Switching

Nothing to unplug, nothing to type in.

Most people who come to us are already with someone else. The part they expect to be a nuisance — new details to key into the router, a day off work, a gap with no internet — is the part we've taken out.

Three things

All of it, from your side

Put your postcode in

It tells you what we can do at your address, what it costs, and whether anyone needs to call in. Ten seconds, and we don't ask for an email address to do it.

Tell us to go ahead

You pick the date. We deal with your old provider — you don't ring them, you don't give notice, and you don't need to explain yourself to anyone trying to talk you out of it.

Carry on as you were

On the day, your line moves over to us. For most people that is the whole of their involvement: the broadband is simply ours afterwards instead of theirs.

You won't be typing anything into your router

Normally, moving provider means being sent a username and password and being expected to find the right screen in your router to put them in. Our equipment recognises your line by itself, so whatever your router is set to now, it keeps working. There is nothing to change and nothing for us to talk you through over the phone.

That is true as long as you're keeping the router you've got. If you're coming off a cable service, or your old provider locks their router to their own broadband, you'll need a different box — and we'll tell you that before you order rather than on the day.

What actually happens on the day

The four things people ring up to ask, answered before you have to.

“Will I be without broadband?”

There's usually a short break while your line changes hands, and then it's back. We'll tell you what to expect for your line before the day rather than after it.

“Do I need to be in?”

On an existing Openreach line, most people need no visit at all, so no. If yours does need someone, you get a slot — and the address check knows which you are.

“Do I have to cancel my old provider?”

No, and you shouldn't. We arrange it. Cancelling yourself is how people end up with a gap in the middle, which is the one thing this process is designed to avoid.

“Will I pay two bills for a month?”

No. The old one stops when ours starts. You pay each of us for the days you were actually with them.

About your landline

The old phone network is being switched off, so every landline in the country is moving onto broadband. Yours will too, whoever you're with. It keeps your number and it works the same — but because it runs over broadband, it needs power. If anyone in the house relies on that phone, say so when you order and the battery backup is free.

If it doesn't go to plan

Switches do occasionally go sideways, usually because of something at the other end. If yours does, you ring the same number you'd ring for anything else and speak to somebody here who can see your line and chase it. You won't be handed between two companies each saying it's the other one.

Check your address