We get signal!

I've finally upgraded to FTTC broadband! I've no idea where the cabinet is but it can't be far given the speed I've got out of it (and I suspect from the modem's stats there's another 5Mb/s of download I could achieve).

My previous ADSL connection was fairly decent as I'm not that far from the exchange - I was on about 11.5Mb/s down and 1Mb/s up (it used to be faster but something glitched out on my line and the exchange decided to target a larger SNR) - but the comparatively slow upload has been annoying for a while. So while doing price comparison for car insurance (protip: if you want to keep your customers, don't add a 20% loyalty penalty!) I also plugged the numbers in for broadband, and for less than what I was paying BT and Sky I could move to plusnet's top package. So I did just that!

Of course as with anything involving phones in this flat nothing was simple and it took 6 weeks to actually switch over! From the updates I got from plusnet either the broadband or the phone order would be rejected by Openreach which meant they had to cancel the whole lot and resubmit it again. It appears that Openreach's system is really confused by the concept of transferring an existing number - one sequence of messages went "transfer this number to plusnet", "you can't have that number, it's in use", "I know, that's why I said transfer". I've ended up with a little collection of "sorry you're leaving" letters from BT all with a different end of service date!

But the order finally went through last week, phone service switched across this morning (taking my ADSL out with it, as expected), and while at work I got a text to say the new broadband had been activated. And I now have shiny fast intertubes!

Fair play to plusnet, they did all the pestering of Openreach without me having to chase them and they've not started billing me until the move actually went through.