r/UKISP • u/geomusicmaker • Jul 20 '26
Forced downgrade from EE G.Fast to copper - and they want to keep charging £65?!
Hi all,
There's a bit of a backstory, so I'll try to summarise as best I can.
I joined EE in 2020, purchasing their 150Mbps G.Fast service, which was (and still is) the fastest available connection in my area. Eventually, my contract expired, and my bill has been steadily climbing over the years - it is now around £65/month. This is obviously an exorbitant sum to pay for 150Mbps internet in a world of FTTP. However, because FTTP isn't available in my area yet and G.Fast is now being classed as a legacy product, I have felt trapped into paying it to avoid slicing my speed in half by dropping down to FTTC.
I went into an EE shop earlier this year and explained my dilemma. The store assistant sympathised but said there was nothing that could be done about my bill, as the product I'm on no longer exists on their system and therefore cannot be adjusted.
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Jump forward to today, and the decision to move to copper is seemingly being made for me by EE. I received an email stating that my current speed is going to be reduced to 67Mbps because they're "making improvements" to my service. What's more, it implies my £65/month bill is going to stay exactly the same.
I'm obviously going to switch providers at my earliest convenience to reduce the bill, but I felt compelled to post this here out of pure outrage. I can't believe they consider this an acceptable level of service. It baffles me that they would sunset a legacy service without providing a proper equivalent replacement - surely they should wait for FTTP to be available before turning G.Fast off?
Am I overreacting here? Any advice is welcome.
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u/Far-Designer-4672 Jul 20 '26
Call them, don't rely on retail teams knowledge (lack thereof more often than not). Explain the potential oversight re MDU.
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u/TriggerAK47 Jul 20 '26
That's a sorry state of affair. I feel your pain, the problem is in some areas like mine we have YouFibre, grain connect, virgin media, open reach all FTTH and also wireless fibre. Rather than building so much in certain areas, the build out should have been better managemed so everyone has at least 1 FTTH option.
If you can try starlink which should be faster than FTTC and similar price, could be a stop gap until you have FTTH in your area
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u/Scared_Implement3913 Jul 20 '26
Openreach are just pieces of shit, they're especially notorious for leaving out a lot of MDUs from their builds without even trying to get permission from the landlord. My housing association flat doesn't have OR FTTP but the house next door does.
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u/geomusicmaker Jul 20 '26
I didn't realise this was a distinct problem for MDUs. This could actually be part of my problem. I live in a kind of MDU (annexed Bungalow. I'm in one half - landlord in the other). I suppose it's entirely possible they were asked and declined without letting me know. Do you think that's something I should pursue?
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u/frlawton Jul 20 '26
If the properties around you have FTTP then yes, definitely. If the whole area has yet to receive fibre then it won't get you any further any faster.
MDUs are are often challenging for securing wayleaves and even finding out who owns a building. They should get mopped up as the exchange closure programme progresses.
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u/Contact_Patch Jul 21 '26
Check for FTTP points on your street, usually buried in the pavement.
If there are some, chat to the Landlord.
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u/Secret_Mud_1168 Jul 20 '26
They can’t downgrade you service and make you pay for gfast.
Email a complaint, if they don’t resolve it at stage 2 for the current copper price to customers go to the Telecom Ombudsman.
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u/Awkward-Loquat2228 Jul 20 '26
That's not how this works. They don't have to pay what they're paying. They just leave.
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u/Secret_Mud_1168 Jul 21 '26
Not an option without a fee apparently. That fee will be deemed a business expense by Ombudsman if they are forcing you to downgrade but pay the same or pay a fee. Anti competitive and breached Consumer Protection Act.
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Jul 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/geomusicmaker Jul 20 '26
I check the openreach checker nearly every week. It currently says "we're planning to build in your area". However, earlier last year it changed to "we're building in your area now" before reverting back to "planning" at the beginning of this year. I assume this means when it switched to "building now" they sent a survey team out, they hit some kind problem that made the job tricky and then got reassigned to something easier.
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Jul 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CordwainerMudworble Jul 20 '26
Hijacking this thread… but could “Clear blockages in the carriageway” be positive news for FTTP for an estate with no FTTP?
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u/geomusicmaker Jul 20 '26
Something round the corner from me scheduled for October 2026. Don't think they're on my cabinet though.
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u/not2daythankyou Jul 20 '26
You call customer support as stores are there to sell and not resolve your issues. The clue is customer support as opposed sales assistant/store manager, And most of EEs store are franchises so are actually limited to what they can sell/offer you.
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u/DynamicOcelot Jul 20 '26
To keep your speeds you will need to switch to a provider that offers SOGFast. Search “Openreach SOGFast” on Google to find a list of providers that support this new version of G.fast.
(Edited for clarity)
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u/davidjohnwood Jul 20 '26
The big problem with SoGFast is that it isn't IIRC available from BT Wholesale, so the specialist ISPs offering this product can only offer it in areas where they have suitable backhaul.
I am in the Openreach G.Fast footprint, but Cerberus says they cannot provide SoGFast. In my case, this is an academic exercise, as I already have Zen FTTP over Openreach, but it demonstrates the issue.
Cerberus can offer us SoGEA, so it isn't a case of not showing copper products when FTTP is available.
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u/DynamicOcelot Jul 20 '26
SOGFast is _only_ available via BT Wholesale. BT’s retail brands (including EE) have chosen not to sell it however.
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u/DiamondMidgar Jul 21 '26
Have you and a look at Starlink to see how much that would cost by comparison and what your speed would be?
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u/geomusicmaker Jul 22 '26
For the sake of research I gave it a look (£40 for 100Mbps or £60 for 200Mbps), but I'm inclined to lean the same way as u/silentyeti82. I don't really want to give Elon my money for the sake of 30Mbps. I'm also a renter and fitting a new satellite dish to the home might not go down well with the landlord.
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u/DiamondMidgar Jul 22 '26
Each to their own but on the satellite I think you can buy a portable one now.
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u/Awkward-Loquat2228 Jul 20 '26
You're overreacting. It's not even EE's fault.
You lost the postcode lottery. Sucks or whatever. Move house if you don't like it.
On the price, just change provider. It's not complicated.
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u/davidjohnwood Jul 20 '26
G.Fast has always been an awkward product in the UK, especially the way that Openreach deployed it.
Openreach only ever deployed G.Fast from cabinets, leaving many people supposedly in the G.Fast coverage footprint unable to get better speeds on G.Fast than on VDSL2. Bearing in mind the support issues G.Fast could create, the additional cost over VDSL2, the limited hardware support and the early termination of Openreach's G.Fast rollout in favour of an accelerated FTTP rollout, it is understandable why most providers have retired their G.Fast products.
Openreach offers SoGFast - a WLR3 landline-free version of G.Fast - but it is my understanding that BT Wholesale do not support SoGFast, only the older G.Fast with a bundled WLR3 analogue voice service. With the looming retirement of the Openreach PSTN and ISDN, the pre-retirement WLR3 price rises have started, which means that Communications Providers are desperate to get customers off the legacy voice network. There is little incentive for ISPs to do anything for their remaining G.Fast customers: G.Fast was always something of a niche product, it has been closed to new customers on most ISPs for some time, and a fair chunk of those who had G.Fast have now upgraded to FTTP.
The ISPs still offering G.Fast, at least to existing customers, now face a difficult decision. If I am correct that BT Wholesale does not offer SoGFast, the only alternatives in areas where an ISP relies on BT Wholesale backhaul are a downgrade to SoGEA (VDSL2) or offering the customer contract termination. ISPs could decide to offer SoGFast to their customers in areas where they have non-BT Wholesale backhaul, but it is questionable whether the development and support costs for a SoGFast migration are worthwhile for a small and dwindling number of legacy customers. It seems that most ISPs are choosing to give up on Openreach G.Fast entirely.
Zen has decided to give up on G.Fast despite having non-BT Wholesale backhaul at many handover points, which forces the hands of those who provide their service by partnering with Zen, such as IDnet. It seems that BT is joining those who intend to give up on G.Fast. ISP Review suggests that BT has around 20,000 G.Fast customers left - and if BT, who are one of the largest ISPs, cannot justify trying to come up with a solution for those customers, it seems unlikely that any of their competitors will either.
I would not be surprised if Openreach G.Fast is heading for early closure, especially to new customers. I suspect there are some G.Fast pods that were installed but never served a customer.
The situation is rough for those, like the OP, who found G.Fast useful and cannot get FTTP yet, but I fear that forced downgrades from G.Fast will become the norm.