Broadband switching has got easier

The BBC has recruited a panel of consumers who were about to switch their broadband supplier to see if the practices for ADSL suppliers mandated by Ofcom on February 14 have made life easier and stopped some of the problems of providers not willing to give Migration Access Codes (MACs) for often dubious reasons.

And the results are generally good. Some people who were already in the MAC process before the 14th have seen it speed up, and others have found it a lot smoother than it used to be:

"Darren Field from Coventry had also struggled to make his net supplier, Bulldog, free the line he wanted to use. However, after the 14th and this was done it took Mr Field's new supplier, Sky, about two weeks to get his new service working.

The date also seemed to be key for Mary King who had been wrestling with TalkTalk over a firm switch-on date for her broadband. In the event Ms King got a letter soon after that date telling her that the service had been switched on two days earlier. This was after months of being without a fast net link."