Most businesses plan an office move around the lease date, the furniture delivery and the moving truck. The internet connection and the phone system usually show up somewhere near the bottom of the list, right after ordering new signage. That order of operations is backward, according to Doug Roberts, chief technology officer of Cytranet, the Las Vegas-based business telecommunications carrier.
“The moving truck can be booked in a week. A new circuit to a building that has never had service can take much longer than that,” Roberts said. “When people call us two weeks before move-in, we can almost always help, but the options get narrower the later that call comes.”
Why connectivity has the longest lead time in the move
Every other piece of a relocation is mostly logistics. Desks arrive, boxes get unpacked, keys change hands. Connectivity is different because it depends on what already exists at the new address and what has to be built. A building that already has fiber in the telecom room may need only a short extension to your suite. A building without it may need construction, permits, and coordination with the property owner before anything can be turned up.
That variability is why Roberts encourages businesses to bring their provider into the conversation before they sign a lease, not after. A quick site review can reveal whether fiber internet is already on site, whether fixed wireless is a practical option from a nearby tower, and how long each path is likely to take.
“Asking what connectivity a building has is as important as asking about parking,” Roberts said. “It is one of the few things about a space you cannot fix with a work order after you move in.”
A realistic timeline for the move
Every project is different, but a comfortable plan tends to follow a rhythm like this:
- Before signing the lease: confirm what service is available at the address and what it would take to bring it in.
- As soon as the lease is signed: place the order for the primary internet circuit and any backup connection, and schedule a walkthrough of the new space.
- Several weeks out: plan the cabling, the equipment room, wireless access point placement and where phones, printers and conference rooms will sit.
- Two to three weeks out: schedule number porting for phone lines and confirm the cutover date.
- The week before: test the circuit, the network and the phones in the new space while the old office is still running.
The key idea is overlap. If the new office is live and tested before the old one shuts down, the move becomes a matter of carrying equipment and people across town rather than hoping everything lights up on Monday morning.
Cabling and the physical layer
A new space almost always needs some cabling work, even if the previous tenant left wiring behind. Old cable may be the wrong category, terminated poorly, or routed to places that no longer make sense for your floor plan. Roberts recommends treating structured cabling as part of the build-out rather than an afterthought, ideally before walls are closed and ceilings are finished.
“Pulling cable in an open ceiling is simple. Pulling it after the drop ceiling is in and the furniture is set is slower, messier and more disruptive,” he said. “We would much rather be in there alongside the other trades than follow them.”
Keeping your phone numbers
For many businesses, the phone number is the business. Customers have it saved, it is printed on trucks and business cards, and it is listed in every online directory. The good news is that moving to a cloud phone system makes relocation far less painful than it used to be. With business cloud voice, phones are tied to the service rather than to a copper line in a specific building, so they can be unplugged in one office and plugged in at another.
If a business is changing providers during the move, number porting adds a step that carries its own lead time and paperwork. Starting early avoids the awkward situation of a new office that has great internet but callers still ringing the old building. Cloud voice also allows forwarding rules to be set so calls reach mobile devices during the transition day itself.
Plan for a backup connection
A move is a good moment to add redundancy. Many businesses pair a primary fiber circuit with fixed wireless or another diverse path so that a cut line or equipment failure does not take the entire office offline. Some also use a secondary connection as a bridge: if the primary circuit at the new building is delayed, a faster-to-install service can carry the office until construction finishes.
“A second connection is cheap insurance on any day, but during a move it can be the difference between opening on time and asking everyone to work from home for a month,” Roberts said.
What to hand your provider
Businesses make the process smoother when they share a few details up front: the new address and suite number, the building manager’s contact, the target move-in date, a rough floor plan, the number of users and phones, and any special requirements such as security cameras, conference room systems or guest Wi-Fi. That information lets the provider flag problems early, rather than discovering them during installation.
For a broader checklist of the technology side of a relocation, the Cytranet blog also covers IT considerations for an office move.
Day one should feel boring
Roberts has a simple standard for a successful move. When employees arrive at the new office, they should sit down, log in and get to work without noticing that anything technical happened at all.
“The best compliment we get after a move is that nobody noticed,” he said. “Boring is exactly what you want on day one. The planning is what makes it boring.”
Cytranet has helped businesses across the Southwest plan and execute relocations for more than a decade, with 24/7 support available when the unexpected happens. Businesses planning a move can reach out to the Cytranet team to start the conversation early.
