Rebel without a clause: ISP promises broadband with no contract
- Reference: 1678721466
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/13/rebel_internet_contract/
- Source link:
Rebel Internet officially launched today and, like the vast majority of ISPs, is selling a fiber broadband service via the Openreach network, which means it is available nationally to over 29 million households. So what is different about it?
The company told us that its service starts at £35 per month (that's about $42 or €40 for non-UK readers), which is not the cheapest broadband available, but Rebel said that there were no installation fees and no contract for the customer to sign.
[1]
If a customer lives in a fiber-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) area, that £35 per month gets them the "Rebel Fibre" product, offering promised speeds up to 80Mbps. However, if they live in an area where Openreach has built out fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), the starting offering is "Rebel 115" which, it told us, has speeds up to 115Mbps for the same price.
[2]
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Rebel also said that if a customer buys the Rebel Fibre product, but their area is then upgraded to support FTTP, it will upgrade them to the Rebel 115 service for no charge.
The company makes much of claims that other broadband providers trap customers into long-term contracts "laden with onerous terms and hidden price rises." In contrast, Rebel said it offers transparent pricing with no contracts and will never make above-inflation price rises.
[4]
"We believe in our product and deliver a superior customer experience, so we don't need to trap customers into onerous contracts to force loyalty," Rebel chief executive Tucker George said in a statement.
Rebel also claims that it offers a better Wi-Fi experience than other broadband providers to ensure coverage around a customer's home. This involves the use of "SuperPods" with Tri-band frequency support that plug straight into a wall socket, similar to the Wi-Fi extender devices that can be bought off the shelf.
[5]BT keeps the faith in 'like fury' fiber broadband buildout as revenues dip
[6]Openreach offers more wholesale fiber discounts, rivals call foul
[7]Consolidation looms for UK broadband providers
[8]CityFibre loses appeal against Openreach discounts for ISPs
But the company claims that its SuperPods continuously monitor network performance and dynamically distribute traffic onto non-interfering Wi-Fi channels. Customers can also set different access profiles for different family members, including parental control settings, Rebel said.
Many customers have a problem with their internet because of their Wi-Fi network rather than their broadband service being too slow, said the company. It is typically a weak Wi-Fi network that prevents customers from using Spotify in the kitchen, for example.
This is what other broadband companies don't want customers to know, Rebel said, claiming that they instead prefer to upsell customers into a faster and more costly broadband connection.
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Rebel said it is also making this technology available to customers who are stuck on a contract with another broadband provider as a "Wi-Fi as a service" offering for a £15 per month subscription fee.
All of this sounds encouraging, and media & telco analyst Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight told us that while there are numerous providers offering fiber packages for under £30 per month, these all require a customer to sign up to a contract, so Rebel Internet appears to be unique in that respect.
However, he also said that Rebel is entering an already crowded marketplace, where there are too many players chasing too few subscriber pounds.
"Is this really what the UK market needs right now, another player in an already hugely fragmented landscape? While competition might seem healthy from a retail perspective, can a market support so many players?" he asked. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZA9Wv86dACbAZ7ffUfsqugAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZA9Wv86dACbAZ7ffUfsqugAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZA9Wv86dACbAZ7ffUfsqugAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZA9Wv86dACbAZ7ffUfsqugAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/02/bt_sees_revenue_drop_3/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/19/openreach_offers_more_fiber_discounts/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/27/uk_broadband_consolidation/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/22/cityfibre_openreach_appeal/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZA9Wv86dACbAZ7ffUfsqugAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: !no contract
Their T&Cs refer to [1]https://rebelinternet.uk/knowledge which says: Page not found.
[1] https://rebelinternet.uk/knowledge
Translation
We won't need price increases because we set it high enough to start with?
Well - I'm not impressed
I visited their web site https://rebelinternet.uk/ but it is almost devoid of useful information. It goes on about an app that I need to download** to do things and how good their WiFi is and lots of good reviews on trustpilot (I wonder how they get those on a completely new service ?).
So I 'phoned their "Customer Success Team" and spoke to some bloke who wanted my contact information while his PC was loading, I gave up after 2 minutes when he still could not get connected.
I asked him if they supported IPv6, if they gave static IP addresses and how many GB/month the $35 gave.
He knew none of the answers to any of that but kept on wanting to know who I was.
It might improve.
** Why an app on my 'phone ? What is wrong with a normal web site ? It this something built by clueless millenials ?
Plume SuperPods
I had a quick google and it appears they are using plume superpods, a brand and device that I've never come across, the reviews seems ok, but they require a subscription to manage (I guess that's the £15 fee)
Had this for years in the states, Ting Fiber. Pay month to month, gigabit fiber, no contract, you could even bring your own fiber modem. Company is owned by Tucows (if you remember them from the early days of the internet, yes they're still around!) which gives them the buffer, and also does no contract mobile phone service. Frankly, the only reason for contracts is to try to trap people in to a bad product, so when you have a good product at a good price and your only competition offer a worse product at a much higher price (Xfinity and Centurylink) you don't really need them.
"Frankly, the only reason for contracts is to try to trap people in to a bad product,"
The T&Cs linked to above only say there's no long contract without defining "long". The T&Cs and the custoner's acceptance of them are the contract. Acceptance would appear to be implicit in using the service and paying for it.
In return for no contract
you get no service.
!no contract
Of course there is a contract - what there may not be is a commitment to a minimum length of contract, with the minimum being what you pay in advance for, which is usually a month. In this case the cancellation notice required is 30 days (section 18).
https://www.rebelinternet.uk/hubfs/TermsandConditions.pdf