Cuckoo Links Up with Octoplus

Cuckoo Broadband already makes use of Octopus Energy's Kraken Technology Platform. In the past few days, Octoplus is now offering a gift card of up £200 for new Cuckoo Broadband customers (900Mbps service at £51/month for 12 months with a free Eero Router worth £249).

These are classic sector disruptor tactics used in an attempt to gain market dominance. The tactic has worked for Octopus Energy which is now the UK's biggest domestic energy supplier. Will it work for Cuckoo? How will other ISPs respond?

Perhaps this site needs a dedicated forum for Cuckoo Broadband so that potential customers can an overview on the Cuckoo Broadband offer.

Perhaps this site needs a dedicated forum for Cuckoo Broadband so that potential customers can an overview on the Cuckoo Broadband offer.

But these boards don’t appear to be awash with questions re Cuckoo.

In reply to a post by GoWest:

Perhaps this site needs a dedicated forum for Cuckoo Broadband so that potential customers can an overview on the Cuckoo Broadband offer.

Maybe, but I'm with Swish (effectively no choice here) who are supposed to be part of the big Cuckoo happy family along with Giganet, Allpoints, & Jurassic, and I still have to deal Swish. The only differences I've noticed since the merger are a shocking decline in CS quality, IPv6 postponed forever, my internet connection now goes through a Jurassic server, and 2 emails instead of one (Swish & Cuckoo) when they take my monthly DD. Whether the other component companies are more integrated I don't know, but if not then a "Cuckoo" forum may not be much use if the individual companies are still quite different.

In reply to a post by GoWest:

Perhaps this site needs a dedicated forum for Cuckoo Broadband

How much of the UK can get Cuckoo (or former brands) connectivity? I suspect not enough of the UK to create significant questions.

Given they're able to offer Broadband in Openreach areas again (via BTw) quite a lot I would have thought

Edited by Davey_H (Fri 07-Feb-25 13:19:54)

I agree. FWiW, based seven years as an Octopus Energy customer, I have never known Octopus support speculative business endeavours. They must believe that Cuckoo has the potential to become a major market player.

In reply to a post by Davey_H:

Given they're able to offer Broadband in Openreach areas again (via BTw) quite a lot I would have thought

Then they are "just another" ISP that uses Openreach's connectivity. I suspect they have a long way to go to 5million+ customers (e.g. BT or Virgin Media).

In reply to a post by Davey_H:

Given they're able to offer Broadband in Openreach areas again (via BTw) quite a lot I would have thought

Not all areas though. Their checker says not available to me. (That's based on the postcode; it doesn't even bother to ask me which address within the postcode)

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Not all areas though. Their checker says not available to me. (That's based on the postcode; it doesn't even bother to ask me which address within the postcode)

That may not mean too much. The Cuckoo site tells me I can't get Cuckoo either, and I'm a customer. Like I said, not very joined up.

What surprises and bothers me is that Swish don't seem to be promoting their product any more. Their build seems to have stopped, and the build updates page on the website no longer works. In my area they don't advertise in the local press or on village Facebook groups etc. I never get flyers through the door, and I don't believe they're smart enough to leave me out of a maildrop because I'm an existing customer. At a current price of £32/mo for 150/150 they're not even very competitive (I'm on a cheaper contract). I guess the Swish brand is for the chop in the overall scheme of Cuckoo things. I just hope it lasts until OR get around to building here.

Edited by Thaumaturge (Fri 07-Feb-25 20:32:18)

In reply to a post by GoWest:

I agree. FWiW, based seven years as an Octopus Energy customer, I have never known Octopus support speculative business endeavours. They must believe that Cuckoo has the potential to become a major market player.

Probably worth remembering that Cuckoo Fibre Limited is owned by Fern Services Limited, which is owned by Fern Fibre Trading Limited, which is owned by Fern Fibre Limited, which is owned by Fern Infrastructure Limited, which is owned by Fern Trading Limited, which is owned by Octopus Investments Nominees Limited, which is owned by Octopus Investments Limited.which is owned by Octopus Capital Limited, which is owned by Octopus Group Holdings Limited.

I'm sure you can see why Octopus Energy might be promoting them.

A lot of tentacles there .

I appreciate that Octopus is an interested party but the same can be said for most of the businesses that it buys out such as RED heat pumps - now being marketed by Octopus as Cosy. The investors appear to have a very good eye for what has long-term potential.

Getting back to Cuckoo. A monthly price of £43 for a 900Mbps service along with a £249! Eero router and a £200 gift card will make a lot of people take a look.

In reply to a post by GoWest:

... along with a £249! Eero router ...

Hmm, a router which you have to set up from a mobile phone because you can't use it from a web browser? For which you need an Amazon account? They could say it's worth £549, but to me that is a distinct non positive.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

Hmm, a router which you have to set up from a mobile phone because you can't use it from a web browser? For which you need an Amazon account? They could say it's worth £549, but to me that is a distinct non positive.

Eero may also have built in Amazon Echo (alexa) functionality. Even if provided for free, I would leave unplugged. Thankfully modern FTTP networks provide an Ethernet ONT. (except Nexfibre).

I have a Linksys Velop ax4200 from Swish that I do not use for this reason
I would have liked to have set it up for use in an emergency but the hoops you have to jump through just to set it up without creating an account is ridiculous.

It does work out of the box but I have no idea what the defaults are on this device.
Probably not good with it being consumer oriented so set for ease of use e.g. everything open.

Edited by smouty (Tue 11-Feb-25 10:22:02)

Getting back to Cuckoo. A monthly price of £43 for a 900Mbps service along with a £249! Eero router and a £200 gift card will make a lot of people take a look.


Of coarse you could go with the already established genuine Octaplus 900meg for £27 p/m.
https://cityfibre.com/news/octaplus-joins-cityfibres...

In reply to a post by hareng:

Getting back to Cuckoo. A monthly price of £43 for a 900Mbps service along with a £249! Eero router and a £200 gift card will make a lot of people take a look.

No sign of Cuckoo in my town, we have a local Alt Net that charges £29 a month for symmetric 900 Mbps. The Amazon Eero is not worth £249 in my opinion, far too fixed function.

Edited by jchamier (Sun 23-Feb-25 13:21:17)

I wonder what the ASA might think about suggestions that it is a Nationwide service.