The big changeover

~ beetleypete

Many of you may remember my post ‘City Stress’, about when Julie and I went to Norwich, to change over our home telephone and broadband supplier.

Well, Monday the 16th was the big day, the day we were due to change over. We had the new router, delivered a few days earlier, and eagerly awaited the emails and text messages telling us how to get started. But of course, nothing happened.

We still had a phone line, and a broadband connection, but it was with our previous supplier, British Telecom. We heard nothing from EE (the new supplier) on Monday, and it seemed to be a case of ‘I told you so’, about changing companies, and nothing working as promised.

However, it all got going this morning, (Tuesday) albeit a day late. We were told to connect the new router, and to get ready for our faster fibre broadband connection. This involved me crawling around under the desk in the office, drowning in a sea of wires and cables, as I sought to disconnect everything from British Telecom, and set up the new system. Once it was all done, I switched on the new fancy router, and…nothing! We had a phone line, but no Internet connection.

I called the freephone number for EE, fearing the worst. But I was pleasantly surprised when an efficient young man, from a call centre in Bristol, managed to immediately diagnose our problem. British Telecom had failed to connect our new broadband at the exchange, he told me. Leave it an hour, unplug the router, and restart. I thanked him for his efficiency, but in the back of my mind, I thought ‘Yeah right, like that’s going to happen’.

But I was happy to eat my words, when it happened exactly as he had predicted. We soon had a great connection, faster Wi-Fi, and a good signal for all devices. Once the new passwords had been entered, Julie was able to connect all three tablets, and her smartphone. We have been flying away since, with a great speed broadband, and a reliable Wi-Fi signal too. So far, so good.

Isn’t it just great, when technology actually works?

43 thoughts on “The big changeover”

  1. Here in Las Vegas, our internet company keeps raising the rates while at the same time lowering the broadband speed. The objective is to get subscribers to buy the next higher level of broadband, which is only moderately more expensive that the higher rate they are now paying for the slower speed. Needless to say, it’s an outrage!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. That amount of equipment must require a very good Internet connection, Robbie. We are lucky here to get fibre connections now, which have only just arrived in this part of Norfolk. 4G is still unavailable in this rural location.
      Best wishes, Pete.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. When we moved here from London, we had numerous phone and Internet issues, Gilly. Our line still connects to an old-school telegraph pole in the next street, and comes in through the roof! 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

      Like

      Reply

  10. I am happy that you got your broadband up and running and that the supplier worked so well with you on your issues. Now that you are enjoying that fast broadband speed all I can say is enjoy it while you can because there are forces at work who have the aim, the ambition, the goal and the agenda to make Internet services exponentially more expensive for us all … and sooner or later we are all going to be faced with the specter of buying “Packages” of Internet services much the same was as we “Bundle” our cable TV packages now and our ability to access the web will depend on how much we are willing to pay to access larger and larger portions of it.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. There are rumours of such thing happening here soon, John. Super-Fast broadband will attract a premium price, and may only be available to those who also take out a cable TV contract. ‘Basic’ broadband is all we really have here in this rural area, but the Wi-Fi speed has increased with the fibre connection, and that was mainly what we wanted, for Julie’s tablet use.
      Best wishes, Pete.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  12. I don’t suppose it means anything but Technology spelled backward, ygolonhcet, elicits a spell correction revision in Open Office of ethnology which is only anthropology spelled differently. No wonder it was late getting started!
    Warmest regards, Theo

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  14. That’s very interesting and is making me consider exactly such a change. I’m currently with BT but it’s dodgy. I’m on EE for my mobile since the promised service from O2 doesn’t work around here. It’s true that the Island is bad when it comes to the internet but I just wonder whether EE would give me an internet that reaches the parts of the living room, and other areas of the cottage, that are not currently reached by BT. I shall explore. x

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Worth investigating, Sarah. BT actually owns EE, but would not give us a similar deal. We also saved £30 a month on our current package, and got deals on our mobile contracts too.
      Best wishes, Pete. x

      Like

      Reply

All comments welcome

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.