To think it’s time we treated the internet like any other utility?

[AllIwantForChrismasIsAKitchenAidStandMixer]

I’m moving and have just been told again that I will have to wait 3 weeks for an engineer to come and install WiFi at my new house. This has happened every time I have moved since 2014.

I don’t understand it - water, electricity, gas are all just there when you move in and then you pick who you want to pay for it.

For some reason, in year of our lord 2026 we still can’t manage that with the internet even though it is essential to modern living.

Then you try and talk to someone on the phone and they bore you to tears with internet jargon and what I want to say is - I do not know or care what the internet is or how it works, as far as I am concerned it may as well be magic, just make it happen!

I work from home, we would like to watch some television when we first move in. AIBU to think this should have been sorted out now and that internet should not need “installing” and a three week wait?

I can’t say this has ever happened to me! They just send a new router normally?

It’s happened to be multiple times. Even when I have plugged in a new router I normally have to wait 48 hours it to be switched off and on. It’s ridiculous.

This has never happened to me either. And the router always works instantly.

Are you moving onto new build estates without internet infrastructure yet?

No I have never lived in a newbuild.

My new house sky won’t provide fibre so I’m having to switch to gigaclear (even though it’s a mile up the road - make it make sense) which is another reason why I don’t understand why we aren’t treating it like any other utility service - why isn’t it the same everywhere?

Happened to me last year when I moved. Had to wait a week. So bored! lol

You literally can’t do anything these days without it - my oven in my current house runs off the WiFi! TVs aren’t plugged into the aerial anymore, music is played over smart speaker…so you’re just stuck. And no I don’t want to read in the evening after doing a load of moving!

Yup, when signing up with a new provider it usually takes at least a few days. YANBU!

Also if anyone can offer a reasonable explanation as to why it is like this I would love to know!

When selling my house, I left the existing contract running for a couple of weeks for the new buyers, seemed like a reasonable thing to do, which they greatly appreciated.

Might be work asking the vendor next time... even if you have to pay them something...

Buy a dongle for a couple of weeks. With internet you have an alternative. You don’t with other utilities.

Because they've already got you as a customer is my guess.

Why should I have to though?

The house we are buying is empty unfortunately

Is it because they're hooking you up to fibre? When we renewed recently we were told we had to move to fibre and that has a wait whilst they come and connect the house up.

Because the broadband/Internet has never been nationalised and has always been privatised.
There's no one solution country wide, so fibre for instance, is not accessible for all homes (although it is being rolled out).

When I've moved I've either reached an agreement for Internet to lag purchase, or ordered router ahead of time.

I've never been more than 24hrs without, and even then can hot-spot off phone or share mobile data. There's loads of options

But that’s what’s stupid - it sort of is nationalised in that the actual internet provider is open reach. God we’ve set up our society in such a ridiculous way it drives me mad

I agree it should be simpler and quicker to set-up, but think the reason is that if you don't have water and gas/electric things start getting hazardous pretty quickly whereas no internet is annoying but no-ones going to die from not having it when you move in.

Agree - moved to new house 3 months ago where the fibre was already there - still took 14 days. The mobile signal is bad as the only way you can get calls is to connect via wifi calling - that was a long 14 days. No Ariel either so ended up buying a box to connect to the satellite to access Freesat.

Yes , it’s mad. A family member has just had to wait 2 weeks.

Openreach isn't nationalised.

Where do you live? Try a different provider.

The only option for fibre on my new street is gigaclear even though it is only a mile from my current house where we have sky.

wow…. Your oven, dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer etc etc MAY be WiFi enabled but they do NOT need to be connected to WiFi to use them. Also there are many ways of connecting to broadband/internet or whatever you want to call it immediately. EE / Vodafone / O2 /3 ‘dongles’ or Starlink or hotspot to your phones while it all gets sorted out.

That makes it even easier - set it up before you take possession.

Because you want connectivity

Corbyn said similar and everyone thought he was bonkers. Then lockdown hit and some people didn’t have reliable internet.