Moving from Be* to O2

Westyfield2 · 9 Sep 2008 at 17:56

We're currently on Be Pro getting around 13meg IIRC (@ £22 + £2 for email) and I've just remembered that with having iPhone 3G contract, we can get the O2 Ultimate for £15inc email.

Now I know O2 owns Be, so what's the procedure for switching?

Thanks
Ed

Sunbed · 9 Sep 2008 at 17:59

Switching is easy, I did it. Just give them a ring when your contract is coming to an end.

Westyfield2 · 10 Sep 2008 at 16:29

Sundance said:
Just give them a ring when your contract is coming to an end.

Ah..... we joined Be Pro the week the exchange was enabled which IIRC was this April.

General questions said:
For our Be unlimited and Be pro products, there is no contractual period, we simply ask for 3 months notice in writing to cancel your contract without incurring any additional cancellation charges.

If you choose Be Value, your initial contract period is 1 year. After the first year, we simply ask for 1 months notice in writing to cancel your contract without incurring any additional cancellation charges.

Do we have to go through the whole requesting mac address etc? Or is there a short-cut as O2 owns Be so it's the same kit in the exchange?

tolien · 10 Sep 2008 at 17:12

It should be seamless, sans MACs and any messing about.

Westyfield2 · 10 Sep 2008 at 17:16

tolien said:
It should be seamless, sans MACs and any messing about.

That's what I wanted to hear

Thanks.

Is the whole 3 months notice bit needed? Or is it just contact O2 and tell them you're already with Be?......

Westyfield2 · 10 Sep 2008 at 20:10

Just tapped our phone number into https://www.o2broadband.o2.co.uk/getBroadband.do and it says

O2 Website said:
Be broadband is currently activated on this BT landline number. Because Be is part of O2, you can move to O2 Broadband without any penalty and without giving Be your usual three month notice of cancellation. You'll need to get a MAC key from Be before we can take your order though. So please raise a ticket through Be's member centre (http://www.bethere.co.uk/memberhome.do), or give them a call on 0808 101 3430.

So that sounds good.

Definitively, what (if any) is the difference between O2 Ultimate & Be Pro?

I've heard that O2's Fair Usage Policy is more strict than Be's? And that O2 don't do Fastpath?
Are those two true and what other diffences are there? :confused:

Wicksta · 10 Sep 2008 at 22:17

Westyfield2 said:
I've heard that O2's Fair Usage Policy is more strict than Be's? And that O2 don't do Fastpath?
Are those two true and what other diffences are there?

Both of those things are completely untrue, typical internet forum rumours. It did used to be hard to get fastpath enabled on O2 but not anymore. The only differences are the 'value added' services like you get the free web originated SMS messages with O2 and you get webspace with Be.

Sunbed · 11 Sep 2008 at 09:31

I've not noticed much difference in terms of performance between O2 and Be. Be was possibly marginally better, but we were much closer to the exchange. O2's customer service is excellent though, I've never had to wait on phone.

Another good thing about O2 is you can change your speed ie 20mb/16mb/8mb from month to month, and are billed accordingly on a day to day basis. We tryed downgrading from 20mb as we were only getting 13mb max dl speed anyway. Now we have 16mb connection for £10 a month! bargain.

Westyfield2 · 11 Sep 2008 at 16:48

Wicksta said:
Both of those things are completely untrue, typical internet forum rumours. It did used to be hard to get fastpath enabled on O2 but not anymore. The only differences are the 'value added' services like you get the free web originated SMS messages with O2 and you get webspace with Be.

I'm liking the sound of this more and more :cool:

Biffa · 11 Sep 2008 at 18:53

Hmm will they maintain fixed ip addresses/ranges I wonder? Probably not, but it might save me some mullah. /me goes to check it out. Getting sub 16Mb here as well.

Westyfield2 · 30 Sep 2008 at 15:59

Update

Bit of an update: Got the details through for Friends&Family deal so rung the O2 number it said to get it all setup.
Girl on end of the phone said our MAC code was invalid :confused:

so we rung Be who'd given us it. Spoke to an Indian guy who knew his stuff and he said that the MAC code is perfectly vaild, but it was an error message on her database caused by the fact that we're already on it as Be customers.

So what we now need to do is cancel the Be internet (but as we're moving to O2 we don't have to give 3months notice) and be removed from the databases etc and then ring O2 and be added and sent their router etc (although AFAIK both O2 & Be use the 585 v6 :rolleyes:

).

But that means being offline for upto 10 days!!!

So; anyone done this before?
The £££ saving is worth the downtime, but if there's another way of doing it I'd like to know!

TY
Ed.

FrenchTart · 30 Sep 2008 at 16:02

Most people moving Be > o2 haven't had any issues with downtime. Sounds unlucky.