How long after moving in without internet

[hedger123]

BT told me I can only order broadband after moving in since current owner also uses openreach network until moving date. They said activation may only be a few days after my order. Is this true or do people wait weeks before activation?

We moved just before Christmas- had to wait nearly 4 weeks for plusnet to send an engineer out to connect us. Tried to go with Virgin Media who told us it would be even longer

I know from experience of others that Sky is weeks and weeks & even then, they might let you down.

How the heck this country’s WFH folks manage to work puzzles me. Everything halts whilst the internet service providers prove so inefficient.

When I moved into a new build, SKY could arrange for connection within 3 days. BT gave me somewhere around 6-9 weeks (and a massive fee for doing so) because 'BT Openreach isn't an immediate service'.

Strangely, I went with SKY.

Guess who did the connecting? That's right, BT Openreach.

I moved on Friday, plusnet installed on the Monday

We moved Thursday and giganet installed on Friday. They did the prep a few weeks before to the outside of the property. It was so easy and it's so much better than virgin was.

It’s so inefficient that people can only order broadband after moving in. Why can’t they just schedule the service beforehand…

I think DS waited 2 weeks from ordering to activation. There was already full fibre to the house so no engineer visit was needed. It just took that long for them to send the modem and then activate it from their end. As he WFH he had to carry on living here until it was sorted.

When we moved in October 2020, we called when we knew we might be exchanging. Then after exchange they did all the ground work up to the house and on completion they finished it off inside the house. That was about a couple of days after completion.

When we moved we went from broadband to fibre with Sky. Broadband was switched off Thursday morning, fibre connection went live about 8am Friday morning, Sky confirmed connection before we'd even got the keys!

When we moved it took two weeks, they insisted on sending an engineer out, and they posted a new router but when the engineer arrived all he needed to do was connect the router (and then of course it be activated their end!) Felt like a massive waste of time as the router arrived in about 2 days and the rest was just waiting.

Temporary internet dongle could be a solution to tie you over. We ended up getting one recently in a similar situation. Arrived the next day after ordering (I think it was a Vodafone one).

3 days for us in Jan, we went with EE, very happy with the service

When we moved recently we used a router hire company as I work from home. It was brilliant and as stable as normal wifi. Totally recommend them https://www.wifihire.co.uk

We moved last year. We had been with Sky for years, yet they told us it would be 6 weeks to get us connected. Apparently it’s all down to when an openreach appointment is available and all providers needs them. Went to a Currys branch and they found us an engineer with Vodafone that we could arrange for within days of us moving in. We hadn’t even exchanged contracts yet but could book the date!

We moved last month and had to go to sky as our previous provider, Virgin, wasnt active in the new area.

It was all sorted prior to the move, and eas due to be connected 4 days after we moved. However, as the former owners account was still active, sky's system automatically cancelled our order and we had to wait an additional week for connection.

We already had the openreach box at the property, and simply needed to plug the router into ourselves, but sky couldn't turn the connection on. I wfh and ended up using a local EE public wifi hotspot, that was expensive and kept logging me out.

I can't believe it took so long, and was so difficult especially as we didnt need anyone to visit us.

We are with Virgin Media. The house we are moving into can get VM but when we did the post-offer viewing, I couldn't locate a socket so I think it was ripped out and replaced with BT. I just went onto the VM chat function and arranged for an engineer visit for the day after we complete. They had quite a lot of availability a few weeks out. They send out an engineer a week or two before to check the cabinet and cabling so hopefully on the day, they just need to pull a line into the property.

As a backup, I've bought a cheap TP Link router off Amazon and a sim card from Smarty. I've tested it out in our current home and it works really well. So as long as the Three data signal is okay in our new home (I did check the coverage) then we should be sorted for wifi on night one and in case we have any hiccups with our installation. Smarty was £20 a month for all you can eat data. They had cheaper options though.