Moving Home to a Disconnected Line?

[Deleted User]

I hope to be moving home in the next 2-3 months (offers made and accepted on both sale and purchase yesterday).  I am currently with Plusnet for phone and ADSL broadband at my present address.  I can get the same ADSL speeds at my new address or even faster as it seems Virgin cable is available at it.

The house I am moving to has a phone socket but, as the property is vacant, I cannot see that the line is currently live.  I saw the property the other day and saw the phone/ADSL socket but without an attached phone which is why I think this is the case.  I am therfore assuming the vendor has cancelled or never ordered a phone connection but will check this for sure over the coming days.

Here are my connundrums:

(1)  I want to have as little downtime as possible once I move in, particularly with respect to broadband provision.  But presumably (from what I have read) I won't be able to order BB (or the transfer mechanism won't kick in if I stay with PlusNet) until I move into the new address and have the phone line up and running.  So I am guessing that the phone line might get activated (and usable) at the new address at some point on moving date if I have set the transfer wheels in motion from Plusnet (or indeed any other provider).  Assuming then (worst case) that the phone line is currently disconnected at the new house. it may be several weeks after I move in before I can thus get back on BB!

(2)  My present 18 month contract with PlusNet is coming to its end in September and I calculate that the cessation charges may amount to between £20-£30 as I should be gone from my present house by July (possibly August latest) all things being well.  I have enjoyed the stability and speed of my current BB connection and PlusNet in general over a number of years.   However I am also aware of cheaper offers to newbees should I just decide to cut the phone and BB connection to my current address on moving date (whenever this turns out to be) and start afresh with a different ISP at the new place placing an order for phone and BB provision prior to moving.  Can you cancel an order for something like this if it goes bristols up?  Or can you only order a phone line to be reconnected and BB provision once you moved in? 

Any thoughts about this would be appreciated.  Not moved for 24 years (in the infancy of the internet) so I really don't know how it works in practice.  

Neil_Jones

Its more than plausible the property is just disconnected at the exchange.  The presence or lack of a connected phone doesn't mean anything, previous owner may not have used it or just used it for broadband.    I trust you have looked at this? https://www.plus.net/broadband/moving-home/

[Deleted User]

Neil_Jones said:

Its more than plausible the property is just disconnected at the exchange.  The presence or lack of a connected phone doesn't mean anything, previous owner may not have used it or just used it for broadband.    I trust you have looked at this? https://www.plus.net/broadband/moving-home/

Yes as you say I think the guy selling has probably just had his line disconnected at the exchange as the house is now vacant.  This is what I would do in his situation.   Why would anyone pay to have the phone line still connected for a property with vacant possesion?  Had not thought that in this era of mobile phones he may not have ever used the landline for his telephony!   So I could well be OK to have this line reconnected by PlusNet (or a new provider) setup for moving-in date,  with BB following on a few days later (hopefully) so long as I put a transfer date in a few weeks beforehand if the PlusNet Help referenced is anything to go by.

Thanks  

littleboo

You could do a home move with Plusnet, or as you will be near the end of the contract, cancel that, pay up whatever's left and start a new service at the new address. That could be with an Openreach based ISP - BT, Sky, TT or even Plusnet again, or  Virgin. You could then get new customer deals.

matelodave

I think you'll just have to accept that it could take a couple of weeks or more to get the line connected if it's been dormant for some time and has to be reprovisioned.(and that is assuming that there is capacity at the cabinet or exchange at the time you want service)

If broadband or a phone is essential, then eithe use a mobile phone as a wifi hotspot or get a mifi unit to give you a service in the interim.

iniltous

If the phone number isn’t important you could start a new contract with whoever you like at the new address ( if it isn’t currently served ) obviously if you do this before it’s your property , and access is needed to install the service, then it may fail because the ‘installer’ cannot get in.
If the phone number is important and the old and new address are both off the same exchange , you organise a home move for the day you leave the old property and take possession of the new , obviously no 100% guarantee but also no reason to think the service won’t be available on that day.
If the new address isn’t on the same exchange , you could still use PN home mover , but with a new phone number, but if the PN early termination charges are small , you could afford to use anyone you like at the new address and if this new order isn’t linked to the old address, you could have it working ( assuming the house seller is in agreement and access is OK ) before you move in

JJ_Egan

( I have enjoyed the stability and speed of my current BB connection and PlusNet in general over a number of years.)

But be aware that's at current address.

New address may be better or worse from PN or others .

[Deleted User]

Interesting that, at the new address,  I can get either FTTC provision like I have ATM assuming there is availability at the cabinet (but only up to 50% of what I currently get) at approx the same sort of price as I currently pay OR I pay more and go via Virgin Media (with higher speeds available than current) as they service the area.  The ideal of getting the same sort of speeds that I currently get may not be possible.  Decisions to mull over.... 

matelodave

The speeds you can get will be what is avaialble at your address and will depend on which cabinet you are connected to (it may not be the closest) and the distance (and line condition) between your premises and the cabinet. If you are connected direct to the exchange (ie not via an FTTC cabinet) then you'll be limited to a basic ADSL line (again speed limited by the distance and line condition).
As you say, Virgin may be faster but they use their own infrastructure and might cost more because they really dont have the same sort of competition from the mainstream ISPs who all have to use the Openreach network.

[Deleted User]

OK here are a few that are possible:.

(1)  Assume that everything goes through this initial phase of mortgage/searches/surveys etc that my buyer has to go through.  Assume that the buyer does not blink, i.e. that he is not the 1 in 3 that pulls the plug, and exchanges contracts with a completion date some days or a week/fortnight thereafter.  Let us also assume that I have contacted PlusNet 4 weeks prior to anticipated moving date and then contacted them again after exchange of contracts with a firm completion date .  I can see that this scenario will probably work well if our housemove does go ahead on schedule with any hiccups and that there may be little downtime on either phone or FTTC broadband still with Plusnet.  I won't need to pay the cessation charge if I take out a new contact with them.  LESS DOWNTIME?

(2) Assume the same optimistic scenario only I decide to go with a 'cheaper' BB deal with another fibre Open Reach provider that can do FTTC at my new home.  I stump up the cessation charge to PlusNet which I reckon to be £20-£30 max (contact runs out in September).  Presumably I could set the order rolling for my new address once contracts have been exchange prior to completion but here could well be some downtime I reckon for phone (and particularly for the fibre BB)  CHEAPER PROBABLY over the contract length than staying with PlusNet for their contract length.

(3)  Assume again the same scenario re house move but this time electing to go with Virgin Media as they can provide in my new home.  Am I able to provisionally book a date for them to do the installation at say Moving Date +1 reserving the option to cancel/amend if things change during those final 2 weeks? FASTER SPEEDS AVAILABLE but MORE EXPENSIVE

With scenarios 2 and 3 can I set the ball rolling prior to moving in to the new home (not a new build BTW)?  

matelodave

Generally, the ISP has to arrange a line provision with OpenReach and so doesn't really have a great deal of control over when it happens but there's no harm in asking. If they dont need access to the premises (ie there's a line already there) then you could initiate the contract as soon as you want and get the line provisioned before your take possessionif the vendor is in agreement.. All you need to be confident is that there is availability (ie no waiting list) when you want service to start.

If you want Virgin, then they probabl do need access, especially if the front garden has to be dug to lay a new cable and all these things become dependent on the availability of the resurces to do it on a specific day of your choosing rather than theirs. Their logistics can be as uncertain as yours although I gues Virgin might have slighly more control over their own stsff than an ISP who has to get OR to do the provisioning.

TBH there's not much point is asking us on the forum as we wont be doing the work, so you need to discuss it with the ISP of your choice to see waht might be possible.