Moving Offices: The Internet Checklist Nobody Gives You

Start internet planning for an office move before you sign the lease. Check which carriers are already lit in the building, order the primary circuit at least 90 days out (longer if construction is needed), line up a fast bridge connection in case it is late, start phone number porting about a month ahead, and keep the old service running until the new one has carried a full working day.

Furniture arrives in days. Fiber can take ninety. That mismatch is why so many moves end with a team working off phone hotspots for a fortnight.

Before you sign the lease

This is the step that saves everything downstream.

• Qualify the address before you commit to it. Ask which carriers are lit in the building. Not the block, the building. If none are, you are looking at a construction timeline and cost, and both are far better known during negotiation than after. See why prices vary by building.
• Ask the landlord about access. Which carriers already have agreements? Will the landlord let a new carrier in, and how long does approval take? What does the building require from contractors (insurance certificates, work hours)?
• Find the telecom room and ask whether there is riser space from it to your floor.
• Put it in the lease if you can: the landlord's cooperation with carrier access, and a reasonable timeline for approvals.

A building with several lit carriers is worth real money compared with one that has none. It is a legitimate lease negotiating point, and almost nobody raises it.

The full timeline

120 days out: your current contract

Pull the agreement for your existing internet and phones. Find the term end date, the notice window and whether there is a relocation clause. Some contracts let you move service to a new address; others charge an early termination fee if you cancel. The details are covered in the renewal trap. If your term ends near the move, you may be able to time it so there is no penalty.

90 days out: order the primary

• Place the order. If construction is needed, this is already tight; see fiber installation timelines.
• Get the construction cost in writing if a lateral is required.
• Confirm where the circuit will terminate: which room, which floor. "The building" is not an address for a demarcation point.
• Decide who runs the cabling from the building's telecom room to your suite, sometimes called extending the demarc, and who pays for it.

60 days out: inside the office

• Cabling. Check that the internal cabling actually reaches the desks, meeting rooms and Wi-Fi access point locations. A circuit in the basement is not internet on the third floor.
• The equipment room or closet. It needs power, ventilation, space for a rack, and ideally its own circuit on a battery backup (UPS).
• Wi-Fi. Plan access point placement for the new floor plan. Glass, concrete and lift shafts behave differently from your old office.
• A backup circuit, if your business needs one, ordered now so it arrives with the primary. See does your business need backup internet?

30–45 days out: phones and the bridge

• Confirm the install date and who will let the technician in.
• Order a bridge circuit if the primary will not be ready. Coax or fixed wireless often turns up in days, and can stay on as your backup afterwards.
• Start porting your phone numbers. Porting typically takes two to four weeks end to end, and does not care about your move date. The details on the request (account number, billing name, address) must match your current carrier's records exactly, or it is rejected and restarts.
• Do not cancel your old phone service before the port completes. Cancelling first can release the numbers.
• Find the forgotten lines: alarm panels, fax lines, lift phones, door entry systems and card terminals that still use a traditional phone line.

Two weeks out: install and test

• Have the circuit installed and tested before anyone relies on it, ideally a week or more early.
• Configure the firewall and network equipment in the new space.
• Plan for new IP addresses. A new circuit, especially from a new carrier, means new static IPs. Update VPNs, DNS records and any bank, vendor or client allow-lists in advance. See static IPs and BGP.
• Update emergency addresses. Federal 911 rules expect business phone systems to send a usable location. Update the registered address for every VoIP line and phone before the move.

Move week

• Test the circuit with real traffic: calls, video meetings, large uploads, card payments.
• Keep the old circuit running until the new one is proven. Overlapping for a few weeks is cheap insurance.
• Do not cancel the old service before the new one has carried a full working day.
• Have a named person on site with the carrier's support number and your circuit ID.
• Check the things people only notice on day one: printers, the door entry system, the alarm panel, card terminals and meeting room screens.

Moving within the same building

Even a move to another floor of the same building is not simply a matter of unplugging and replugging. The carrier's fiber usually terminates in the building's main telecom room and is extended to your current suite; a new suite needs a new extension, which is a work order with the carrier and often the landlord. Order it as early as you would a new install, and ask whether the carrier treats it as a move (keeping your circuit, contract and IP addresses) or as a new service.

Budget items people forget

• Construction or installation charges for the new circuit, if the building is not lit.
• Overlap months of paying for both the old and new services.
• An early termination fee on the old contract, if the term does not end in time.
• Internal cabling to desks, meeting rooms and access points, and extending the demarc to your suite.
• New network equipment if the old firewall or Wi-Fi does not suit the new space.
• A bridge circuit for the weeks before the primary arrives.
• IT time for reconfiguring VPNs, allow-lists and phones around new IP addresses.

None of these are unusual, but each one is easier to handle in the moving budget than as a surprise in the month you arrive.

A worked example

A hypothetical 35-person firm moving across town, used to show the sequence.

The firm shortlists two buildings. Building one has three lit carriers; building two has none, with a 90-day construction estimate. Qualifying both before signing turns an unknown into a negotiating point: it chooses building two for the rent, but asks the landlord to approve carrier access within two weeks of signing and orders fiber the same week. It adds a coax circuit that goes live a month before the move, ports its numbers four weeks out, and runs both offices' circuits in parallel for three weeks. Move day is uneventful, which is the goal.

Questions to ask the landlord and the carrier

• Landlord: which carriers are in the building, and how long do access approvals take?
• Landlord: where is the telecom room, and is there riser space to our floor?
• Carrier: are you lit here, and what is the install interval for this address?
• Carrier: can my existing service move with me, or does it need a new contract?
• Carrier: what can you install quickly as a bridge?
• Phone provider: what do you need from me to start the port, and when?

The single most common mistake is treating internet as a utility that will be there, like water. It is a construction project with a lead time.

Get the new address qualified first

Send us the addresses you are considering, even before you have chosen one. We will check which carriers can serve each building, what the install timeline looks like and whether construction is needed, and price the options across several carriers. The check is free with no obligation, and we usually respond the same day. After that, we coordinate the carrier, the landlord paperwork and the timing. See Dedicated Internet Access and hosted phones, send us the address, or call 478-758-8091 or text (347) 870-0965.