Forum Discussion

carl_pearce's avatar
carl_pearce
Community elder
21 days ago

Moving away from VM to Openreach (FTTP)

So, after what must be double digits in years with VM I've decided to move on.

Several network outages here and there over HFC in the last 12 months have pushed my decision.

FTTP on Openreach has been available for several months, and I'm just around end of contract, so today I've used OTS to IDNet on their 1200/120 subscription (12 months).

I'll post updates for anyone interested in progress, and what a new Openreach install looks like.

  •  Transitioning to Openreach's FTTP service through IDNet appears to be a prudent decision. This move promises enhanced stability, superior customer support, and a more robust internet experience.

    • IDNet offers a 1200/120 Mbps subscription for £50.00 per month, totaling £600.00 for 12 months.
    • CityFibre provides a similar 1200/120 Mbps plan for £40.00 per month, totaling £480.00 for 12 months.
    •  

    Sounds interesting, keep in touch.

    • carl_pearce's avatar
      carl_pearce
      Community elder

      It's actually £60/month fixed price for 12 months including VAT, which I'm happy to pay for considering:

      * VM's renewal of Gig1 was £57.28 a month then:

      • £60.78 from your April 2025 bill
      • £64.28 from your April 2026 bill
      • £83.16 from your August 2026 bill

       

      * The customer service and reliability should, hopefully, be superior to VM.

  • newapollo's avatar
    newapollo
    Very Insightful Person

    Hi Carl

    Best of luck with your move. 

    Don't be a stranger to the forums as your expert help would be sorely missed,

  • Adduxi's avatar
    Adduxi
    Very Insightful Person

    Good man !  I've been with Openreach FTTP (BT) for a few years now and it's good and solid.  ONT placed where I asked and the fibre installers were good.  The other guys who did the conduit from the Toby was buried quite deep, and they did a neat job. I'd already run the Cat 6 from the comms rack to the ONT site, so just a matter of plugging the cable into the ONT and it was up and running.  My own Draytek for the router, and Omada for Wifi.

    Hopefully your experience will be just as good  :-)  Good Luck !

    • carl_pearce's avatar
      carl_pearce
      Community elder

      Cheers.

      Mine will be over pole since there is one around 3 metres from the house boundry.

      I already have an ASUS router being served by a VM HUB 5 in modem mode and a backup 5G Router on the three network as a secondary fall back (Automated on the ASUS).

      The only difference from 'Plug & Pay' is iDNET use PPPoE (User Credentials required), which looks straight forward in the ASUS settings.

      Static IPv4 address included, but not really needed, is a bonus.

      • Adduxi's avatar
        Adduxi
        Very Insightful Person

        The only difference from 'Plug & Pay' is iDNET use PPPoE (User Credentials required), which looks straight forward in the ASUS settings.

        Yes, my BT connection is the same and I already set it up in the Draytek as per the manual.  I just connected the ethernet to ONT and bingo, it connected after a reboot.  The only difference to the VM connection is the MTU, 1500 on VM verses 1462 on my BT.  Also I believe PPPoE is a bit more CPU intensive on the Router.

        As for the static IPv4, do you get any IPv6 addressing like BT?

         

  • carl_pearce's avatar
    carl_pearce
    Community elder

    So, I'm starting to learn a new concept, email communication with your ISP!

    Openreach will be here on 17/03 for the install.

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta

    Eight months on EE FTTP 500/70, not a blink in the service so far.

    The EE modem is still in its box. Draytek was setup ready for the ONT and was on line before the OR guy left.   Internal network never noticed the difference. 

    And we get unlimited data on our EE phones. What's not to like?