Possible to choose a broadband 'go live' date? (FTTP, switch from another ISP)

[HansSnooksTache]

When ordering EE Broadband, is it possible to choose a date when the service will 'go live'? This is for a full fibre (FTTP) service, taking over an existing (already installed and operational) Openreach FTTP line with a service currently provided by another ISP.

If such a thing is possible, any idea what the calendar window for this would typically be?  (i.e. from how soon to how many weeks into the future?)

Also, on the date of the migration from the other ISP to EE, will the new EE Broadband service be available and up and running in the early hours on the 'go live' day? (Obviously the router will need to be swapped for the EE Smart Hub, or alternatively for those using a third party router then the credentials changed to work with the EE broadband service.)

Thanks for any help! 🤓

[XRaySpeX]

You should be able to specify a "go live" date. On a straightforward migration it normally takes 2 weeks from ordering to "go live". Your BB should "go live" by midnight on that date. with the router arriving a day or 2 beforehand by post.

EE does allow the use of 3rd-party routers. However they may only investigate any issues until you put the supplied EE router back. In Using & Configuring a Third Party Router you'll find everything you need to set up your router incl. the BB PPPoE creds. which are now the same as BT's.

[JimM11]

@HansSnooksTache It's all about the availability and the required etc, my move from EE back to sky in march was the standard proposed which was the 14-21 day's then went down rapid and ended up at 5 day's from order to switch over all OTS controlled, sky rushing there router out to arrive quickly, switch notification in the VERY early hours off the morning well asleep, and about noon time i dealt with it all and switched over the EE to the Sky, broadband stayed up and working even though sky had sent the text you are live now. Also was a straight FTTP to FTTP swap, package speed to package speed same FF500, and billing was adjusted accordingly on the EE side so appeared to be no specific problem, looks like OR just said lets get it done now don't mess about! Looked at e-mail's ordered 5/3/25 and live 10/3/25. Even got a text from OR at 10.00am that day looks like they where trying to get push on swapping the hubs over, then one around the 1.30pm looks all good now from there end! 

[HansSnooksTache]

Thanks both. I'm looking to try and get the broadband migrated over to EE on a specific date so I can be there to swap over the router etc. Some ISPs make choosing a 'go live' date easier than others - it seems EE does let new customers select a desired date (sister brand BT certainly had this option in times past).

[XRaySpeX]

Thanks! You're welcome 🙂 ! Glad I could be of assistance & hope it soon gets sorted.

[HansSnooksTache]

Success in ordering an EE Broadband (EE BB) service to start on a specific, convenient date as an FTTP migration from another provider.

On signing up with EE BB there was an option to "Choose activation date", on selecting that a clickable calendar was shown with the dates available to choose highlighted - I'd intended to make a note of the date range that was available when ordering this but alas I forgot to, but I think it was at least 6 weeks into the future.

Just to note that in the EE web account portal, under "Track an order" there is supposedly an option to "Change activation date" - however on clicking this I've repeatedly ended up with this error message (tried on different days, just out of interest):

This is despite me still being logged in! Anyway this doesn't matter as I don't need to change the original activation date I chose.

I'll report back as to (hopefully) how smoothly the switch goes on the day (...someone probably needs to do some work from home that day so I hope it is indeed smooth - though there will be a backup mobile connection available just in case!).