Moving with a HughesNet or Viasat contract: transfer it or switch?

Moving doesn’t end a satellite internet contract. HughesNet relocates your service without an installation charge but starts a new 24-month agreement, and Viasat starts a new 24-month term when a move needs new equipment or a technician visit. Before you book the move, compare that fresh commitment with the fee to leave at your current month.

The answer flips depending on how far into your term you are. Early in the term, a transfer adds only a few months to a commitment you already had. Late in the term, it adds more than a year.

HughesNet’s move program: free relocation, new 24-month agreement

HughesNet’s moving page says: “There is no charge for standard relocation installation.” A technician sets up service at the new home, and the old dish stays at the old address.

The trade is a new 24-month agreement. Under HughesNet’s current terms for customers who signed up on or after July 8, 2025, leaving a 24-month plan early costs $400 during the first 90 days, then $15 less for each month of service ($30 less a month on the 12-month Lite plan). So a move resets that clock to the top.

Three other things to check before you say yes:

• Your plan may not exist at the new address. HughesNet’s subscriber agreement says “certain service plans may only be available in certain geographic areas”, and Fusion is sold only in select parts of the contiguous US.
• The new home needs open southern sky. The HughesNet dish points at one satellite over the equator, so trees or a hill to the south of the new house can rule it out.
• HughesNet Voice comes with complications. The FCC’s porting guide warns that porting may not be possible when you move to a new area, and cancelling HughesNet internet also cancels Voice. Settle the phone number first. Keeping your home phone number

Viasat: when a move restarts the term

Viasat’s customer agreement says that changing your plan or address in a way that needs new equipment or a technician visit starts a new 24-month term, unless your plan states a different term. In practice that covers most moves, since the dish has to be put up again at the new home.

What that costs you depends on your plan:

• Essentials has a 24-month minimum term. Leaving early costs $15 for each month left in the term.
• Unleashed and Unleashed Max have no minimum term, per Viasat’s FAQ, so leaving costs no termination fee. A move is the simplest moment to compare options.

Viasat’s agreement also mentions a $95 antenna relocation, but that covers moving the dish at the same address, not moving house. Ask Viasat what a move to a new address costs, and whether it will need new equipment. Ask too what happens to the old dish: Viasat’s FAQ says the dish, mount and cables need to go back at the end of a contract, while its agreement charges only for the modem, transceiver and power adapter.

Fee math: transfer vs cancel at your current month

HughesNet publishes no month-by-month fee table, so its column shows a range: whether the $15 monthly drop counts from activation or from day 90 changes the figure. Ask HughesNet for your exact fee before deciding. Viasat’s figures are its published formula. The fee calculator works out any month.

Read the table from right to left as well. At month 18 on HughesNet, cancelling costs at most $175 and leaves you free. Transferring costs nothing today but commits you to two more years, and leaving any time in the first 90 days of that new agreement would cost $400 again.

Starlink at the new home: check the sky there first

If you’re weighing Starlink for the new house, check two things before ordering, both for the new address:

1. What Starlink offers there, and at what price. Starlink sets Residential prices by address and shows yours on starlink.com once you enter it, and its 100 and 200 Mbps plans are offered in select areas only. Dated price figures are in what switching to Starlink costs.
2. The sky at the new house. Starlink needs a much wider view of the sky than a HughesNet or Viasat dish, which only needs one patch of southern sky. The Starlink app checks a spot for obstructions, so use it at the new home before or on move-in day. How to check a spot

Two Starlink details matter for movers:

• Timing the kit. On a move, the Starlink bill can start before the boxes are unpacked. Under Starlink’s Terms of Service it begins the day you plug the kit in or a week after it’s delivered, whichever comes sooner (30 days from the ship date if no delivery ever gets logged). So have it delivered to the new house on a day you’ll be there to set it up. The order page gives an estimated ship window, and Starlink’s support pages put US delivery at 3 to 7 days once the box is on its way.
• If you move again later. Starlink lets you change the service address yourself in your account or the app, and Residential is month to month by default. Its help center adds that prices vary by region, that some regional savings end at a new address, that moving into a busy area can bring a one-time demand surcharge, and that service stops at the old address once you change it.

Move-week timeline

Returning old internet equipment has the per-provider details and the photos to take.

Transfer your plan if…

• You’re only a few months into your term. A transfer adds about as many months as you’ve already served, which is little at month 3 and a lot at month 18.
• You’re happy with your service and the price you’ll pay after any promo ends.
• You’re on Viasat Unleashed or Unleashed Max, there’s no term to restart, and Viasat confirms the move charge in writing.

If none of those fit, the fee to leave may be the cheaper path. Check it for your month, and line up the new service before the moving truck arrives. How to order Starlink before you cancel

Work out your fee

Checking method: each price, fee and rule here links to the provider’s or regulator’s own page, dated the day we read it. No internet provider pays for a place on this site; the only income is the Starlink referral explained on our money page. Our fact-checking · How we make money · Corrections