Broadband & House Moving

Cambridgegirl

I'm moving house in a couple of weeks and have been surprised at how long it is going to take to get our broadband up and running. If we stay with our current provider (Tiscali) they say it will take 15 days. We were thinking of going over to Sky Broadband but they say they can't even start the process until the telephone line has been active for 5 days and then it will be another 15 days before we have access to broadband.

My daughter is going to find it tough having no access to broadband for this long, does it really take this long or is there any way round this. I also wondered about going with BT as they offer you mobile broadband with one of their offers, thought perhaps my daughter could use this while we wait for the service to become active.

Any advicde would be appreciated!

WhoKilledBambi?

There is a way round it, http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/housemove.htm with the following caveat "The orders however are fairly complex and prone to error on the part of BT and/or the ISP" so not for the faint-hearted.Otherwise the timings look about right, albeit on the safe side, probably less time involved.Think you can get pre-pay wireless dongles that don't tie you into a contract which may be worth a look.

iceburn

dont go with BT broadband just for the mobile broadband esp if only going to use it for say a month and that is it, dont want your main broadband tied down to a lower quality / more expensive service. (for example BT is now throttling iplayer video stream on the lowest BT plan)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8077839.stm

if you give your postcode can see which "mobile" broadband (get pay as you go) one can use in the area which will hopefully tie you over until get the broadband installed. Also can see if it is best to go with O2 or sky for the home broadband as well.

Streeet

I move next Monday. I have asked Sky to setup the line for me. (£25 charge but I am working on removing this as BT will do it for free with their current promo)
This way the line and service will all kick in together.

Additionally the best package I found was amazingly Sky HD at £26.25 / month.
This includes line rental, HD TV, Phone (weekend & evening free) and 2mb broadband.


My alternatives were:
BT - £26.90 (11.25 line rental and 15.65 broadband) get a life!
Tiscali - £14.99 (including line rental)
Sky+ - £27.75 (11.25 line rental and 16.50 TV)

BT seem to be very pricey and justify it by their award winning service. I wish they had told me that after a 1hr 15 minute call being bounced between 9 operatives in India after my new line was provisioned as a business line and then didn't exist!