Moving
Moving home is not a broadband switch
One Touch Switch changes the provider of a residential broadband or landline service. It does not carry that service to a new address. The new door is a new question: which networks can be installed there, on which date, and at what price. The old contract can still charge you until someone ends it properly.
Reviewed 5 November 2026 · 6 min read · Independent · Not a price list
Two events, often booked as one
Event one is the cease, or the home move, of the service at the address you are leaving. Event two is a new provide at the address you are entering. They can share a phone call. They do not share a physics. The engineer, the wayleave and the network at the new flat are unaffected by how loyal you were at the old one.
A provider who says they will “just move the package” still has to be able to install that package at the new premises. If they cannot, you need a different provider at the new door, and you still need the old contract closed. Ask both questions on the same call, and write the answers under two headings.
Completion day, key day and activation day are three dates. Broadband that arrives a week after you do is a planning fact, not a betrayal, if nobody promised the earlier date. If they did promise it and miss it, that promised date is what you keep for any delayed-start conversation.
What the old address can still cost
An early-termination charge can apply if you leave a minimum term because you are moving, unless the contract waives it for a move or the provider agrees a waiver. Ask. Get the answer in pounds, in writing. A house move is not automatically a free exit. Unknown is not zero.
Leaving the router, the television box or a mesh node in the old property can become a non-return charge. Ask what must be sent back, and by when. Do not throw kit away on the morning you get the keys.
Overlapping days, where you pay for both addresses, are sometimes cheaper than a gap with no working line, especially if someone is working or a care alarm has to move. Price the overlap as a choice. Do not discover it on the second bill.
What to check at the new door
Check the flat or the plot, not only the postcode. A converted house can have one flat on full fibre and another on part-fibre or on nothing. A building network that serves the block does not need to serve a different block on the same street. A new-build phase can be live at the show home and dark at your plot.
Ask which technology they will actually install, what the upload is, and whether an engineer and someone at home are required. Ask the price after any introduction, any upfront cost, and any in-contract rise in pounds and pence. The package you had at the old address is not evidence.
If you want to keep a phone number, say so before the old line is ceased, and ask whether the number can move to the new provider and the new address. Do not assume. Tell a care-alarm company yourself. The broadband order does not call them.
The other meters move under other rules
Take meter readings for gas and electricity on the day you leave and the day you arrive. Those readings settle the energy accounts. They have nothing to do with One Touch Switch. The broadband provider cannot close the energy account.
Council tax, water and broadband are three more endings and beginnings. A single “utilities” checklist is useful only if each line names the company that must act. A multi-utility brand still has to be told about each service it actually supplies.
Do not pick a broadband provider because the energy at the new flat happens to be with a sister brand, unless you have priced both contracts and you want both. Convenience is a reason. It is not a price.
Questions
- Can I One Touch Switch my line to the new house?
- No. Switching provider and moving address are different. The new premises has to be ordered in its own right.
- Will my old provider waive the exit fee because I am moving?
- Only if the contract or a written waiver says so. Ask before you treat the fee as zero.
- The postcode is covered. Is the flat?
- Not necessarily. Give the flat number. Building networks and new-build phases are premises-specific.
- Should I overlap the two services?
- If a gap would strand work or an alarm, price a few days of overlap deliberately. If not, you may not need it. Decide, do not drift.
- Does the energy account follow the broadband?
- No. Read the meters. Tell the energy supplier. The broadband switch does not do that.
- Who starts the new broadband order?
- The provider who will serve the new address. If One Touch Switch is also needed because you are leaving a different provider at the old address, that is a second instruction. Ask them to keep the two events distinct.