New install when moving

Hey,

I'm hopefully going to be in a position soon where I will need a Zen line installed at a new address (not migrating my existing install).

I emailed Zen CS about this and was told that if the current owners were to cancel their broadband when they left, that Zen wouldn't be able to put in my activation order until after their order was fully completed and the line had dropped.

Is that true? Activation and install can take up-to 2 weeks, and while I could fully believe that BT Wholesale still have a system that can't deal with parallel but non overlapping work orders, it also feels like people moving and needing one line to drop and another to go live on the same day (or within a few days) shouldn't be uncommon or a surprise in {CurrentYear}?

Do BT Wholesale really still party like it's 1999, or are Zen wrong in this case?

Thanks.

I'd probably believe Zen on this, it is BT we're talking about here (the ladies and gents that come out to do the installs are great but the company itself is a dinosaur)

It's Openreach that has this rigidity.

My first provider at home was Prodigynet, and they let you see the OR order log for your line, including the history.

Although there can be several orders outstanding that is because a customer order often generates a few internal ones at Openreach for the individual tasks involved, but once a customer order has been placed then no others can be until all of that one is marked as completed.

(It can happen that one of the intermediate jobs or the final one has completed but a slip-up results in it not being updated on their system. That stops the whole process, as we sometimes hear on these forums has happened to an end user).

The only significant change I'm aware of in the last 15 years was the introduction of Linked Orders. That allows a CP (Communications Provider) to place a Linked Order on Openreach for the provision of a line and that results in a Simultaneous Provide Order Number. Normally called a SIM order - confusingly in these days of phone SIMs.

The CP tells the end user that number, and they can then order broadband from a different CP and pass that SIM order number on to them The broadband CP then orders the broadband with that order number filled in on their order, and that should result in line and broadband being installed on the same day even if two CPs are involved.

Hence, when the people moving out place a Cease order on the line, that's kaput until it has happened and been updated as having been on the OR system.

Totally ridiculous.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 23-Nov-19 22:48:55)

If the provider for the previous occupant, and your provider, both use Wholesale Line Rental then, even if the previous provider places a cease order on the line, your provider should be able to raise a WLTO order - Working Line Takeover with Open Cease.

Or, if the line has already been ceased (stopped), your provider should be able to restart it within 24 hours without the need for an engineer visit. Broadband would take a little longer.

Their provider is Vodafone, and I know they've put in the order to move their service to their new address already. I'll call Zen tomorrow and see what they can do.

I know I'll need an engineer visit to install and test any g.fast equipment, but maybe Zen could put me on a slower service for 2 weeks while I wait for that work, and then re-provision the line afterwards?

So, yeah, Zen were perfectly correct. I have to wait for the line to drop on Friday, then they can place the order and give me a new phone line almost immediately, but it will be 2 working weeks to get the internet running again. That means I should have a working connection again by the 16th, and am very glad I'm not moving immediately.

On the plus side the speed estimate for the line is 302-330Mbps down (typical 330Mbps) with 42Mbps up, which is significantly better than the estimate for my current flat (220-330Mbps down (typical 249Mbps) with 29Mbps up).

Time will tell how accurate that is.

Real life is a little less than estimated on the download side (~280Mbps), but the upload is above estimated (~48Mbps). I've seen 35MB/s in real life tasks like updating Visual Studio, so I'm certainly not going to complain at that

The BT engineer showed my theoretical sync at 380Mbps, so it's curious how I'm losing 100Mbps somewhere (though I expected to be capped at 330Mbps). Side note: The BT engineer was excellent! It turns out I have two phone lines at this property (and 5 twisted pairs to my outside demarc point) and he happily re-wired one to the other so I could have my modem upstairs in my office rather than downstairs in the living room. I have no idea why I have two physical master sockets, unless someone needed an extra line back in the ISDN days.

I have no idea why I have two physical master sockets, unless someone needed an extra line back in the ISDN days.

Because people had/have second lines ... often installed by their employers, provided for dial up, or business DSL, or just voice services.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Because people had/have second lines ... often installed by their employers, provided for dial up, or business DSL, or just voice services.

I've got two master sockets in this house- the previous owner often worked from home and had set up one of the bedrooms as an office. I took the line over; I didn't work from home but it was back in the days of dial-up and I would often occupy a single line for longer than my wife was prepared to tolerate

I ditched it when always-on broadband became available.

I also left two masters in my previous property, same reason

MrDoom

When we moved in here there were 3 master sockets from 3 different overhead cables!

We only ever used one and an engineer cut one down at some point, the next two houses also had multiple wires due to home working.

If one of yours was an old ISDN master you would know just by looking as the master had several sockets one for each channel.