Virgin Media to other supplier - activation required?

Mojo29

Hi all,


We moved house in February last year & signed up with Virgin Media upon moving to a landline & broadband deal.


I wish to now leave Virgin Media and have my broadband by a supplier which needs a conventional line. When I go onto any of the companies (Vodafone, Talktalk, BT, PlusNet, etc.) and put in my landline number, postcode and house number they are willing to sell me the package just paying the monthly charge (ie. no activation, installation, or setup costs), but I note in the small print that it says a fee (seems to be around £50-£60 for all companies) will apply if a new phone line needs installing.


There is a cable going from the telegraph pole to the front of the house and I also have a single BT socket (different from the socket Virgin Media installed), however when I plug a landline phone into this socket on either the front or the test socket when I unscrew the faceplate, has a dial tone.


Does this mean that I need to request a line to be installed, or is this normal if I'm currently with Virgin Media? If I need a line installed do I signup online and pay them, or will I have to wait for the date the internet is supposed to start working first?


Thank you

iniltous

If there is a ‘dialtone’ on the Openreach socket, then chances are the existing line is in a stopped state and whoever you use should be able to issue a start to bring it back into service ( so no new line charge should be raised ) if no dialtone the line doesn’t exist all the way back to the exchange equipment, and a new line charge may be raised ( but in many cases even then , it’s not a provide, it’s still classed as a start so no install charge )
If a new line charge is raised , then it would probably appear on the first bill as a one off charge, but chances are, especially if you are taking broadband as well as telephony, no install charge is raised, regardless of it being a start or a ‘new line’.

cranford

If it were me I would have an overlap of at least two weeks just in case the new service does not go live on time. Otherwise if VM don't have a service to port your number too you could loose it and the chances of being without BB for a time will be reduced.