Bulldog broadband and telephone line?!!

[gangst]

Hi,

Finally Bulldog 8mb broadband is available in my area, yet when I went to purchase this of the website it kept trying to get me to transfer my BT telephone line.

Is it possible to purchase broadband from Bulldog and keep my existing BT telephone through the same line?


Thanks for any help

[Queso]

Bulldog is one of the suppliers that ask you switch to them for all your telephone requirements. It's down to a thing called Local Loop Unbundling, which allows other companies to provide services directly to customers over BT's cable. The line still terminates to the same BT exchange, where other companies such as Bulldog now have their equipment installed.

You get to keep your telephone number if that's what you're worried about. It's not like Mercury was back in the 80s, and is getting quite common across the EU. I have my phone line/DSL etc. through Homechoice (another LLU supplier), and there's no difference in service from how it used to be under BT.

[Applespider]

As dynamicv says, the answer is no. With Bulldog you swap both over - line rental for the phone and your broadband.

There are some LLU operators who allow you to stay with BT and just switch your broadband. I'm with Be* who work that way - and very good they are too

[Brize]

Bulldog attracted a lot of negative publicity last year for poor levels of service and support. The situation may have changed now, but you might want to check that out.

[AlBDamned]

Originally Posted by Brize

Bulldog attracted a lot of negative publicity last year for poor levels of service and support. The situation may have changed now, but you might want to check that out.

*AlBDamned chimes in with obligatory anti-Bulldog post*

Yep - don't do it, Bulldog and it's parent company are a complete waste of time.

They don't have the staff, technical capabilities, knowledge or even future plans for the consumer arm of the business to fulfill their statements.

I would seriously research other ISPs before settling on them.

Check www.adslguide.org and use the compare function, to see how people have found them.

A few people will tell of good experiences, but most of those people have just Bulldog broadband and not the phone line/internet package they now sell.

It's really not worth the hassle.

[dcv]

Originally Posted by gangst

Is it possible to purchase broadband from Bulldog and keep my existing BT telephone through the same line?

It used to be - this is exactly what I have. But since the company was taken over by Cable & Wireless any new contracts now must use the Bulldog/C&W phone line.

[robbieduncan]

I'm on Bulldog. When it works, it's great (800 KB/s downloads from Apple are common).

When it's broken you might as well kill yourself as you will probably die before you get any support worth having!

[Applespider]

Originally Posted by robbieduncan

I'm on Bulldog. When it works, it's great (800 KB/s downloads from Apple are common)

I get 1.6MB/s on Be* - and on the two occasions that I've called support, it's been back up and running within 30 minutes.

[AlBDamned]

Originally Posted by Applespider

I get 1.6MB/s on Be* - and on the two occasions that I've called support, it's been back up and running within 30 minutes.

Using Freedom2Surf we now get downloads at 800/900 kbs but I'm sorely tempted to switch to BE in August. Apparently they can hit 15Mb/s in our area.

Mind you, it's no good if the server you're hooking up to is a crippled old fool (i.e. downloading a file from hotmail = 36kb/s !).

[Mord]

it's ok, just a pain the the ass to go back to BT when you want to change back.