Switching ISP's with minimal downtime

Stephen

How do I do this? I'm with UTV (completed my contract ages ago) and want to switch to Digiweb. Digiweb says my line fails for broadband, but probably cos I already have broadband on it (right...). They say ring eircom about it. I ring eircom, they say there's nothing we can do, it probably is because you already have broadband. They think the only way to switch is cancel your current ISP, wait a while, then place an order with the new ISP. Downtime estimated to be about a month, which is ****ing unacceptable.
Surely there's some way to switch ISP's without being down for so long? Anyone know how to do it right?

Thanks.

SkepticOne

Stephen wrote:

Anyone know how to do it right?

Just for a laugh you might consider switching to Eircom. You might find things move rather quickly.

Stephen

I'd rather not. I've seen that in the past, when we were trying to get IOLBB in a student house. They kept saying the line (brand new, stone's throw from exchange) was unsuitable, failing the eircom line test. Then we rang eircom and asked them to test our line as we were *cough* interested in getting eircom bb. *SHOCK* it passed. We then told eircom to shove it and went with IOL.

Stephen

Was just talking to somebody in Digiweb there who never heard of bitstream port transfers, so she's getting an engineer to ring me on Monday.

kensutz

I'm waiting over 2 months to switch from BT b*stards to Digiweb and should be completed next week. All because Eircom didnt release the line when BT cancelled it.

curiosity

Kind of in the same boat Stephen. As my year is up with UTV I'm giving serious thought to switching to Digiweb (1mb package is same price; UTV cap 8mb, Digiweb cap 20mb, nuff said). Digiweb site says my line passes bb test. Rang them yesterday to ask them the best way to switch over with minimum hassle (I also wanted to get an idea of what they are like over the phone). Someone answered , but he had a french accent so conversation was a little difficult. He told me that I need to cancel with UTV (they need one months notice) so that my line can be 'released'. At the mo the plan is to cancel for the end of November (may as well get my month form UTV as I'm paying for it) and let Digiweb know that I'd like to be hooked up by end of November if possible.

Of course part of me says to stay with UTV as moving might end up with me having no bb until 2006. :eek:

Will be interested to hear how you get on Stephen.

Ps. I do think that UTV are ok. The cap is the only reason I'm moving.

Stephen

I'm moving because of the cap and the fact that I play games on it - Pings from UTV are crap compared to most of the other ISP's.

Tony H

Just moved from eircom to bt , no downtime , just a 7 week wait , they lost two BTAF forms and eventually on the third attempt i was up and running after two weeks or so after faxing a BTAF to a supervisor who waited at the fax machine and then processed it there and them