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Last updated 6 September 2026
Broadband is the utility that most often is not ready on moving day. Gas and electricity switch in a phone call; a broadband install needs an engineer slot, an activation date and, increasingly, a fibre connection that the last owner never had. Here is how to make sure the house is online anyway.
Two to three weeks before
- Order your broadband now. Installation lead times run from days to several weeks depending on the provider and whether the property already has the right line. Check whether the property needs a new full-fibre connection; if it does, allow longer.
- Write down the install date and treat it as a hope, not a promise. Slips are common, and the people who suffer are the ones who planned around the date exactly.
- Check mobile coverage at the new address so you know a 5G router is a real fallback there. Use the postcode check on our homepage; it takes ten seconds.
The week before
- Order the router to arrive the day you get the keys. Order by 2pm on the working day before, to the new address, and it arrives next working day by Royal Mail Tracked 24. If nobody will be there to receive it, have it sent to your current address and carry it over.
- Put the WiFi details somewhere you will find them. They are on the card in the box and in your dispatch email.
Moving day
- Plug the router into any socket, ideally near an upstairs window, and give it two minutes.
- Connect the phones first, then the TV, then the laptops. Up to 32 devices, no configuration.
- That is the whole job. No engineer, no phone line, nothing to install.
If the property has no electricity yet nothing mains-powered will work until the supply is on. Use the router at your old address for those days and bring it with you, or hire a pocket MiFi for the gap.
The first weeks
- Install slipped? Extend the router a week at a time for £25 from the link in your email. You keep the same router and WiFi name; only the return date moves.
- Broadband live? Post the router back free with the QR code on the card; any Post Office prints the label. The rental stops when Royal Mail accepts it.
Questions people ask
How far ahead should I order the router?
Order by 2pm on the working day before you want it. It arrives the next working day. Weekend and bank holiday orders go out on the next working day.
Can it be delivered to my current address instead?
Yes. Put whichever address suits you at checkout. Many people have it delivered to the old address and carry it over on moving day.
What if my broadband install date moves again?
Extend a week at a time for £25 using the link in your dispatch or reminder email. Nothing to send back, nothing to reorder.