Bulldog: MAC request denied

Dear All,

After having ran out of patience with the mother of obnoxious and
incompetent ISPs, namely Bulldog, I requested a MAC in order to free my line
and get service from another - hopefully better, although you never know
these times - ISP.

As I admittedly am not a guru of broadband, I would greatly appreciate your
advice regarding the below answer, considering that I have a BT telephone
line (always been BT, even when Bulldog started supplying broadband back in
2004).
I thought that by adhering to the MAC scheme, ISPs would make it easier for
users to go from one service supplier to another minimising the off-line
period, but I concede that I may be misinformed and be following the wrong
procedure.

Any suggestions or feedback would be welcome.

Thank you for your time.


-- QUOTE --

Thank you for contacting Bulldog Broadband.

Unfortunately due to you being on a unique Bulldog broadband product that
are not under the BT network; it means that we are unable to supply you with
a MAC Key. The only method of leaving us would be to cancel completely with
a 30 days notice and then submit a new application with an ISP of your
choice. This will mean that you will be without service for approximately
10+ working days.

Please confirm that you wish to cancel with us?

Bulldog broadband apologises for any inconvenience caused

Should you require any further information please do not hesitate to reply
back to us or call Customer Services on our free phone number 0800 404 8151.
Please use the order reference in all communication.

-- UNQUOTE --

On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 14:18:16 +0100, "Motorcyclesaur"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I thought that by adhering to the MAC scheme, ISPs would make it easier for
>users to go from one service supplier to another minimising the off-line
>period, but I concede that I may be misinformed and be following the wrong
>procedure.

the MAC scheme is all about moving users between ISPs on the BT
Wholesale platform. It isn't in the interests of the sort of ISP that
loses lots of customers.

The reply suggests you are on a LLU product with Bulldog providing
faster service than BT offer - 4M perhaps.

I'm not up to speed with what migration procedures exist between BT
and LLU products, they seem to exist according to
<http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/Showarticle.cfm?ArticleID=5c534376-60f4-49c3-9511-10e6dd3e18ac>

Phil
--
Tiscali - dialup speeds at Broadband prices, see
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=tiscali

AOL - the unlimited ISP of choice for heavy downloaders.

"Phil Thompson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> the MAC scheme is all about moving users between ISPs on the BT
> Wholesale platform. It isn't in the interests of the sort of ISP that
> loses lots of customers.

And not in Bulldog's interest. However, as Bulldog adhered to the scheme,
they should be honest enough to make a multilateral use of it rather than
refusing to issue MACs to departing customers.

> The reply suggests you are on a LLU product with Bulldog providing
> faster service than BT offer - 4M perhaps.

That's right, Phil, it suggests that. The fact is that the line through
which they supply their (2Mbps) service is not - unless they changed this
somehow without telling me - part of a LLU product.
I connected in February 2004 through a BT line, which is still BT. I now
want to migrate to another supplier but do not want to suffer 10 days (which
I bet with Bulldog will turn out to be 100 days) off-line.

I am investigating further, thank you for your input, I'll let you know how
it goes.

On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 15:59:09 +0100, "Motorcyclesaur"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I connected in February 2004 through a BT line, which is still BT. I now
>want to migrate to another supplier but do not want to suffer 10 days (which
>I bet with Bulldog will turn out to be 100 days) off-line.

LLU can still come with BT phone calls, Bulldog did that before they
introduced full unbundling where they do the phone. Its called "shared
path" unbundling.

You could try using the login bt_test@startup_domain on the
modem/router to see if its a BT IPstream connection, or do a
traceroute to www.bbc.co.uk or simialr and post it here for analysis.

Sometimes your phone bill shows up IPStream Home 2000 or Datastream
Office 2000 when you have a BT ADSL service, can't remember if this is
on the paper bill or on e-billing at www.bt.com

Phil
--
Tiscali - dialup speeds at Broadband prices, see
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=tiscali

AOL - the unlimited ISP of choice for heavy downloaders.

"Motorcyclesaur" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Dear All,
>
> After having ran out of patience with the mother of obnoxious and
> incompetent ISPs, namely Bulldog, I requested a MAC in order to free my
line
> and get service from another - hopefully better, although you never know
> these times - ISP.
>
> As I admittedly am not a guru of broadband, I would greatly appreciate
your
> advice regarding the below answer, considering that I have a BT telephone
> line (always been BT, even when Bulldog started supplying broadband back
in
> 2004).
> I thought that by adhering to the MAC scheme, ISPs would make it easier
for
> users to go from one service supplier to another minimising the off-line
> period, but I concede that I may be misinformed and be following the wrong
> procedure.
>
> Any suggestions or feedback would be welcome.
>
> Thank you for your time.
>
>
> -- QUOTE --
>
> Thank you for contacting Bulldog Broadband.
>
> Unfortunately due to you being on a unique Bulldog broadband product that
> are not under the BT network; it means that we are unable to supply you
with
> a MAC Key. The only method of leaving us would be to cancel completely
with
> a 30 days notice and then submit a new application with an ISP of your
> choice. This will mean that you will be without service for approximately
> 10+ working days.
>
> Please confirm that you wish to cancel with us?
>
> Bulldog broadband apologises for any inconvenience caused
>
> Should you require any further information please do not hesitate to reply
> back to us or call Customer Services on our free phone number 0800 404
8151.
> Please use the order reference in all communication.
>
> -- UNQUOTE --
>

If the MAC scheme is causing you aggravation with Bulldog then do what I did
and simply cancel the service and re-order with a new ISP.

The only problem with this is that you will be without service for a couple
of days. Some ISPs wont take orders until all the paperwork
has Bulldog off your line and this can take a couple of days to complete.
So get the old dial up modem out for a bit.

It may be a quicker and more efficient and in some cases cheaper - as some
providers charge for migrations and you dont get access to specials in some
cases.

As for sticking with the migration. Just keep badgering Bulldog, in the end
they seem to get themselves sorted out.