The process
One Touch Switch, step by step
One Touch Switch is the UK residential process for changing fixed broadband and landline provider. You order with the new provider. They contact the provider you are leaving. You should not cancel the old service first in the ordinary case. This page is the long version of that sentence, including the parts adverts skip.
Reviewed 5 November 2026 · 6 min read · Independent · Not a price list
The new provider starts it
In the ordinary home switch you choose a gaining provider and place the order with them. They use the industry process to tell the losing provider that a switch is happening, and to agree a date. The losing provider should send you information about the contract you are leaving, including an early-termination charge if one applies. That message is not a suggestion that you cancel first. Cancelling first can open a gap, start a cease, and remove the coordinated path.
OneTouchSwitch, this website, does not send those messages. We are not a provider, not Ofcom and not the industry hub. A comparison, a guide, or a published offer on this site does not start a switch. Only an order with a provider does.
The process is for residential fixed broadband and landline switching inside the UK rules. It is not a way to move a mobile handset plan, a pay-TV subscription, an energy contract, a care-alarm monitoring contract, or a broadband service at a different address. Those are separate orders. If a salesperson says “it all moves”, ask them to name each contract.
What is supposed to move, and what is not
The broadband service at the same premises is the core of the process. A phone number can often be kept when the number is part of the fixed service and both providers support it, but that is a question to ask, not a law of physics. A number that belongs to a mobile, a business trunk, or a separate voice provider needs its own answer.
Television packages, streaming pucks, Glass-style sets, and “free” boxes are frequently a different contract even when they appear on the same bill. One Touch Switch of the line does not, by itself, move the television. Alarm monitoring, telecare, and payment terminals that use the line need a human at the premises to know the date. Tell those suppliers yourself. Do not assume the gaining broadband provider has done it.
Equipment usually stays with the contract that supplied it. Plan to return the old router when the new service has been stable for a few days, not on the morning of the switch. Returning it early, or failing to return it, can create a charge that nobody put in the comparison.
Dates, engineers and downtime
A switch on the same physical network can be remote. A switch onto a different network — from cable to full fibre, from Openreach to an alternative builder, from a building network to the street — usually needs someone at home and a new socket or optical terminal. The date on the order is a plan. It is not a promise of zero downtime. Missed appointments, wayleaves, and a flat number that does not match the wholesale record are ordinary failure modes.
Keep the old service until the new one works. If the old line is ceased early, you may be offline and you may still owe an early-termination charge. If the new provider misses a date they committed to, write down the promised date and the date service actually worked. Those two dates are what a complaint or a compensation conversation needs. This site does not pay compensation and does not decide eligibility.
Moving house is usually not this process. The old address is a cease or a home-move clause. The new address is a new availability check. Do not assume the provider, the speed, or the waiver you had on the old street exists on the new one.
The exit fee sits beside the new contract
One Touch Switch coordinates the handover. It does not cancel an early-termination charge. If you are inside a minimum term, ask the losing provider for the charge in pounds on a stated date. An unknown fee is not zero. Put that figure next to the new contract’s price after any introductory period, any setup cost, and any rise the new contract states.
A rise that was already written into your current contract in pounds and pence is often not a fresh right to leave without a fee. A rise the contract says you may reject can be a limited window. Read the notice you were sent. A forum post is not the notice.
Cashback, gift cards and “up to” claims are not a lower monthly price. Do not subtract them from the contract unless the money is in your account and the terms say you may keep it if you leave. We do not publish a national saving, because there is not one number that is true for every home.
The premises has to match
Postcode-level information is a clue. The order is the flat, the plot, or the building. Conversions, new builds and blocks with several fibre risers fail automated matches. If the gaining provider cannot see the line, the process cannot start cleanly. Do not cease a working service while they “look into it”.
Different networks at the same postcode are normal in cities. One end of a street can be an alternative full-fibre build. The other end can be Openreach. A building can be on a landlord’s network that no national brand can sell. Availability is not a property of the logo.
Published prices on a comparison, including any catalogue this site shows, are not an instruction that the product can be ordered at your door. The provider’s own check is the availability step. We do not pretend to have completed it for you.
After the day, what to keep
Keep the order confirmation, the switch date, the name of the network if they told you, and any message about a price change during the term. Keep the old router until the new service has stayed up. Check that a care alarm, a phone that matters, and any television you meant to keep are actually working. Billing the first month is not the same as the price after an introduction.
If something failed, the gaining provider owns the order. Ask them for the reference and the next action. The losing provider is the right call for the exit fee and for a cease that happened too early. Ofcom is the regulator, not a complaints desk you start with. An alternative dispute scheme, where the provider belongs to one, comes after the provider’s own process.
This record was reviewed on 5 November 2026 against the public description of the UK process and Ofcom’s consumer pages on switching and price rises. It is not a provider’s terms. Those terms, and the order in front of you, win if they differ.
Questions
- Does OneTouchSwitch carry out One Touch Switch?
- No. The gaining provider runs the switch with the provider you are leaving. This website compares and explains. An order happens on the provider’s own journey, not here.
- Should I cancel my old broadband first?
- Not in the ordinary home switch. Cancelling first can create a gap and can start an early-termination charge. Let the new provider start the process, and keep the old service until the new one works.
- Does the process move my TV, mobile or energy?
- No. Those are separate contracts. Broadband switching does not move a mobile handset plan, a pay-TV package, or gas and electricity. Ask about each one on its own.
- Will there be no downtime?
- Nobody honest can promise that. Same-network switches are often remote. A new network usually needs an engineer. Write down the date they actually commit to, and do not cease the old line early.
- Does the switch cancel my exit fee?
- No. Ask the provider you are leaving for the figure in pounds. An unknown exit fee is not zero. Put it beside the new contract before you call the switch a saving.
- Is a postcode match an order?
- No. The premises, including the flat, has to match. A published price is not address-level availability. The provider confirms whether they can install.