Cuckoo a disruptor or another retailer in crowded market?

Cuckoo is a name that is aiming to be much more widely known and will be trying to focus on delivering excellent customer service. They are going forward going to just focus on full-fibre services.

Today sees the launch of retail products on the CityFibre network and the price points are:

• C-150 150 Mbps maximum download speed for £28/m
• C-500 500 Mbps maximum download speed for £32/m
• C-900 900 Mbps maximum download speed for £39/m

There are some errors/quirks that we should highlight, a minor one that many retailers get wrong is the speed units, since Mb is a volumetric measure only once you add time does it become a speed i.e. Mbps (Mega bits per second). Showing the maximum download speed is breaking rules since providers are meant to show the average peak time speed people can expect. There is no mention of upload speeds. There is no mention of any set-up fees. There is no mention of minimum contract term length on the price listing page, the next page reveals they are 18-month contracts. While this sounds picky if you are entering the market under the guise of customer-led service we would expect a lot better. Since there is no indication of price rises, is it safe to assume that pricing is fixed during the 18 month minimum term?

Cuckoo’s sole focus is now on selling the fastest, most reliable full fibre to our customers and providing unmatched customer service.

We’ve got ambitions to increase our network coverage over the coming months and deliver the exceptional customer service which Cuckoo has been built on to even more people.

With our new full fibre-only strategy in place this has meant that some of our existing customers will leave us as they transition to Home Telecom. We want to thank each and every one of our customers making the switch for their loyalty and custom and we want to ensure them that they are going to a good home.

We want to become the UK’s most recommended way to connect and these changes will allow our teams greater focus on delivering the best possible experience to our customers.

We strongly believe broadband should be fast, fair and feel-good.

Cuckoo CEO Paul Hellings

Cuckoo has sold products before and these included VDSL2/FTTC part fibre products and they are announcing today they will not see copper based services, which includes part-fibre services like VDSL2. Those customers have been sold to Home Telecom but oddly this also includes some Openreach FTTP customers. This is odd because Cuckoo is saying they plan to sell Openreach full-fibre packages later in the year.

Home Telecom are extremely proud to welcome Cuckoo customers that currently reside on the TalkTalk networks. We have been serving customers on these networks for over 26 years and we are delighted to be recognised by Trustpilot as ‘Excellent’ with over 10,000 reviews, making us one of the highest in the industry.

Currently servicing over 100,000 customers from a UK-based service team 24/7. Home Telecom are able to offer broadband services across all networks including local fibre providers.

We welcome the Cuckoo customers with open arms and look forward to building strong relationships through exceptional customer service.

Nigel Barnett CEO at Home Telecom (part of Telecom Acquisitions Ltd)

Fern Group also has three different networks, Jurassic Fibre, Swish Fibre and Giganet (who sold on their own network and via CityFibre) and it is expected we will see those added tot the Cuckoo retail network later in 2024. If the product pricing and options are identical when this happens and the full footprint from these full-fibre networks is adopted then we will consolidate them on our maps and checker database.

Check for Cuckoo Fibre broadband offers in your area.