As the variety of broadband products on the market continues to grow, and more and more consumers look to exploit cheaper deals, Ofcom and the Office of Telecommunications Adjudicator has issued a best practice guide to make switching more straightforward. thinkbroadband.com is providing guidance for consumers and small businesses in order to help them understand the broadband migration minefield. 

 

Sebastien Lahtinen, founder of thinkbroadband.com comments, “Whilst a ‘best practice’ guide has been needed for some time, consumers are still in the dark about what steps to take when switching provider. The expectation is now on the industry to train its staff to follow best practice guides and avoid bad migration paths at all costs. We are offering free advice for consumers to help with any migration queries and to ensure that consumers make the best use of the guide.” 

 

In order to make the guide clearer for the public, thinkbroadband.com outlines the common migration routes and what is considered to be best practice: 

 

Broadband and telephone providers use a wide variety of connection methods – this is where the term ‘unbundling’ is most often used. Shared unbundling means the telephone line remains plugged into BT kit at the exchange, but the broadband service is plugged into another providers hardware. Fully unbundled is when the phone and broadband line goes to the providers own hardware and they will handle all of the billing. 

 

“Migrations” refer to when you are staying in the same property, but want to change provider – a different process applies when moving home. Most broadband migrations require a Migration Authorisation Code (MAC) provided from your old provider and supplied to the chosen new provider. A MAC code is not needed when moving to a fully unbundled service, or when moving from a fully unbundled service to a shared unbundled service. For example, when moving to a fully unbundled service like TalkTalk offer in 70 per cent of the country, it is just a case of letting them know you wish to move your services over to them – they will handle the rest. It is worth ensuring that your old provider is aware that you have left after the migration is complete to avoid getting billed by them again. 

If you are moving into a new property and want your telephone and broadband connection up and running as fast as possible, then a process called simultaneous provide (often called Sim Provide) is needed. You order your new service, but inform them that you wish to do a Sim Provide and need a linked order reference number (LORN). Once you have this number you should then order as soon as possible the other component (ie phone or broadband) so that the two services can be linked together. The two services should then activate on the same day. If the LORN is not used then the change of a tag appearing on the line stopping you from getting broadband for a week or more increases. 

 

If you are leaving a fully unbundled service (both telephone and broadband connected to providers own hardware) then the same Sim Provide process is required as you will need a LORN number to make as smooth a transition as possible. Providers are now advised that they avoid at all costs the old path of cease and provide for broadband connections, for several reasons. There is now a cease charge of £20 for ceasing a broadband service and the costs for providing a new connection are around £50. This is in addition to the time that people will be without any broadband service. Migrations are often free as providers will be happy to gain a new customer. 

 

Be aware that some providers move people between the various broadband products (under the guise of upgrades) and this can have an impact on how you change to another provider. If you have your telephone line rental and broadband through the same provider where just the broadband is unbundled, for example Sky, and wish to change to another bundled telephone and broadband provider, a process called sequential orders is used. This can take up to three weeks to complete as each part is moved separately to avoid disruption to your broadband connection for a long period. 

 

For further information and advice about what broadband product you are on, and the correct migration method for you, visit http://www.thinkbroadband.com/faq/sections/migration.html. You can also obtain guidance from the thinkbroadband.com community on its forum.