Bt-midband is dying - What to do next?

Bt-midband was closed to new customers some while back. Now I am informed
that the service will cease on June 30th, and all they can offer is a
switch to BT-Broadband.

Which is, of course, totally unsuitable for me. First, it seems to
required a USB connection to my computer, which I have not got, and offers
other over-hyped goodies which I just do not want. And their web site is
clearly directed at clueless newbies who are unaware of life beyond
Microsoft.

Bt-midband was, of course, a fixed price connecttivity-only deal over
ISDN. I get my email, filtering, web-space (if I want it) and other
goodies from Gradwell, who provide an excellent service and - more to the
point - give a clear impression of technical competence (which is fully
justified in my experience).

So I wish to remain with Gradwell, but I need an ADSL provider who offers
a connectivity-only deal - but I can't find one; they all come bundled
with unwanted goodies, and I object to paying for the same service twice.

So I would welcome suggestions of what provider I should go to.

Also, interestingly, they offer an "uninterrupted internet connection" if I
accept their offer, whereas I had always been led to believe that removing
a BT Homehighway box and converting the line to ADSL were two separate
operations that could not be performed on one visit (more likely to be 6
days apart, if you were lucky). So if they can do it "instantaneously",
does that mean that a switch to another provider can be managed
"instantaneously" too? For surely it cannot be that BT could obtain such a
service from BT Wholesale if that were not also available to other BT
Wholesale customers?

Followups set to uk.telecom.broadband.

--
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Tel: +44 161 436 6131 Fax: +44 161 436 6133 Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
Email: (E-Mail Removed) Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave, CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K.
PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5

Charles Lindsey wrote:
<snip>
> Also, interestingly, they offer an "uninterrupted internet connection" if I
> accept their offer, whereas I had always been led to believe that removing
> a BT Homehighway box and converting the line to ADSL were two separate
> operations that could not be performed on one visit (more likely to be 6
> days apart, if you were lucky). So if they can do it "instantaneously",
> does that mean that a switch to another provider can be managed
> "instantaneously" too? For surely it cannot be that BT could obtain such a
> service from BT Wholesale if that were not also available to other BT
> Wholesale customers?
</snip>

Hi there,

Most providers will offer ISDN Conversions. This will result in an
engineer attending your premesis on the day ADSL is due to be activated.
They will convert the highway box to a normal PSTN socket and ADSL
should be up and running when your kit is plugged in. There will be a
£50 charge on your BT bill for this priveledge irrespective of the
provider you go with AFAIK.

Regards,

--
|Bob Pullen Broadband Solutions for
|Support Home & Business @
|PlusNet plc. www.plus.net
+------ PlusNet - The smarter way to Internet! -----

Charles Lindsey wrote:

> So I wish to remain with Gradwell, but I need an ADSL provider who offers
> a connectivity-only deal - but I can't find one; they all come bundled
> with unwanted goodies, and I object to paying for the same service twice.

any standard ADSL provider will do, you don't have to use anything you
don't want. There is no discount to be had from companies not bundling
things like email.

You don't say what speed the www.bt.com/broadband checker offers for
your line. This may influence the answer. A USB modem is no good to you
by the sound of it so buy your own router and connect via ethernet.

Contract length and setup fees are a factor to consider - a monthly
contract will involve a £47 setup fee, or a 12 month contract will
absorb it.

http://www.newnet.co.uk/broadband/
http://www.zenadsl.co.uk/athome.aspx
http://www.aaisp.net.uk/

> Also, interestingly, they offer an "uninterrupted internet connection" ifI
> accept their offer, whereas I had always been led to believe that removing
> a BT Homehighway box and converting the line to ADSL were two separate
> operations that could not be performed on one visit

you must be listening to the wrong people. A "managed conversion" will
ensure the ADSL works otherwise they revert to the previous ISDN
arrangement. Not all ISPs do these.

BT Broadband used to absorb the £50 ISDN->POTS conversion charge.

Phil

PhilT wrote:
> Charles Lindsey wrote:
>
>> So I wish to remain with Gradwell, but I need an ADSL provider who offers
>> a connectivity-only deal - but I can't find one; they all come bundled
>> with unwanted goodies, and I object to paying for the same service twice.
>
> any standard ADSL provider will do, you don't have to use anything you
> don't want. There is no discount to be had from companies not bundling
> things like email.
>
> You don't say what speed the www.bt.com/broadband checker offers for
> your line. This may influence the answer. A USB modem is no good to you
> by the sound of it so buy your own router and connect via ethernet.
>
> Contract length and setup fees are a factor to consider - a monthly
> contract will involve a £47 setup fee, or a 12 month contract will
> absorb it.
>
> http://www.newnet.co.uk/broadband/
> http://www.zenadsl.co.uk/athome.aspx
> http://www.aaisp.net.uk/
>
>> Also, interestingly, they offer an "uninterrupted internet connection" if I
>> accept their offer, whereas I had always been led to believe that removing
>> a BT Homehighway box and converting the line to ADSL were two separate
>> operations that could not be performed on one visit
>
> you must be listening to the wrong people. A "managed conversion" will
> ensure the ADSL works otherwise they revert to the previous ISDN
> arrangement. Not all ISPs do these.
>
> BT Broadband used to absorb the £50 ISDN->POTS conversion charge.
>
> Phil
>
In theory it's a smooth transition - but then again when BT upgraded one
of our ADSL contracts from 512K to 2Mbit we lost the service for 5 days
and while trying to sort it out they cut off all the phones to the HQ
building for several hours.

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, Charles Lindsey
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>Bt-midband was closed to new customers some while back. Now I am informed
>that the service will cease on June 30th, and all they can offer is a
>switch to BT-Broadband.
>
>Which is, of course, totally unsuitable for me.

Rather unlikely.

> First, it seems to
>required a USB connection to my computer,

No it won't

>which I have not got,

The 'free' modem may well be a USB modem, but a better idea anyway is
to buy your own ADSL modem/router which will plug into an Ethernet port.


>
>Bt-midband was, of course, a fixed price connecttivity-only deal over
>ISDN. I get my email, filtering, web-space (if I want it) and other
>goodies from Gradwell, who provide an excellent service and - more to the
>point - give a clear impression of technical competence (which is fully
>justified in my experience).
>
>So I wish to remain with Gradwell, but I need an ADSL provider who offers
>a connectivity-only deal - but I can't find one; they all come bundled
>with unwanted goodies, and I object to paying for the same service twice.
>
>So I would welcome suggestions of what provider I should go to.
>

I'd get less hung up on 'paying for something twice' and just look for
decent deals that suit you - most packages will contain some sort of
'extra', but you don't have to use it. A deal without it won't
necessarily be any cheaper.

An important consideration is what your usage pattern is likely to be.
how much do you expect to download each month, when is your peak usage
likely to be etc., how price sensitive are you, how much of a 'premium'
are you willing to pay for competent technical support.

I would have recommended Metrnoet, which pretty much meets you know
bells and whistles service request, but since the takeover by Plusnet
they have gone down hill.

In terms of technically competent ISP's AAISP, Zen, IDnet seem to have
good names.

--
Chris French, Leeds

"Charles Lindsey" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Now I am informed that the service will cease on June 30th, and all
>they can offer is a switch to BT-Broadband.

Are you losing the ISDN too? If they're ready to switch you to ADSL, they
may have some long (12 month) minimum contract, where your other needs and
views suggest a basic connection would be all you need.

>Bt-midband was, of course, a fixed price connecttivity-only deal over ISDN.

There have been plenty of other ISPs offering ISDN access, of course, which
may mean you could simply switch to some other - Vispa was one which offered
some reasonable deals in the past, as mentioned in freeserve.help.isdn (from
memory - been a while since I had ISDN).

>So I wish to remain with Gradwell, but I need an ADSL provider ...

Really? You want to switch to ADSL, or are being forced to switch? I think
the cost of conversion was 50 quid (I simply cancelled, rather than pay for
the conversion, when "BT Together Option 1" was being forced on everyone).

So I suppose you have two or three choices

1) don't switch from ISDN (if it's an option) but switch ISP
2) take up the suggested switch (if the traffic allowance is adequate)
3) pay for the conversion yourself, and switch to some ISP of your choice

It isn't clear what package they suggested you switch to, and therefore the
monthly fee is unknown, but you'll find lots of account options are available
if you do wish to go to ADSL (see www.adslguide.org.uk ) but for a no-frills
account (and which might appeal for other reasons) could try www.ukfsn.org
(get a PCI card if it fits the bill, or cheapish 4-port router assuming you
have ethernet available - see http://www.linuxadsl.co.uk/ ).

It also isn't clear whether they will pay for the switch, in return for you
using one of their packages, or will charge you. If they charge you (and
even if not, depending on your needs and what they charge monthly) then
option (3) might be a cheaper option (remember you may have to pay the
ISP an activation fee, of 40 +VAT, as well as a BT ISDN conversion fee,
so it gets near to needing a spreadsheet for all the options!)


In answer to a portion I've snipped: I'd have thought that by now, since
"simultaneous provide" can be done for a phone line (a new line is being
installed and enabled the same day) it should be possible to get the same
sort of setup to be done on a conversion, rather than there being a delay
between getting the ISDN converted back to a plain analogue line.

--
Change to DSL Max the way I did: switch ISP <http://www.dslmax.info/>

On Mon, 29 May 2006 13:14:45 GMT, "Charles Lindsey" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Bt-midband was closed to new customers some while back. Now I am informed
>that the service will cease on June 30th, and all they can offer is a
>switch to BT-Broadband.
>
[snip]

As others in this thread have pointed out it is well within the reamls of
possabities to have a same day conversion from ISDN to a POTS with ADSL
enabled. Afterwards you will continue to be able to surf the net and have the
use of another analogue device at the same time.

I am a bit out of touch with BT's fees for an ISDN service, but I guess it
must be around the £110 mark per quater by now. A very modest use of Internet
usage probably adds another £30 in call charges during the same period. Going
over to Broadband would almost certainly see a £50 saving per quarter
[assuming an ISP subscrition of £16 per month] which more than helps with
ISDN/ADSL conversion charge. The there is the bonus of much more surfing time
at no extra charge.

BUT there are pontential snags iwith your phone usage that might see you
needing an additional analogue line. This will wipe out the quarterly savings
by converting to Broadband

One off fees payable for ISDN conversion are thought to be £50 + VAT, new line
provision at £80 + VAT, an a ADSL router, at say £80 + VAT and the ADSL
connection fee of £47 + VAT. This all adds up to a sizeable sum to find and
therefore the ROI will be over several years.

Anyone care to put me right on the true cost of all this?

David Bradley

On Mon, 29 May 2006 13:14:45 GMT, Charles Lindsey wrote:

>Bt-midband was closed to new customers some while back. Now I am informed
>that the service will cease on June 30th, and all they can offer is a
>switch to BT-Broadband.
>
>Which is, of course, totally unsuitable for me. First, it seems to
>required a USB connection to my computer, which I have not got, and offers
>other over-hyped goodies which I just do not want. And their web site is
>clearly directed at clueless newbies who are unaware of life beyond
>Microsoft.

Lots of ISPs do "wires only" I recommend A&A - Not the cheapest, but they know
what's what *and* one of their domains is "sodms.com" :-)

http://aaisp.net.uk/

If you want to look and compare

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/

--

Regards

Dave Saville

NB Remove -nospam for good email address

David Bradley wrote:


> BUT there are pontential snags iwith your phone usage that might see you
> needing an additional analogue line. This will wipe out the quarterly savings
> by converting to Broadband

however a VoIP service running over the ADSL is a viable alternative to
that, certainly less than a second analogue line (free from
sipgate.co.uk for example).

> Anyone care to put me right on the true cost of all this?

A new analogue line is £99.99 install plus £12/month with a minimum
12 month contract. All inc VAT. A VoIP service is a better idea, cost a
lot less than the monthly line rental. http://www.btbroadbandvoice.com/
is £2.99 a month for example.

ISDN-> POTS conversion is £50 inc VAT, BT Retail ISPs may absorb that.

BT Home Highway is £26.50 per month. Standard analogue line
£11/month. Midband costs £10/month.

So, current cost = 26.50 + 10 = £36.50 per month.

Future cost = 11 + ISP = £31 per month if ISP is £20. May be £5 less
than this.

ISDN->POTS conversion £50. Free setup from 12 month contract ISPs, buy
Voyager 205 ethernet router off Ebay or other low cost router £20.
Fixed cost £70.

Payback = 70 / 5.50 = 13 months, or less.

Phil

"Charles Lindsey" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Bt-midband was closed to new customers some while back. Now I am informed
> that the service will cease on June 30th, and all they can offer is a
> switch to BT-Broadband.
>
> Which is, of course, totally unsuitable for me. First, it seems to
> required a USB connection to my computer, which I have not got, and offers
> other over-hyped goodies which I just do not want. And their web site is
> clearly directed at clueless newbies who are unaware of life beyond
> Microsoft.
>
If you get an ADSL router you will only need an ethernet connection on the
back or your PC and you can get an ethernet card for a tenner.
Must be a very old computer not to have a USB port though, the one I've just
got rid of had USB ports.
Regards Mike.