House Move Guide

1. Moving Phone & Broadband
2. Moving Broadband Only
3. How much does it cost to move?
4. Potential Problems

1. Moving Phone & Broadband

Note: This applies to customers who subscribe to both our telephone and broadband services. See Moving Broadband Only if your phone line is with another provider.

Go to the Move My Broadband page which you can find in the Member Centre under Account Details.

We need to know when you want your line to be ready and if you want to be listed in the phone book. Also we'll need your new address, contact details and information about your new property.

In most cases we'll need a week to get your phone and broadband up and running, so it's best if you place your order as soon as you know when you're moving.

It can take a bit longer if we need to book an engineer. Engineers are needed if:

• You're moving to an address where the phone is hard-wired and new sockets are required
• You're moving to an address with no existing telephone wiring

Fill out the form and click Confirm to submit your order.

2. Moving Broadband only

How the process works and how long things take depends on your moving circumstances.

Before you ask us to move your broadband, you'll need to order a telephone line at your new property. With a standard order we'll be able to switch your broadband on about a week after your phone line is up and running. If you ask your provider for a simultaneous order then we'll be able to get your broadband working on the same day that your phone line is installed.

Important: We need at least a weeks notice to move your broadband (the more the better) otherwise there might be a delay in getting your broadband up and running.

Standard Orders

First, contact your telephone provider and arrange to have your telephone service moved.

When this is all arranged, go to the Move My Broadband page which you can find in the Member Centre under Account Details.

Fill out the form, choosing when you want broadband cutting off at your old property and when you'd like it switching on at the new property. If you're getting a new number, then your broadband should be up and running a week after your phone line is switched on.

If you're taking your number with you then your broadband will be up and running about a week after the service has been cut off at your old property. This is because we can't place two orders on a number at the same time. We have to wait for the cancellation order to complete before we can order a new service on that number.

Click the Confirm button when you're done and we'll handle things from there.

Simultaneous Orders

When you call your telephone provider, the first thing you should ask is to place a simultaneous order for the provision of a phone line with broadband. It's important to ask this first as changing an order type later on can cause problems.

You'll be asked for the name of your ISP (that's us!) and other details about your order. You'll be given an order reference code that looks like this: ABC123AB or this: ABC12345678.

When you've placed the order, get in touch and let us know the following information:

• Your order reference code
• Your new address
• The date you're moving (we need at least 5 working days notice to place a sim order)
• Your new number (if you know it)
• And (if applicable) how you'd like to pay for your broadband move (see question 2 for more information on this)

To contact us, call our support team or use the Help Assistant with the following path:

Customer Services & Billing > Account Management > Move My Broadband to New Premises > Move My Broadband to New Premises (new phone line ordered).

3. How much does it cost to move?

Home Phone

It depends on what's already installed at your new property:

• Line already installed - free
• No line or cable line installed - £105

Broadband

Moving broadband to a new property costs £60.

If you're under contract on one of our current residential accounts, we can waive this charge and move your broadband for free. A second move within the same contract period would cost £60.00.

If you're on one of our older accounts or you're a business customer then we'll waive the charge if you stay with us for 18 months from the point of order. Cancelling or moving again within 18 months would cost £60.00

4. Potential problems

Here are some of the common problems that cause order delays when moving house:

a. DACS on the line

A DACS (Digital Access Carrier System) is a method used on some phone lines to allow two phone lines to make use of a single set of wires. This is often done to make wiring more straightforward or to reduce costs, especially in rural areas or built-up areas where it may be difficult to arrange a new line to be laid.

If you have DACS on your line you need to have this removed in order for you to get broadband service. There are two types of DACS:

• Internal - an internal DACS will be on your property and would need us to arrange a BT Openreach engineer to visit your address to remove this.
• External - an external DACS wouldn't need a BT Openreach engineer to access to your address, but may need one to get access to private land or, in some cases, to dig up cables in the road. The time needed to remove a DACS depends on the location and permission to close off roads for access.

b. Exchange Capacity

A telephone exchange cannot provide unlimited broadband connections. The capacity of the exchange is finite and as such, it is possible that the capacity can be reached. In these cases, broadband orders will be placed in a queue and will either be fulfilled as broadband connections become available, due to others moving and making capacity available, or when the exchange has additional equipment installed to provide increased capacity.

In these cases, we will contact BT Wholesale to try and determine as much information as we can on the potential delay. However, this can be difficult as we are not able to find out details of the length of the queue or the details of any upgrade plans.

c. Tags on the line

A tag, or marker, is placed on a line to indicate that the line cannot have a broadband service installed on it. There are 2 types of marker.

• Broadband marker - this is the most common marker, placed by another service provider when they are responsible for providing a service on the line. If someone moves house but the marker is not removed, this will prevent us from placing a broadband order.

If there's a tag on the line from another provider, we'll contact BT Wholesale and arrange to have it removed.

• Hard marker - this shows there is something physical stopping the broadband being activated on the line. If the property is old, it may have an old style BT bell box (installed before modern phone sockets and didn't have a connection point, as the phone was effectively hardwired into the line).

Without a phone socket, there would be nowhere to plug your micro filters in. In addition there would be no connection for your broadband equipment, so the line cannot have a broadband order placed on it.

If there is a hard marker, it will be necessary for you to call your phone provider and ask them to have that marker removed from the phone database; this will then allow us to place your broadband order.

d. Incompatible Products

When we place an order for broadband, the initial checking phase will show if there are incompatible products on the line. As well as the tags/markers mentioned above there may also be other incompatible products such as:

• Alarm systems which link in to the phone line
• A PBX telephone exchange
• The BT Retail Light User scheme (BT Retail require a full subscription to be paid in order to allow broadband to work on the line).

This page last updated 11th May 2009