My brother signed up for BB on the 3rd of Feb and has asked me how long it takes before it will be live. The light user scheme that was on the line was cancelled a week before and he has the confirmation email (sent to my email address) and the one giving him his login details he his just waiting for the modem & the letter they say they are going to send out giving the date of the BB going live.
Depends on the ISP but about two weeks normally. If your Bro is stuck without a connection he could always install a dial-up modem tempoarily, just for his emails, etc. Virgin dialup is pretty good, and whilst there he can make himself a new email address which he can use on the BB when it's up and running.
I just read some reviews on the ISP he signed up to (Toucan) and they do not look good at all bad reviews all the way through mainly speeds and low usage before capping the service, i.e 1Gb on an unlimited connection with a fair usage policy. I would have told him to use AOL even though I don't like them, doesn't mean to say he wouldn't like them.