My wife and I just moved into a flat which our landlord was occupying up until the day we moved in. He was using Utility Warehouse for landline and Fast.co.uk for broadband. I am happy to stick with Utility Warehouse for phone, but would like to switch to O2 for broadband (£7.50 vs. £20 per month).

We had thought that he could transfer the landline account to me, and I could then switch broadband to O2 using the standard MAC key process. However, when requesting a MAC key from fast.co.uk, he was told that when the phone line is transferred from him to me, the existing broadband would be cancelled and I would then place a new order with O2. Which would be fine, except I don't want more than a few hours downtime (we're too dependent on the internet).

An option we're considering is keeping the landline in his name (and I just reimburse him for the costs), and switch broadband to O2. However, he isn't an O2 customer so I would have to sign up for that, and I don't know if the account names are allowed to mismatch.

Any suggestions on how to make this switch with a minimum of internet downtime?

Thanks in advance!

Dont know but surely you cant switch accounts like this from one person to another.......I cant understand why your landlord hasnt cancelled everything (ie phone and broadband) if he has moved out................I would suggest so there is no issues over who pays what is that you get the landlord to cancel everything and you to start a new service with whom you like. Cant you get BT reconncected etc ????? Then O2 broadband added......Dont know!!!

He didn't need to transfer his service (was moving somewhere with existing service), so didn't cancel everything so we wouldn't have an interruption in service (as he hadn't realised that changing account names would result in broadband being cancelled).

If he cancels everything and I reestablish phone service, won't I have to pay a £125 reconnect fee?