Connect Fibre installation and switching explained

Connect Fibre builds town by town. Its coverage page (checked October 2026) groups towns and villages under Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Essex, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire (Doncaster-area towns and Sheffield districts), but availability is decided address by address. Its Postcode Checker and Coverage Checker show where your home stands:

Since 12 September 2024, One Touch Switch has let households move broadband between networks by contacting only the new provider. Your current provider must then send you the switching information, including any early termination charges, and keep your service running until the new one starts, and residential customers don't pay notice-period charges beyond the switch date. These are Ofcom's rules as reported by ISPreview.

Connect Fibre's Installation Guide says it isn't part of that programme, and its support FAQ says that, because it built its own network, your old service isn't cancelled automatically. Its help article on switching explains that the network is separate from Openreach and Virgin Media, so it can't take over your current provider's line. The same article (live in October 2026) says Connect Fibre is working hard to be ready for One Touch Switch, but gives no date. Plan on cancelling yourself.

After you order, Connect Fibre sends a link to book a free standard installation slot, followed by reminders. Its pages don't fully agree on days and times, so confirm yours when booking:

• Installation Guide (updated 7 March 2025, live in October 2026): engineers work 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday.
• A help-centre article on time slots: a 9am-1pm or 12pm-5pm arrival window, weekdays only, and around 90 minutes on site.

The slot is when the engineer arrives, not when they finish, so keep the whole window free plus about two hours after it ends. To change it, the Installation Guide says 48 hours' notice is free, but the terms ask for two working days and the help centre warns late changes may be charged. The terms define working days as excluding Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, so work to the stricter rule: for a Monday appointment, tell Connect Fibre by the Thursday before, and earlier if a public holiday falls in between.

1. Someone 18 or over must be in, authorised by the account holder. If no one is, or the job can't be done safely, the terms say you'll be given the chance to make other arrangements.
2. Sort permissions first. Connect Fibre needs any wayleave (permission to cross land or put equipment on it) or consent, including your landlord's if you rent, before installing, and can end the contract if these can't be provided. See our guides to broadband wayleaves and broadband for renters.
3. Expect a possible street visit. Connect Fibre may check your street beforehand for blockages or unusual terrain. It won't need to come in, but may need your garden or drive. If it finds a problem, support contacts you about options, which may include a non-standard installation charge.
4. Choose where the boxes go. Tell the engineer in advance where you'd like the outside and inside boxes. The inside box needs a plug socket next to it, and the router connects to it.
5. Think about your devices. The engineer will ask where your games consoles and smart TVs are and where you work from home, and engineers can't move furniture, so clear access to the wall you've chosen.

Connect Fibre's Price Book explains that during the network build it fits a Point of Termination (POT) at your property boundary, so fibre can be run into your home when you order. Its terms say that when the connection point outside your home is live, it contacts you to arrange the visit. Pieced together from its Installation Guide, help centre, terms and Price Book, the visit runs like this:

1. Risk assessment before work starts.
2. Running the fibre from the street to your home, underground or overhead. If ladders are needed, a small hole is drilled for a safety anchor bolt and filled afterwards.
3. Through the wall: a small hole, one box on the outside wall and one inside. The inside box is the ONT (optical network terminal), where the fibre ends and your router plugs in.
4. Router set-up: a survey for the best spot, central and away from thick walls and large or metal objects. You can propose another spot up to 10m from where the fibre enters, and Connect Fibre will say if it thinks that reduces range.
5. Add-ons such as Connect Mesh, Connect Phone or Connect TV are set up. Engineers carry spare mesh nodes if you want more; ask the cost before saying yes.
6. Testing and sign-off: a few devices connected, speed tests around the home, a tidy-up and a quick survey to confirm you're happy.

Everything from the connection point outside to the inside box is Connect Fibre's network equipment, which its terms say stays its property. But its Price Book also makes you responsible for the part of the network that runs from your property boundary, across your private land and into your home, up to and including the router. A faulty Connect Fibre component, such as the router, is fixed free, but other damage, including to the cables, is charged for repair, so take care with digging or building work along the cable route. Its engineers can't enter lofts, work above 5m or climb roofs, so raise any awkward route when you book. Moving the router later is a chargeable service in its Price Book, so settle the position on the day.

Standard installation is free. Connect Fibre's Price Book (updated 8 January 2026) says it typically covers jobs where the inside box is no more than 100m from the POT and the route crosses no more than 10m of tarmac or concrete, or 5m of block paving or slabs. Connect Fibre alone decides; specialist surfaces, outbuildings, work at height, hot tarmac or a socket far from the house entrance may make a job non-standard. Wanting the connection in a garden room? Ask at the order stage, and see our guide to Wi-Fi in a garden office.

Non-standard jobs have no fixed price list. The terms say a technician makes a separate visit and prepares a written estimate, the cost is discussed with you before work starts, and the charge is confirmed in writing if you go ahead and taken with your first monthly payment. If a job can't continue on the day for safety, complexity or materials, the terms say another appointment is needed and reasonable costs may be charged.

When Connect Fibre's ONT is working, the Power and Optical lights should be solid green and the Alarm light generally off. If not, its help centre suggests checking the cables, powering down for 15 minutes, then waiting 3 minutes for the lights to settle. Our guide to the full fibre ONT explains the box, and our broadband speed test lets you check speeds yourself at different times of day.

Once Connect Fibre works, contact your current provider to cancel. Connect Fibre's help centre lists contacts for some larger providers, but the details on its switching article are marked accurate in May 2023, so use your provider's own website or bill. Ask for the date your service ends and keep the confirmation. Our guide on how to cancel your broadband contract covers notice, final bills and returning your old router.

Connect Fibre's residential terms (updated 16 April 2026) describe the 30-day money-back guarantee for new residential customers in two places, and they don't quite match:

• Clause 1.5 says you can cancel within 30 days from the day after your installation is completed, and that the request must be in writing.
• Clause 18, the guarantee itself, says 30 calendar days from the date your broadband is activated, and that you can cancel by phone or email.

Work from the earlier date and cancel by email, which counts as writing and leaves a record. Clause 18 refunds your first monthly fee and any one-off installation or activation charges paid directly to Connect Fibre, less the cost of damaged, missing or unreturned kit. You must return all equipment in full working order with its original packaging within 14 calendar days of asking to cancel, so keep the boxes for the first month, and you must let Connect Fibre try to fix any fault first.

The guarantee sits alongside your legal right to cancel. Connect Fibre's terms say it takes orders through its representatives in person as well as by phone and online. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, an order taken at your home is an off-premises contract and has the same legal 14-day right to cancel as a phone or online order; only sign-ups at a trader's own business premises, such as a shop, lack it. For a service, those 14 days end 14 days after the day the contract is made, not after installation. On a pre-order they can run out months before the engineer arrives, and the 30-day guarantee is then your way out once you're installed. Our guides to the broadband cooling-off period and doorstep broadband sales explain the legal right.

• Moving home needs at least a month's notice. If Connect Fibre serves the new address, a new installation is booked and a new minimum term starts there, and you may also pay an activation or installation charge.
• Moving during your minimum term costs money. The terms (clause 13) and Price Book say you pay 100% of the remaining contract if you move outside its area, or if you move within its area but don't carry on with it; and 50% if you move within its area and take a new minimum term with it at the new address. The Price Book adds that a one-off cancellation fee may be charged on top. If it can't serve your new home, see broadband when moving home before you sign anything else.
• The equipment stays at the property, including the inside termination box, whoever uses it next; the terms ask you to tell any buyer.
• Leaving early for other reasons can cost up to the remaining charges for the minimum term, plus any router equipment you don't return; the Price Book deducts costs Connect Fibre saves and a 2% early-payment discount. After the minimum term the contract rolls monthly at out-of-contract pricing, with one month's notice to leave.

Connect Fibre may not be the only full fibre choice at your address. Our Connect Fibre broadband deals page covers the provider, and you can compare broadband deals at your postcode with our comparison partner's live prices, browse fibre broadband deals or find your town in broadband deals by area. We don't switch you ourselves; the provider you choose takes the order.

For other altnets, see our guides to toob installations, Zzoomm installations and Ogi installations, or full fibre installation: what to expect.