Moving internet planner
Compare providers at both addresses and get a dated transition timeline.
Moving planner
Enter addressesTell us about the move
Current ZIP, new ZIP, and when you’re moving. We’ll compute the rest.
Next steps
Related
Guides and provider pages that cover cancellation, equipment returns, and transfers.
Why moving internet goes sideways
Internet is one of the three or four utilities you absolutely cannot be without on day one of a move, and it’s the one most likely to quietly fail. Three reasons it keeps happening: install lead times, overlapping billing, and the port-vs-cancel decision that almost nobody thinks about until they’re already moving boxes.
On lead times,the major operators publish “next-day install” on their marketing pages, but the reality at the booking step is 2 to 3 weeks for a professional appointment, and longer than that in the last week of any month. Self-install kits ship in 3 to 5 business days, but they only work at addresses that already have active inside wiring, which you usually don’t know until you move in.
On billing,most major ISPs stopped prorating final bills years ago. Cancel effective the 12th, get billed through the end of the cycle anyway. The planner’s timeline nudges you to time the cancellation call relative to your billing cycle, not just the move date, so you’re not paying for 2 to 3 weeks of service at an address you no longer live at.
On port vs. cancel,if your current provider also serves the new address, porting service is almost always cheaper and faster than a fresh signup. If they don’t serve the new address, you’re in cancel-and-resign territory, which involves early-termination fees, equipment returns, and the install lottery. The planner classifies every provider into one of those buckets so the decision isn’t yours to figure out.
How we build the timeline
The timeline is deliberately conservative. We anchor every step to your move date, then work back from there using industry medians rather than the happy-path marketing numbers. 30 days out for the provider decision, 21 days out for the install book (matches the 2 to 3 week median), 14 days out for the cancellation call, 7 days out for prep, 1 day out for the physical disconnection, move day for the new service test, and 7 days after for the equipment return.
None of these steps are blocking each other in the sense that you have to hit them in order. They’re there to keep the long lead-time items from colliding with the short ones. Booking the install is the single constrained resource, so the timeline treats that as the pacing step. Everything else is padded around it so there’s no scenario where you realize on move day that the install was supposed to happen yesterday.
Frequently asked questions
- How far before my move should I schedule the new install?
- Most ISPs book professional installs 2 to 3 weeks out. Slots on weekends and near the end of the month fill first, so book the appointment as soon as you have a confirmed move-in date. If the install window is tight, ask whether a self-install kit is an option, modems and ONTs are often active on the line already.
- Can I port my current plan to the new address?
- If the provider serves both ZIPs, almost always yes, but the pricing and promo don’t always port with you. Many operators treat a move as a new account internally, which can reset the promo clock (good for you) or drop a grandfathered rate (bad). Call before you move and ask them to note the account that you’re a transfer, not a new subscriber.
- Do I have to give 30 days’ notice to cancel?
- It varies. Most major ISPs don’t require formal notice, service ends on the date you request, but they bill a full final month regardless of when in the cycle you cancel. A handful of regional operators require 30 days. Ask specifically: ‘If I cancel effective the 12th, what gets billed after that?’ The answer tells you whether to time the cancellation to the billing cycle or not.
- What if the new address doesn’t have the same provider?
- That’s the common case. You’ll need to cancel the current service and sign up fresh at the new address. The planner flags each provider as current-only, new-only, or overlap so you know which side of that line it falls on. For the cancellation, ask about equipment return deadlines, most require return within 10 to 30 days or they bill an unreturned-equipment fee of $100 to $300.
- What about same-day cutover, can I have both services running briefly?
- Yes, and for any move longer than a day across town it’s usually worth it. Overlap by 3 to 7 days: keep the old service live through move-out, schedule the new install a day or two before move-in. You pay for a week of double service but skip the risk of a botched install leaving you offline. For remote workers, the math is trivially in favor of the overlap.
- Is an early-termination fee unavoidable if I’m still under contract?
- Not always. If you’re moving to an address where the same provider offers service, most will waive the ETF when you keep service active at the new address. If they don’t serve the new area, some (Xfinity, Spectrum, AT&T Fiber) will waive the ETF as a ‘no-service-available’ cancellation, you need to ask for it explicitly and sometimes escalate to retention.
- What if my ZIP isn’t in the sample dataset?
- We’re building the live FCC availability pipeline. Until it lands, we only have confirmed plans for 10 sample ZIPs. If yours isn’t covered, the timeline still generates and you can call our telecom desk to get a live plan walk-through for either address.