Moving from the US

[BrianAl]

Hello - 

We are relocating from the US to London in February. We have a flat with an address and would like to get broadband set up there. We tried to set this up online at the Sky website, but it doesn't seem to accomodate us as we are not actually in London yet.

Does anyone here have experience with getting service set up prior to being in country? Or coordinating it such that we can get this set up in the first few days we are there? I'd love to talk to a representative form Sky to help us out but we can't seem to find a way to reach an actual person. Thanks much!

[GD1]

@BrianAl  Until your in the country I doubt very few suppliers would set up a service for you.

[BrianAl]

Thanks @GD1 - we were kind of concerned that would be the answer.

[Chrisee]

@BrianAl you will normally need a UK bank account in place first so if you have not got one already you will need to get one set up. If you aren't aware most UK ISPs including Sky have a minimum 18 month contract which causes issues for people on shorter visits.

Sky cannot accept an order until the current resident of the flat has released the line and after that Openreach the network operator Sky use require a 14 day leadtime. 

[jamesn123]

@BrianAl 

If you have the UK address & Bank account already you could just stick a VPN on your PC and order online

[BrianAl]

Thanks @Chrisee and @jamesn123 - we do have a UK address, so we are good there (and the flat is vacant and ready for occupancy). We won't have a back account set up until we touch down in country next week. Hopefully we can pop into one of the local stores in London and pick up the modem/router and self-set up (would hate to wait another 2 weeks for a service tech). We did discover the 18 month standard contract (seems odd since standard lease contracts are 12 months) - but we did find some 12 month options as well. Thanks again everyone! Wish us luck! 

[Chrisee]

@BrianAl there is no self set up in the UK you place an order with Sky or other ISP who place an order with Openreach the national phone system operator who do the activation typically if your flat has a line in place 14 days later. Sky send out aSky hub which is the combined modem router to the address to arrive a couple of days before the activation which is done remotely then you plug the hub in.. Where there is no phone line it takes longer but normally there is no extra cost

Sky and other ISPs require an automated monthly payment method to be set up which is normally a direct debit from a UK bank they may accept an automated payment from a credit card this page gives info on setting up a UK account https://www.william-russell.com/blog/how-to-open-a-bank-account-in-the-uk-as-an-expat/

[BrianAl]

@Chrisee ok - thank you. Wow. We weren't expecting to be without internet for 14 days after arriving. The flat is fully provisioned with the necessary lines. I see that both Sky and BT have many stores around London, that's why we thought we could go in and pick up the hardware and they could remotely activate. Seems the first month is going to be a little rough 😞  ... I do appreciate the info, it helps us prepare.

[TimmyBGood]

@BrianAl 

ISPs in the UK don't 'activate' broadband services themselves: that's done by Openreach as the effective monopoly supplier and maintainer of relevant national infrastructure (a legacy of previous public ownership of utilities), and Openreach has a typical ten working day lead time for FTTC and potentially much longer for FTTP on initial installation.  To cover the interim you'll probably want to contemplate sourcing a non-contract data SIM and cellular hotspot: those should be available for cash.

[Mr+Slant]

The 14 day period (10 working days) before service can be provided is mandated by Ofcom as a "cooling off period" where you can cancel any orders without penalty. Its actually part of the distance selling regulations rather than any telecomms "law".

Just clearing up the fact that its really nothing to do with Openreach, similar delay will apply to any ISP (Virgin, altnets, all of them) when its a business to consumer contract.

If on the other hand the OP is actually a business customer then you can get setup a LOT faster.