to Murphx and later requests a MAC that is different, as a contract between the two would then exist.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Total lie that it takes BT 5 to 7 days to action the Mac over to your chosen supplier - the system does not work like that.

I think you may have misunderstood me. The ' 5 to 7 days to action the mac' I mentioned referred to the time taken from giving the mac to your new supplier and BT actually switching your line over to the new isp, ie the time taken from the end user having the mac to the time the new isp provides internet on the line.
Every reference I can find confirms that it takes days for the switch over to take place once the mac is given to the new isp.

If, as you suggest, you know of isps who can provide instant switch over once they have a mac please tell us as that would helpful. (obviously Murphx can do it instantly but thats not using a mac)

Providers/Wholesale have access to a BT system that can generate a Mac within a minute, the sensible ones have automated this

I'm not sure how it could be automated in this instance. How would you automatically get the MAC code to the end user? They have no internet access and murphx have no email addresses for users, and users couldn't access emails even if they did.

In conversation the people at Murphx they suggested that their system for generating MACs is automated but that is set up for their wholesale customers to access a control panel/console to generate the macs. Obviously in this case that would mean HV being the ones with access to the automated system, getting the macs and passing them on.
That clearly won't work in this situation so it seems that in the short term Murphx have to manually process each request for a mac.

When I spoke to them they estimated the 'queue' for the staff dealing with manually producing macs was around three days, hence 3 days to get the mac code and a further 5 -7 days for your line to be switched to the new isp by BT.

Once you have the MAC the length of time for the migration falls outside the scope of the rules.
It is getting the MAC into the consumers hand that has to reach the five day.

The MAC is valid for 30 days from its generation.

The exception to this would be if your going to migrate to a provider that currently uses them as a wholesale provider (like us) then things would move a lot quicker, but you would still require a MAC

It seems this is what they meant, i.e. 3 days for the MAC and then the time to decide to use it and it to be actually used.

Exactly .
But they may discontinue service during that period, as some people seem to think they will be without for around 10 days.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Exactly .
But they may discontinue service during that period, as some people seem to think they will be without for around 10 days.

The service has already been discontinued. Everyone is in the walled garden and just gets a holding page.
Users then either choose to pay Murphx a monthly fee and internet access is restored in minutes or alternatively they stay in the walled garden and request a mac.

As far as I know those requesting a mac will stay without internet until the mac has been issued, given to the new ISP and BT switched the line over.

If Murphx can/do get macs to users in around 3 days then 10 days offline sounds about right to me. Of course the longer they take to generate the macs the longer the time offline.

Vivaciti makes in interesting point. If you choose a new ISP who uses Murphx as their wholesaler then downtime may be limited to just the time top generate the mac, possibly just three days, as BT won't need to do ant provisioning, presumably its just an authentication issue with Murphx themselves.

However its not very obvious who uses Murphx.

Thanks for the clarification there.

The murphx guy told me it would take them 7-10 days to produce a MAC and the 5 day rule does not apply because it is an "exceptional situation" and they are very busy with lots of HV customers! And in that time, I would have no connection until I was with a new provider.

However, the sign-up is just for a month, which gets me back on-line then I can request a MAC "in a few days" he said.

Overall, this might be a good thing for those wanting to move since it's hard to imagine that murphx can be any less responsive than HV. Even 7-10 days is much better than the months that some have reported trying to extract a MAC from HV.

There is a statement from murphx on http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2009/05/27/murphx-t...

For those accepting the murphx offer, what should we do to formally terminate with HV?

-- anon2