Switching ISPs still problematic

Despite the introduction of laws intended to make switching ISP easier, the process is still surrounded by confusion and has been worsened by the mass 'unbundling' of telephone lines.

That's according to BroadbandChoices.co.uk who said that industry regulator Ofcom needs to take action to ensure ISPs give customers that wish to change service provider appropriate information.

Since February of this year, ISPs have been legally required to provide a migration authorisation code to any customer wishing to switch to another company.

But 46 per cent of call centre operators called by the price comparison service gave incorrect advice when questioned about switching issues.

Michael Phillips, product director at BroadbandChoices.co.uk said: "MAC codes were introduced by Ofcom to ease the issues surrounding migration. Clearly we can’t rely on ISPs to inform consumers on the best process to follow when switching."

However, it isn't just bad advice from ISPs that causes problems with the switching process. MACs aren't an effective way to manage the switching process, according to Phillips, as they don't take 'unbundled' services into account.

There are more than three million unbundled telephone lines in the UK. The process of LLU (local loop unbundling) involves communications providers, such as TalkTalk, installing their own equipment in telephone exchanges, meaning that they do not have to rely on BT's existing infrastructure.

One case investigated by Broadbandchoices.co.uk exposed a flaw in the law covering MAC codes when a customer switched from a standard ADSL service from Virgin Media to an unbundled TalkTalk service.

TalkTalk hadn't used the MAC provided by the customer as it wasn't required to get them connected to its network, but as the code had not been processed, Virgin Media was still charging the customer for broadband.

"ISPs are under no obligation to accept the codes and many customers have been forced to foot the ‘cease and re-provide’ cost of moving to a new provider," said Phillips.

www.broadbandchoices.co.uk
www.virginmedia.com
www.talktalk.co.uk

Claim 50p off Web User's Ultimate PC & Web Workshops!

More news via RSS Post item to Del.icio.us Post item to Digg.com