How switching broadband works, without the myths

Switching residential broadband in the UK is meant to start with the company you want to join. That company runs One Touch Switch: it requests the change, coordinates with your current provider, and agrees a date. You should not have to phone the old provider and ask permission to leave. You do still have to understand the contract you are leaving and the one you are about to sign.

What One Touch Switch is, and is not

Ofcom required a simpler switching process for fixed broadband and landline. The result is One Touch Switch. It is a set of rules and messages between providers. It is not a shop, not a comparison site, and not Openreach. OneTouchSwitch uses the same words because that is the name customers search for. We are not the operator of the process.

The practical effect is narrow and useful. You choose a new provider. They should handle the cease of the old service as part of providing the new one, for services in scope. You keep a record of what you agreed: speed, price, term, and date. If a television package, a mobile plan or a business line sits on the same account, ask what is included. A broadband switch does not automatically tidy every product on a bill.

What to know before you agree

1. The address, including the flat number. A wrong premise is the most boring way to lose a week.
2. Whether you are still inside a minimum term, and what the exit fee would be. If you do not know it, do not assume it is zero.
3. The opening monthly price, what it becomes later, the setup charge, and the length of the contract.
4. The technology: full fibre, part-fibre, or cable. And whether the provider has said it can be ordered at this address.
5. What happens to a landline number, a TV box, or equipment you have to return.

A comparison can line those facts up. It cannot sign the order. If a page here and the provider’s page disagree, believe the provider. Their page is the offer. Ours is an explanation of a published figure, or a calculator that uses numbers you type.

The day itself

If the new service uses a line that is already in the premises, the change can be a transfer on an agreed date. You may be asked to plug in a new router. If the new service needs fibre that is not there yet, the date is an installation, and someone may need to be at home. Those are different events. A countdown that ignores the difference is decoration.

If the switch stalls, contact the new provider first. They are the ones running the process. Have the order reference, the address as you gave it, and the name of the old provider. A delay is not proof the old company is refusing out of spite, and it is not proof the new one has connected you.

When not to switch yet

Do not switch to escape a price you have not read, or to gain a speed the address cannot take. Do not switch in the last days before a house move if you have not checked the new address. Do not treat a social tariff and a promotional deal as the same shelf: eligibility is the provider’s decision, usually against benefit rules they publish.