Fixed-line broadband

Posted on 14 Aug 2007 at 14:52

The problems of migrating from an LLU account all came as a terrible surprise to the folk at Ofcom. "Your point that some providers aren't accepting former LLU customers is certainly a potential concern for us. It isn't something I've heard before," a spokesperson told us.

Solution: There may be little you can do to prevent your ISP migrating you to an LLU connection, although it's well worth asking your provider if it informs customers before doing so at the point of sign-up.

There are a few providers that still accept LLU transfers, according to Moneysupermarket.com, including: Be Broadband, Nildram, Zen Internet, Freeola, IDNet and UKFSN.

Thrown out of an LLU service

Although many ISPs are keen to move their customers to LLU, others are perfectly happy to kick them out. "We had one guy in the forum, who said that Orange migrated him to LLU and they kicked him off: it gave him a MAC code and said we can't service you anymore," says Moneysupermarket.com's Lloyd. "Because it was an LLU MAC code, no other ISP would accept him, so he became an outcast."

Orange isn't the only ISP that shows the door to its customers. "I've seen quite a few examples of people signing up for Sky and never getting it," says Lloyd. "The attitude of some providers seems to be the wall of silence. They can't explain why it is or they put the blame back onto BT."

Why would ISPs want to turn away paying customers? "I've heard many, many examples of this: quirks in the network where providers can't provide the broadband you need," says Lloyd. "If you've only got the potential for 500 [LLU] customers in an exchange... what do you do? You've got to invest more in that exchange. What are you going to do with that customer? Sorry, we can't sort you out in this exchange at the moment, sod off."

Orange concedes that it does part company with customers. "In the minority of cases, when we're unable to provide a stable internet connection after completing diagnostics, we'll cancel the contract if the customer so wishes," a statement reads. Sky failed to respond to requests for comment.

Solution: ISPs are, sadly, under no obligation to accept your business. Unless the ISP is failing to honour a contract, there's no legal recourse if it wishes to remove you from or prevent you joining its service.

The postcode lottery

Like house prices and hospital treatment, broadband provision has also become a postcode lottery. The culprit? Once again, good old LLU. Providers that are able to reap the cost benefits of installing their own equipment into exchanges are able to offer LLU customers cheaper prices for essentially the same service.

AOL, for instance, charges new non-LLU customers £10 more for the same speed of connection. It also leads to odd quirks: UK Online charges non-LLU customers £19.99 for a 1Mb/sec connection, and the same price to LLU customers for an "up to" 8Mb/sec connection.

As ever, it's the people living in rural areas that pay the price. "With a lower number of homes to every exchange, broadband providers aren't able to claw back enough value out of the investment, so instead have concentrated on unbundling areas with a higher population density. People living in the country are effectively second-class citizens in the eyes of the broadband operators," says Steve Weller, head of communications at uSwitch.com, who claims that non-LLU customers pay on average 91% more than their LLU counterparts.