topic Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently) in Broadband & Landline

Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

RH1978 — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:24:39 GMT

I recently visited a store to take a new contract for my broadband, as I was out of contract. I was on a 'Fibre Max Broadband 100 without landline' plan, apparently not available anymore, and was encouraged to take a 'Fibre 67 Essentials' plan. My understanding was that this would give me service of an equal or better standard. The representative told me it was the best package for my area. I'm now waiting for my new router (Smart Hub Plus) to be delivered, but when looking through the documentation, I note that my former arrangement gave me "Average download speed 145Mb/s" (and a speed test verifies this), but the new contract says "Your guaranteed download speed is: 59.6Mbps". I'm concerned that this will mean that the speed will not be equal or better, but instead will be dropping when the new contract term begins after I install the new router. Could I have been mis-sold an incorrect package? Or even though I've been sold a package with this lower average speed, is it possible I will still get the same speed as now?

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

JimM11 — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:49:02 GMT

@RH1978 You should be concerned, looks like you were on a G.Fast connection from your home to the OR Cabinet if your connection was copper through the OR Master socket, and it will say G.Fast printed on it somewhere. Confirm that if you can.

G.Fast is now being retired by OR, so if they can get you off it they will, downside is your speed will be drastically reduced. EE may be conforming to this request. Post a picture up of where your router currently plugs into if you can.! See link below

openreach 2020 BT G.fast Telephone Master Socket NTE5c MK2 & VDSL/ADSL Faceplate MK4 Toolless design : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

Chris_B — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:48:02 GMT

@RH1978 No you’ll not get the same speed.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

JimM11 — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:50:50 GMT

@Chris_B Do not know the old EE packages, is it a G.Fast one.?

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

XRaySpeX — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:57:30 GMT

No, there's no way a 80 Meg VDSL (your Fibre 67) line can be faster than a 165 Meg G.Fast (your Fibre Max 100) line. However you weren't mis-sold as unfortunately new G.Fast lines are no longer sold by EE. But why on earth did you visit a store to take out a new BB contract? You coulda stayed on your existing contract as is. They wouldn't have taken that away from you.

What does BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker estimate for your phone number? Post the whole table and the line above it, blanking out your phone number. If it doesn't recognise your phone number or you don't have one, use the Address Checker.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

Mustrum — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 20:57:16 GMT

@RH1978 it is hardly Mis-sp;d, the product you were on is no longer available as was explained, you moved to the fastest available product.

You could perhaps cancel the change and carry on with your G Fast service until that is withdrawn, but alas you cannot keep it in a new contract.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

Matt_124 — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:01:50 GMT

Yes it sounds it, Legacy EE supported G.Fast a lot better than the equivalent BT Products at the time, and seemingly for longer, but it has eventually been discontinued across all providers for new orders and (in the majority of cases at least) recontracting. I highly doubt Legacy EE could recontract it, but would be interesting to find out if they could do anything with the price plan while maintaining the G.Fast.

Normally the G.Fast stop sells were fine in a lot of areas as quite a few G.Fast areas were overbuilt with FTTP pretty quickly. But in areas where there is no FTTP availability, it's usually back to FTTC or maintain the existing rolling contract until the service is forcibly withdrawn.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

XRaySpeX — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:02:14 GMT

@JimM11 wrote:

it will say G.Fast printed on it somewhere.

It doesn't have to say so. G.Fast will work perfectly well from an ordinary NTE5 phone socket altho' a filtered phone socket would be preferable.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

RH1978 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 13:40:29 GMT

Thank you, @JimM11. I'm not familiar with G.Fast. So I've been trying to find out about that. Here's the picture of my master socket.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

RH1978 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 14:05:21 GMT

Thanks, @XRaySpeX.

Re: "But why on earth did you visit a store to take out a new BB contract? You coulda stayed on your existing contract as is. They wouldn't have taken that away from you."

- I was worried about the cost once out of contract. It had gone up £10. I hadn't expected that getting a new contract would mean a loss of speed. I was just looking to save some money.

I followed the link you suggested and though I don't have a phone number I was able to look up the UPRN and get this info to show you:

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

RH1978 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 13:49:15 GMT

Thank you, @Mustrum.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

RH1978 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 14:01:19 GMT

Thanks to everyone for commenting. Lots to absorb there for someone not technical like myself. Further to the links provided to me above, I found this page: https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker/my-products - which identified that only two offerings are now available in my area. So it appears the contract I have been sold is for 'Fibre to the Cabinet Broadband' and that, based on the feedback above, my understanding is there's likely nothing I can do about my speed dropping almost 100 mb/s. Which I am very worried about.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

RH1978 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 14:08:55 GMT

Thank you, @Matt_124. I appreciate you explaining that.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

Mustrum — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 14:35:27 GMT

@RH1978 It would be worth registering onthe Openreach network so you will hear if/when they will offer Full Fibre.

The Ofcom checker, or many of the switching sites, may be worth checking to see if any other suppliers are able to provide any services to you. https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/broadband-coverage

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

XRaySpeX — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 15:00:38 GMT

Yes, that table confirms that once you give up your existing faster G.Fast connection there, all you can get is 80 Meg VDSL. Furthermore OR shows that you could be lumbered with it until 2027 by which time Full Fibre should materialise.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

RH1978 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:13:03 GMT

Thanks, @Mustrum. Sadly there's only one other player and while they offer Full Fibre with really high speeds, my home "needs additional work to be completed before we can provide you with full fibre broadband". And the amount of time that could take to sort out is prohibitiv

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

RH1978 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:15:07 GMT

Thanks, @XRaySpeX. Shocking really. It looks like all I can do is hope for the best!

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

RH1978 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:26:45 GMT

Thanks for the help, @XRaySpeX , @Mustrum , @Matt_124 , @JimM11 , @Chris_B.

This has been a very worrying but helpful experience. I can see now that the sales person did not intentionally mislead me. They probably didn't even realise that I was on a plan that was giving me a better speed than they can now offer. It's a regrettable situation. If I'd known then what I have now learned, I would have paid the extra and just left things alone until I was forced off.

But I think I will make a complaint, as EE should really be more transparent and contact their customers to let them know this kind of potentially detrimental change was on the cards. Funnily enough, when I was originally contacted about my term coming to an end, they did offer that I could stay on 'Fibre Max Broadband 100 without landline' - but the problem I had was that when I tried to do it online, the website links just gave me error messages. None of the links to upgrade worked. No attempts to upgrade online would work, whatever route I tried. Which I now presume is because they were offering me something they couldn't actually sell.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

Mustrum — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:32:21 GMT

@RH1978 At least now you are better informed as to what you can and cannot get.

Only you can say if 80Mbps is enough or not, but unless you have many users and/or games it should be enough for most households.

The more people who register on the Openreach site, the quicker they will implement their plans - you may want to spread the word, that said now they have a competitor in your area that will also have an influence.

Re: Mis-sold broadband plan? (worried it will be a lower speed than currently)

RH1978 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:46:48 GMT

Done!