Cuckoo transfer to Onestream

Got the email this morning (well yesterday actually, except that GMail spammed it and I didn't find it till today). As reported on TBB here and ISPR on 11 May. Email reproduced below. It seems it's going to be some peculiar mixture of both Cuckoo & Onestream, at least for now.

It's been a bumpy ride since the heady days of Swish Fibre 5 years ago, and it seems it's not over yet. It says broadband services will remain the same, so I will have to see. If recent reviews of Onestream on reputable sites (ie not Trustpilot) are to be believed, then it looks like it will soon end in tears.

If only OR would get a move on and complete their build here.

Transfer of Cuckoo customers to Onestream

Hi XXX,

We are writing to let you know that Onestream Ltd (“Onestream”) will be taking over responsibility for providing internet services to you under the Cuckoo brand.

Whilst you will continue to receive Cuckoo-branded communications and special offers, your contract with Cuckoo Fibre Limited will transfer to Onestream Ltd, as permitted by your contract terms, with effect from end of May 2026. However, you don’t need to do anything, as this transfer will happen automatically and there should be no change to the quality of your service.

Introducing Onestream
Founded in 2016, Onestream is a trusted UK broadband and mobile provider serving customers nationwide using the same high quality fibre broadband network as Cuckoo Fibre. With over 25,000 5-star Trustpilot reviews, average phone response times of under 90 seconds, and a strong focus on straightforward customer service, Onestream has built a reputation for making switching and managing services simple and hassle-free.

What this means for you
Your service contract will remain in the name of Cuckoo. Your broadband services and all support associated with the Cuckoo brand, including your warranty and support in respect of Cuckoo-provided broadband equipment, will all stay the same, but be overseen by, and provided through, Onestream.

Your personal data will continue to be processed strictly in accordance with the Cuckoo Fibre Privacy Policy, up until the moment of transfer, and at all times in accordance with UK data protection law.

If you've got any questions, call our friendly, helpful Customer Care team on 0330 912 9955 or email [email protected]

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for being a customer of Cuckoo. Onestream will be in touch to introduce themselves.

With thanks,

The Cuckoo Team

And as a welcome present from Onestream, the IPv6 stack has stopped working. Went down at 7am this morning when the router failed to renew its v6 address. Has an address back now but nothing works, and it's affecting Android apps so I'm going to have to disable IPv6 at the router again.

It's going well so far.

Ive been unfortunate enough to have had a few ISPs over the years that have been taken over while i have been with them.

Never ends well.

Two for me, Metronet was taken over by Pre-BT Plusnet, I left a week after the news came out. The other one is Zzoomm, which i am on now, they were taken over by Full fibre.
Zoomm for me have been okay, but they are not in my good books at the moment.

Slightly different as both Zzoom and FF have different areas covered and as alt nets own their own infrastructure.

I was with Metronet and also left back then, but this was in the ADSL days!

That is true, but still a different company and things may change.

Doers it make any difference what days it was back in that Metronet was taken over? Apart from maybe dial up as that was easier to change to another provider.
I liked Metronet, I liked the idea of it, not sure how it would work these days, but maybe for people who say like my brother who only use a few gigs a month it may.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

That is true, but still a different company and things may change.

Doers it make any difference what days it was back in that Metronet was taken over? Apart from maybe dial up as that was easier to change to another provider.
I liked Metronet, I liked the idea of it, not sure how it would work these days, but maybe for people who say like my brother who only use a few gigs a month it may.

I liked Metronet too. If you need to ring support, there was a half decent chance you’d speak to someone you already ‘knew’.
The product was good. The customer service was belting.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Doers it make any difference what days it was back in that Metronet was taken over? Apart from maybe dial up as that was easier to change to another provider.

Only that in those days the costs of the network were significantly lower as everyones speeds were lower, and the cost of the connectivity to the local-loop provider was pretty much only the one choice in BTwholesale. Things have changed, speeds have more than quadrupled.

I liked Metronet, I liked the idea of it, not sure how it would work these days, but maybe for people who say like my brother who only use a few gigs a month it may.

I think there are the smaller, more personal and customer service focused companies still around, perhaps Aquiss for one.

I wish I could jump ship too, but right now I have very few options. OR are building - frustratingly there is a shiny new CBT on the pole outside - but there's no indication that there's any light to it, nor when there might be. OR checker status is still building in the next year, as it has been for a year now.

Trooli are here, but I witnessed their build quality 4-5 years ago, all done by subbies, and that was one of the reasons I went with Swish. And at the time Trooli wouldn't let me use my own router, but I think they're more relaxed about that now. I think there are a handful of ISPs now that use the Trooli network? I don't want another splice box and another cable to the house and hole in the wall for what would likely be an interim solution.

The rotten old mixed Cu/Al OR line is still here. Never did more than 30Mb/s FTTC, usually nearer 20 if it was either raining or the sun was shining. Constant battles with DLM continually reducing the sync speed, which I hoped were a thing of the past. But it might have to come to that for a short time.

I was hoping OR would complete their build before Cuckoo blew up, but that hasn't worked out. Cuckoo's fibre service was actually very good and reliable. It's their CS that was/is diabolically awful. I just kept my fingers crossed that I didn't have to use it.

it's funny Jurassic fibre switched to cuckoo. And again after few years now another company takes over. Story never ends. Probably prices will increase later and network becomes more unstable and even worse . Happy times. Cuckoo uses altpointfibre anyway and network quality is really bad constant disconnections speed drops for no reason.

Edited by MotoFanatic (Thu 28-May-26 23:38:37)

Most altnets are loss making business propped up by investors. The market will continue to consolidate, smaller providers will merge with or be taken over by others. This is no different to the various cable services decades back, lots of different providers that eventually coalesced down to a single operator. The ride for altnets is going to be rough going over the next decade whilst they consolidate into a position where eventually they might be able to make a profit.

In reply to a post by ian72:

The ride for altnets is going to be rough going over the next decade whilst they consolidate into a position where eventually they might be able to make a profit.

All very true, no doubt, but small comfort for those of us who have little option but to ride the altnet roller coaster. I'm too old for that sort of thing, I just want a peaceful life now.

Anyone got any suggestions for someone in my situation, outlined a couple of posts back? To complete the picture, 4G is poor where I live (-115 dbM indoors typically) and 5G pretty much non existent. Paying money to Musk for Starlink is against my religion, even if I could afford it.

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

In reply to a post by ian72:

The ride for altnets is going to be rough going over the next decade whilst they consolidate into a position where eventually they might be able to make a profit.

All very true, no doubt, but small comfort for those of us who have little option but to ride the altnet roller coaster. I'm too old for that sort of thing, I just want a peaceful life now.

Anyone got any suggestions for someone in my situation, outlined a couple of posts back? To complete the picture, 4G is poor where I live (-115 dbM indoors typically) and 5G pretty much non existent. Paying money to Musk for Starlink is against my religion, even if I could afford it.

A lot of Openreach only customers would like the cheaper and faster packages that a lot of altnets provide. The downside is what you are seeing - if you have just one altnet you are at their mercy and will be affected by mergers and acquisitions. Upsides and downsides to either delivery (of course the lucky ones might have OpenReach, altnet(s) and Virgin to choose from - but that is a relatively small minority.

yeah hard to find normal broadband provider in the uk.

Edited by MotoFanatic (Fri 29-May-26 17:29:28)

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

All very true, no doubt, but small comfort for those of us who have little option but to ride the altnet roller coaster. I'm too old for that sort of thing, I just want a peaceful life now.

Anyone got any suggestions for someone in my situation, outlined a couple of posts back? To complete the picture, 4G is poor where I live (-115 dbM indoors typically) and 5G pretty much non existent. Paying money to Musk for Starlink is against my religion, even if I could afford it.

I am the same as you, getting older and not wanting hassle, one of the reasons I went for a Mac and not another Windows based tower machine.

But when Plusnet tried to push me to a 24 month contract, pushing me to FTTP, also wanted to increase the price I was paying for a service I really did not want, I thought lets try something else.
Zzoomm put a card though my door £24 a month for 12 months on a 12 month month contract, I thought stick it, lets go for it.

I did have the thoughts as people on here would know about what would happen if zzoom went belly up and a company I don;t know, the CEO had already started up one network and sold it off. In the end I went for it and I am happy with Zzoomm.

Okay, they are not Zzoom now, they are Full fiber/Befibre what ever. Sometimes you just have to go for it, still a chance it could still fall apart.

In reply to a post by MotoFanatic:

yeah hard to find normal broadband provider in the uk.

What is a normal broadband provider?

Morning Adrian,

Hopefully I'm mistaken, but I get the impression that Mr Moto might just be "extracting the urine" out of those of us of an age that desire less hassle(?), in his reply to Ian.

If it weren't for the Alt-Nets, likely BT's copper assets would still be dripping with sweat, however, surely there's a better way to get from where we were, to where the UK needs to be, without a shed-load of wasted CapEx into duplicated, triplicated or even, in some cases, quadruplicated fibre networks (proverbially & literally) sunk in the ground?

I sometimes wonder what that investment capital could have been used for, if it hadn't been used for chasing high flying pies.

/end of rant.

All the best,

In reply to a post by ian72:

A lot of Openreach only customers would like the cheaper and faster packages that a lot of altnets provide. The downside is what you are seeing - if you have just one altnet you are at their mercy and will be affected by mergers and acquisitions. Upsides and downsides to either delivery (of course the lucky ones might have OpenReach, altnet(s) and Virgin to choose from - but that is a relatively small minority.

Fair point. I guess the grass always looks greener elsewhere. There's still a lot of folks without any fibre options at all, so I'm better off than many.

My contract with Swish/Cuckoo/Onestream/APFN/whoever it is today expired just over a week ago. So far my service continues, albeit without V6. My plan at present is to lie low and say nuffin, and hope that they don't notice or are too disorganised to do anything about it until hopefully alternatives are a bit clearer. The worry is that Onestream will wake up and demand I sign a new contract with them or else, because given recent reviews of them on ISPR, there's no way I'm going to do that.

In reply to a post by bit_bucket:

If it weren't for the Alt-Nets, likely BT's copper assets would still be dripping with sweat, however, surely there's a better way to get from where we were, to where the UK needs to be, without a shed-load of wasted CapEx into duplicated, triplicated or even, in some cases, quadruplicated fibre networks (proverbially & literally) sunk in the ground?

Some remember it took "LLU" with companies such as Bulldog providing upto 16 Mbps ADSL2+ whilst BT Group Plc was happy upto 8 Mbps. The gorilla has always needed a poke to move.... once moving can deliver very well.

That dichotomy isn't lost on the investors; all hoping for "first mover" advantage, to get and keep as many customers as possible.

Afternoon JC,

If it isn't "... lost on investors ...", why are most of them acting as if they are "first movers", when, patently, all but one, in a particular geographical area, cannot be so?

Challengers, such as Bulldog, work(ed) well, on a single asset base (transmission network, be it copper or fibre), but the current situation is bound to, at least in my (largely irrelevant) opinion, "end in tears".

All the best,

Edited by bit_bucket (Sat 30-May-26 12:44:55)

well since 2006 i had very slow connection. My internet used some kind of telephone lines in the uk. But even in my own country back in 2004 we had 100mbps down and 20 up and that was in 2004 haha. So in 2006 I was stuck with 0.5mbps down and 0.1mbps up with so called plusnet lol. In 2010 i joined vivacity actually network improved much with 4mbps down and 1mbps upload. And still was horrible then in 2015 i joined BT 60MBPS DOWN and 15MBPS up . It was just okay but not so good also compared to other normal countries. Then in 2019 i joined talktalk with 150mbps down and 20mbps up. Still talktalk used some kind of telephone lines from 90s. Well download was finally okay but still more like 2005 times with really bad upload. . And in 2024 i finaly have 1gbps down and 1gbp up. The only problem you can't play games without disconnections and speeds just drops for no reason. So yeah good times. Not to mention super expensive insane prices in the uk for super horrible service. All they want money from you but can't deliver aynthing.

I'm a guy who cares about internet. You'd be surprised what you can get in other countries where 10GBPS easily accesible almost in any street for just 26 euros per month.

Edited by MotoFanatic (Sat 30-May-26 17:53:23)

Good afternoon,
The interesting thing is the amount of hardware Bulldog had to install in BT exchanges, to then connect into the LLU network.

The altnet situation does remind me of the 30 or so local cable networks that were originally licensed as the Govt of the day hoped it would create real competition to BT's telephone service. The TV was seen as extra, and now we see the network as useful for internet and telephone is just an over-the-top service on an IP network. I think if the value of money hadn't changed with the Ukraine war, maybe we would have seen altnets progressing faster.

You're right, the first mover advantage was a mirage, and whilst homes passed increases, homes installed may not.

In reply to a post by bit_bucket:

Morning Adrian,

Hopefully I'm mistaken, but I get the impression that Mr Moto might just be "extracting the urine" out of those of us of an age that desire less hassle(?), in his reply to Ian.

If it weren't for the Alt-Nets, likely BT's copper assets would still be dripping with sweat, however, surely there's a better way to get from where we were, to where the UK needs to be, without a shed-load of wasted CapEx into duplicated, triplicated or even, in some cases, quadruplicated fibre networks (proverbially & literally) sunk in the ground?

I sometimes wonder what that investment capital could have been used for, if it hadn't been used for chasing high flying pies.

/end of rant.

All the best,

It would have been great if we had Dark fibre in the U.K, run either by a non-profit making company or government owned, but not run, if you know what I mean. That would have solved the problems we have now with loads of networks being shoved into the same places.
Where I live we have two, Openreach and Zzoomm. Nexfibre was going to come this year until they decided not to .
The problem is with networks is that they make a mess, still can see where Zzoomm have put their fibre in around the city on the pavements. Saying that Openreach dug a big hole not so faraway from me and have left it in a worse mess than anything i have seen from Zzoomm.

Hassle i don't want now, just things to work. I spent nearly an hour trying to get my brothers TV to work with Alexa a few days ago due to the internet going off while he was in hospital and everything being disconnected for so long. That was bad workmanship on Zzoomm's part, someone did not connect the fibre to a decent standard in the splice box. Seem to have gone a bit downhill since they have been taken over.

I just want things to work

I don't know what country you come from, but where ever it is, this is not it and things are not going to be the same. I don't disagree wioth you about the state of our broadand. Openreach went the cheap and nasty way years ago with the Fibre to the cabinet instead of going for Fibre to the home. Down to money I suppose and BT being stuck in the past, they still are. I think if we did not have Altnets, Openreach would have dragged their heels for longer. Now, even without Altnets taking their customers, they have have little choice but to go fibre, as the equipment is getting old and expensive to replace and fix, so may as well go for full fibre. The problem now for Openreach/BT is it have allowed others to step in.

I realise there are countries that are doing things better than us, but also some that are not, the U.S broadband is still hit and miss depending on where you live and who supplies you. I chat to people in different states in the U.S. and a fair few of them have broadband that is slower than what I had with FTTC at 36Mb/s. They also pay more than I do for my 500Mb/s. That is the other thing price, look at other countries and see what the prices are, some are less, but a fair few are more.

My contract with Swish/Cuckoo/Onestream/APFN/whoever it is today expired just over a week ago.

Did your contract expire or your minimum term? Most contracts do not expire but have some sort of deal in the minimum term. After the minimum term it usually reverts to a monthly rolling contract. Getting a new minimum term contract might result in better pricing but in most cases it is not necessary.

I would guess the contract would just have been novated to the new owners and continue as is. Unless you want to try and negotiate a cheaper deal there should be no reason for you to need to sign a new minimum term.

In reply to a post by ian72:

Did your contract expire or your minimum term?

Who knows? It's complicated. My records show I signed an 18-month contract with Swish Fibre in Nov 24, so expiring May 26. Then after I was transferred to Cuckoo in May 25, my account page on the Cuckoo website showed my contract ending in Nov 26 - ie, Cuckoo seemed to have reset the contract to start from the date they took me over. I queried this, but true to form Cuckoo CS never managed to resolve it, and after prodding them a few times I gave up trying.

In March this year I had to contact Cuckoo CS about something else, and asked about it. The person I spoke to stated I was on a rolling monthly contract, but this was before I think the contract should have expired. Cuckoo have never informed me about this. The CS contact said I could stay on it for ever, and there wouldn't be price hikes. Since I'm paying a reasonable £25/mo for 150/150, I was content to leave it at that.

Provided my service continues, or until OR light up my nice new CBT, I'll just wait quietly to see what Onestream make of it.

The CS contact said I could stay on it for ever, and there wouldn't be price hikes

Hope that is in the contract in writing... That is an impressive statement - there were some ISPs in the past where that was the case but they tended to create new products at different prices and keep the legacy products on the old pricing - if they are offering this then I agree that it would be difficult to see a reason to move if the service keeps running ok.

Hope that is in the contract in writing... That is an impressive statement

Not in the contract, but in an email from Cuckoo - relevant extract below. It's only semi-literate, as usual with Cuckoo CS, and almost certainly not legally watertight, but it might be something to wave at them later. In fhe telecon no price hikes is what he said. Not that I'm ever likely to be clinging deperately to Onestream..

As you have requested on our telephone conversation today, I am sending you this email as a confirmation, that you can stay on your current rolling Contract, and you would not be covered with annual price increase, or you can renew the Contract on 24 month period...

Hopefully there would be no price hikes, but I would note that "not be covered by annual price increase" is not actually saying 'no price increases'.

And now Brillband have joined the party, it seems. Or might do one day - I put my postcode into their checker, and got not available. Can't find much about them from reliable sources. Anybody have any experience of them?

900M for £25/mo and no price hikes for 2 years seems too good to be true...

At long last the email has come - I can now order OR FTTP. It's the only email I've ever had from the OR notification service, but it's the one I've been waiting for for over 6 years now.

So this is me signing off from this thread. I'm in my 80s and I've had more than my fill of the altnet wild west. Now I just want a peaceful life and a reliable service. I'm out of contract and I'll be switching to an OR based ISP and service just as soon as I can sort something out and they can install it. My needs are modest, I don't care that I'll be swapping 150/150 XGS-PON for a less capable asymmetric GPON service that will probably cost more. If the new provider's CS will actually talk sense and will fix problems efficiently should anything go wrong, it will be worth it.

Good news!

Good luck, and make sure you pick the right provider with a good CS reputation.

If you can get cuckoo i'm sure you can get brillband they use same altpointsfibre, It's available for me and price much better than cuckoo. £43 sounds too expensive for 900mbps. Just keep in mind you can't get normal ip with them They use CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT) only shared ip. You'll be stuck with shared ip forever. Not even dynamic or static.

Edited by MotoFanatic (Wed 10-Jun-26 22:58:49)

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

I don't care that I'll be swapping 150/150 XGS-PON for a less capable asymmetric GPON service that will probably cost more. If the new provider's CS will actually talk sense and will fix problems efficiently should anything go wrong, it will be worth it.

Check out Aquiss. IMO the sweet spot is £45 for 300/50 (you only save £3 by halving speed to 150/30). Great customer service, dedicated static IP4 and an IPv6 /56 subnet, very reliable network.

It's a 12 month initial contract and no automatic price rises within contract or at end of contract - just roll on month by month. Currently they are offering first 6 months for half price. They have been known to drop it to 3 months or remove the offer completely; if they do, I'd expect them to reinstate it for Black Friday.

Caveats:

* You have to provide your own router
* There is a £45 cease charge if you disconnect (without migrating to another provider) or move house - regardless of whether they can serve you at the new property or not.

A newer but apparently well regarded option is Olilo. They have two types of service, "Consumer" and "Prosumer" running on two different networks, which is rather confusing. "Consumer" is significantly cheaper than Aquiss, although there are £1/year price rises, and it's £2 extra for static IP. "Prosumer" gives you 900/100 speed for about the same price as 300/50 on Aquiss - but you said you don't care about the speed anyway.

Again, you provide your own router. There's no initial 6 month discount, but there's also no cease charge (unless you take the 1-month contract option and terminate within the first 12 months).

@candlerb
Thanks for the advice, it's appreciated. Olilo are currently top of my list; I've been talking to them. Haven't looked at Aquiss yet, but I will. Reliability is my top priority, certainly, but I do care a bit about speed - I do move some chunky files around fairly regularly. But I don't stream very much, and only HD when I do, there's only 2 of us in the house and we're not gamers, so almost any available full fibre speed will do at a push. I have CGNAT at present and don't need a static IPv4 (though running a BQM would be nice). Unless I have problems getting my ATA box to work through a different CGNAT. But might be the push I need finally to ditch the old landline number we've had for nearly 40 years. I would like to, but as I've remarked elsewhere, the problem is persuading friends of a similar age to ourselves to stop using it.

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

But might be the push I need finally to ditch the old landline number we've had for nearly 40 years. I would like to, but as I've remarked elsewhere, the problem is persuading friends of a similar age to ourselves to stop using it.

No matter which way you go, no need to ditch the old number. Just transfer it to a VoIP provider then put one of the apps like acrobits on your mobile and receive the calls dialled to your old landline number on your mobile. Caveat is that if you have a bundled landline and internet service from your provider, transferring the landline will cease the whole contract and may hit you with early termination charges.

In reply to a post by Thaumaturge:

I have CGNAT at present and don't need a static IPv4 (though running a BQM would be nice).

You can run BQM on ipv6, if you can find the IP address of your router. I run both. They tend to differ in minor detail, but the bigger picture is always very much the same.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

You can run BQM on ipv6, if you can find the IP address of your router. I run both. They tend to differ in minor detail, but the bigger picture is always very much the same.

That's interesting. I do already run a v6 BQM (when APFN can get their act together and come up with a working v6 stack), but I've not been able to run a v4 BQM for some time. I've wondered how they would compare.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

No matter which way you go, no need to ditch the old number. Just transfer it to a VoIP provider...

Thanks again for the tip, but that's long since sorted. The "landline" number is actually VoIP to an independent provider (Voipfone), so not tied to my broadband supplier. I did that by ceasing the old FTTC line by migrating the number to Voipfone after Swish Fibre FTTP was installed 5 years ago. The only potential issue is that some folks apparently have trouble getting VoIP to work through CGNAT; it seems to depend on the CGNAT implementation. Voipfone works fine for me at present through CGNAT. If I have issues after I switch, any new supplier I go to will at least have the option of static V4 addresses, which should sort that.