Squirrel is very limit to UK. They not Openreach but believe to be Cityfibre!

I've been with them now for a fair while via MS3 and compared to VM they are night and day better, Don't get me wrong i never had a problem VM speed wise I've lived in 2 very good areas for them with no noticeable congestion but CS and constant price hikes have been a ball ache over the past 20 years, so when MS3 came to the area i did my digging around on the available ISPs, Compared to the likes of city fibre there are no big name ISPs to choose from on MS3 but squirrel shone above all available, ive always had great speeds, CS have been fantastic on the occasion i had to contact them (not really about any problems more just some info ) and at the time automatic static IP big bonus, seems its now CGNAT by default but they let you add one easily enough free of charge so still fine in my books,

id cant vouch for how they perform outside of MS3 but for me they've been faultless i did 11TB last month and they haven't moaned and i get consistent speeds both ways at all times

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/d/0466886c-9a85-...

id say give them a go

[referral link removed]

Ash

Edited by seb (Fri 17-Jan-25 12:53:56)

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Squirrel is very limit to UK. They not Openreach but believe to be Cityfibre!

In reply to a post by ryan125_hst:

The reviews seem fairly good overall. There's a few negatives ones but that seems to be the case with all ISPs. Squirrel resell on a few networks as they are also on CityFibre, MS3 and Gigaclear I believe, but BeFibre are linked to Full Fibre Ltd so are only available through them.

Already been posted above which networks Squirrel probably resell.

The only addition to this is to clarify Squirrel definitely resell Full Fibre Ltd also (it is not just BeFibre).

According to https://bidb.uk Full Fibre Ltd ISPs include BeFibre, Squirrel, IDNet and Octaplus (IIRC).

As with any reseller that sells multiple networks if you have a preference (and you have a choice) make sure you get commissioned on the network you prefer.

As already noted if you show as service available on BeFibre checker I believe they only sell Full Fibre Ltd (so if you sign up with Squirrel, IDNet or Octaplus you are likely to be commissioned on the Full Fibre Ltd network unless you have a massive choice of providers)

ISPreview forums have sub forums for specific networks including Full Fibre Ltd.

If you think you are going to be commissioned on the Full Fibre Ltd network you are better looking at the TrustPilot reviews of BeFibre for an indication of installation/speed etc as the TrustPilot reviews of Squirrel include feedback from their customers commissioned on other networks.

Also do not forget people are more likely to leave a bad review than a good. Regardless of ISP if you have a Full Fibre Ltd connection the same engineers will come and install/fix so if you have blocked ducts delaying an installation or a severed fibre cable it is unlikely one ISP can get it fixed quicker than another.

Edited by think26872 (Fri 17-Jan-25 10:03:33)

In reply to a post by kingbiscit:

I switched to Squirrel in September, moving from 900Mbps EE via Openreach. In my area, Squirrel uses the Freedom Fibre network.

The installation process was quick, and the team did a tidy job. I’m on the 900Mbps package, and my speeds are consistently above 800Mbps, both download and upload. Having symmetrical speeds has been a great bonus.

I did experience one outage, but it turned out to be my wife accidentally knocking the cable while moving furniture. An engineer came out the next day and resolved it without any issues.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend them if they were the same price as EE, but they are considerably cheaper so its no brainer.

That sounds promising. Consistent speeds of over 800 Mbps sounds amazing. It's crazy how speeds have increased in such a short space of time. It was only 10-15 years ago that we were struggling with 2 Mbps down 0.5 Mbps on ADSL!

In reply to a post by think26872:

Let us know how it goes

I will do

In reply to a post by acpsd775:

I've been with them now for a fair while via MS3 and compared to VM they are night and day better, Don't get me wrong i never had a problem VM speed wise I've lived in 2 very good areas for them with no noticeable congestion but CS and constant price hikes have been a ball ache over the past 20 years, so when MS3 came to the area i did my digging around on the available ISPs, Compared to the likes of city fibre there are no big name ISPs to choose from on MS3 but squirrel shone above all available, ive always had great speeds, CS have been fantastic on the occasion i had to contact them (not really about any problems more just some info ) and at the time automatic static IP big bonus, seems its now CGNAT by default but they let you add one easily enough free of charge so still fine in my books,

id cant vouch for how they perform outside of MS3 but for me they've been faultless i did 11TB last month and they haven't moaned and i get consistent speeds both ways at all times

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/d/0466886c-9a85-...

id say give them a go
Ash

They seem fairly consistent across multiple networks which is encouraging, and the positive customer service keeps coming up in reviews too. I'm looking forward to it, it should be installed by the end of the month if all goes to plan. In fact, we were quite impressed as when my Dad placed the order on Wednesday, there were dates available for next Thursday which beat the 4 week lead time on their website. He opted for the following Wednesday as it's his day off so he can be here to oversee and confirm where he wants the ONT etc (it's my parents house so I don't want to be making the decision!), and it won't disturb me working or need me to take a day off.

Am I right in saying the router is posted out once the installation has been completed? How many days does the router typically take to arrive?

In reply to a post by think26872:

Already been posted above which networks Squirrel probably resell.

The only addition to this is to clarify Squirrel definitely resell Full Fibre Ltd also (it is not just BeFibre).

According to https://bidb.uk Full Fibre Ltd ISPs include BeFibre, Squirrel, IDNet and Octaplus (IIRC).

As with any reseller that sells multiple networks if you have a preference (and you have a choice) make sure you get commissioned on the network you prefer.

As already noted if you show as service available on BeFibre checker I believe they only sell Full Fibre Ltd (so if you sign up with Squirrel, IDNet or Octaplus you are likely to be commissioned on the Full Fibre Ltd network unless you have a massive choice of providers)

I think I could have phrased my post better but yeah it's Full Fibre Ltd (branded publicly as Fibre Heroes) that have built the network in Retford, and through which we will be getting Squirrel.

What I meant with BeFibre is I think they are part of the same company as Full Fibre Ltd and therefore only sell on that network, whereas Squirrel sell on others.

I opted for no router to be sent as I already have a opnsense firewall and own APs so can't confirm times but yes they odly send it activation and claim next day delivery my mates did arrive the day after though so I'll say 1-2 days as I can't 100% confirm

In reply to a post by acpsd775:

I opted for no router to be sent as I already have a opnsense firewall and own APs so can't confirm times but yes they odly send it activation and claim next day delivery my mates did arrive the day after though so I'll say 1-2 days as I can't 100% confirm

That sounds fine as with a Wednesday install it will hopefully be up and running by the weekend.

If you have your own router (not isp locked) yiu can be up and running half hour after install they don't force you to use theirs as long as your router supports DHCP wan they'll happily support you