Anyone happy to walk me through how an upgrade to fibre works?

[#1]

I am considering upgrading to fibre as I am also considering attempting to work from home in a freelance way and feel I need faster, more reliable connection.

I’ve been with Plusnet a long time and mostly had a good customer experience but will admit I am nervous about changing - if it ain’t broke don’t fix it right?

I’m housebound and dependent on having reliable internet just to exist! So I certainly cannot risk lengthy periods of no connection.

So...how does it work? Any tips to avoid potential pitfalls? Any tips on keeping costs down if possible?

Many TIA

[#2]

@EvieB 

The first thing to do is to find out what's available at your address. Put your phone number in here and see what you get back

www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

You can also try the following to see what it says.

www.openreach.com/

Brian

[#3]

Thanks for your post @EvieB

There can be some downtime on the day whilst the engineers carries out the work at the cabinet but this is usually no more than 30 minutes.

I'd recommend calling our Customer Options Team to see what deals they can offer you. They can be contacted on 0800 013 2632 and are open the following hours

• Monday to Friday- 9 am while 8 pm
• Saturday - 9 am while 7 pm
• Sunday - 9 am while 6 pm

Let us know if there's anything else we can help with

[#4]

Thanks for replies I’m really wanting to hear from customers who’ve already been through an upgrade see what the real life experience is

[#5]

@EvieB If it helps I've been through 3 adsl to Fibre upgrades, one on my home line 2 on my office lines.

Basically, all that's required is for a BT Engineer to visit your local PCP (street cabinet where the phone lines are connected) and connect your line to the Fibre port. If all goes smoothly then your broadband is down for a matter of minutes and TBH that has been my experience. That's not to say things cant go wrong, the engineer can mess up the connections, although there's as much chance of him messing up your line whilst doing an upgrade on someone else's line, since they are in the same cabinet.

For Fibre, you will likely need a new router since your old one may not be Vdsl capable. The good news is that PlusNet will supply you one (a Hub One) with the upgrade (you may have to pay the postage). The new router is compatible with your old adsl and the new Vdsl(FTTC) connection and so you can plug the router in as soon as it arrives. It will work on your existing connection and will automatically sort itself out when the engineer does the fiddling upgrade in the cabinet!.  The only issue is if the router delivery is late, then you may be without broadband until it arrives.

As @bmc said above, you do need to check to see what speeds are likely to be available to you to see whether the improvement is worth while. The potential speed will be dependent on how far from the cabinet you are.

If the potential speed improvement is good, then as @MatthewWheeler  says above, give COT a call. They will do a better deal than upgrading at the standard price online.

Does that help?