It comes down to one thing: whether there's already fibre installed at your address.
Either way you deal with us. We book the work with the fibre company and keep you posted, so there's nobody else for you to chase.
If you already have fibre: about two weeks
We ask for ten working days' notice, so roughly a fortnight from ordering.
Your place is already connected to the fibre network, so moving to Plio is a change made at the exchange rather than at your house. No digging, no technician, nobody needs to be home, nothing gets drilled. The two weeks is scheduling time, not work time.
The good part is that it's predictable. There's no scoping visit to arrange, no consent to chase and no weather to lose a day to, so a transfer generally lands on the date we give you.
One thing to know: connection dates are weekdays only.
If you've never had fibre: a few weeks, sometimes a few months
We'd rather tell you that plainly now than have you find out in week five.
A brand-new connection is real construction. Someone comes out to scope the job, fibre gets run from the street to your house, and then it gets installed inside. Every one of those steps has to be booked, and some properties need permission from other people before anything can start.
A straightforward house on a straightforward street is usually a few weeks. What stretches it out is almost always consent: a landlord who needs to sign, neighbours on a shared driveway, or a body corporate that meets once a month. Those are the jobs that run to months rather than weeks, and they're largely outside anyone's control, ours included.
If you're on a shared driveway or in an apartment, assume the longer end. And if you can get whoever needs to sign warmed up early, that genuinely is the single biggest thing you can do to speed it up.
Don't cancel anything yet
Given how long a new build can take, keep your current internet running until yours is live and tested. There's more on the timing in When do I have to cancel my old internet provider?
What's happening while you wait
The quiet stretch is the worst part, so here's what's going on behind it.
You order online. A few minutes, and your first month isn't taken.
We check your connection properly and book the work with the fibre company.
If a technician needs to visit, we email you to say so and why, before any date is set. It's never a surprise.
Then we email you a date. If it doesn't suit, you can ask us to change it right from there.
Your router turns up, if you're renting one from us, with a tracking number so you can see where it is.
You're connected. That's when your first payment comes out and your billing starts. Not a day before.
However long the wait turns out to be, you're not paying us through any of it.
What about the router?
If you're renting one from us, it's posted separately and usually arrives 7 to 10 days from when you order, so it's sitting there ready well before your connection date rather than turning up late.
If you're bringing your own, there's nothing to post. Have a look at Can I use my own modem or router with Plio? to check yours will work.
Could it happen sooner?
Sometimes, and occasionally we'll move it forward without you asking.
When we check your connection, we sometimes find the work is simpler than the original date assumed. And every so often we find there's already fibre at an address where nobody thought there was, which turns a build measured in months into a transfer measured in weeks. That's the best email we get to send.
If you'd like us to look, open your order and use Request new date. We can't promise anything, but it costs you nothing to have us try.
If it's been longer than this
Get in touch. Sometimes an order gets stuck somewhere in the chain, and we'd much rather hear from you than have you sit there wondering whether we've forgotten about you. We haven't, but do chase us.