Former BT Execs Start New UK Broadband ISP – Rebel Internet
A new UK broadband ISP appears to have launched this month called Rebel Internet, which is run by two former BT executives – CEO Tucker George and COO David Groth – and aims to do things differently from others by pledging “no contracts“, “fair pricing” and a “customers first” approach with “Wi-Fi that actually works“.
Apparently, the press releases for their launch went out yesterday and a couple of other sites picked up on it (here and here), although we’ve yet to receive a copy ourselves. Broadly speaking, Rebel Internet is another Openreach based broadband ISP that sells a mix of FTTC and FTTP powered packages, and it’s doing so alongside a pledge to “revolutionise internet in the UK.”
The main selling points of this new provider, as stated earlier, are the adoption of a “no contracts, fair pricing [and] customers first” style approach, which is good but also nothing particularly original. A fair number of others ISPs make similar promises, and if there’s one thing this market isn’t short on right now, it’s choice. In fact, there’s far too much choice, so much so that it’s become a complex and confusion sector to navigate.
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Just to elaborate a bit. Despite all the PR spin, there’s no such thing as a “no contract” ISP, as this usually just means T&Cs that apply for a standard 30-day (monthly) period. The talk of “Wi-Fi that actually works” also just seems to be a partial reference to the fact that they sell a Plume powered Mesh WiFi solution and use a WiFi 6 capable router, which is good but some other ISPs are also doing the same.
The more attractive selling point appears to be Rebel’s approach to pricing, which pledges that “new and existing customers pay the same” and there will be “no teaser rates or above-inflation price increases” (more on this a little later).
Tucker George, Rebel Internet CEO, said:
“The broadband market is truly broken. It’s controlled by a small number of Big Broadband providers who have trapped customers and stifled any effective competition. I’ve seen the bad behaviour of Big Broadband first-hand and it is shocking. These companies spend hundreds of millions of pounds on confusing marketing, entice customers into long-term contracts laden with hidden fees, deploy above-inflation prices rises, and then deliver woeful customer service. All for the same basic broadband and Wi-Fi that often doesn’t work as promised.
Most troubling are the new price increase tactics they deploy on loyal customers; they’re not well-explained or understood and, as a result, customers suffer. In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, it’s especially disturbing to see the likes of BT and EE unleash a 14.4% price increase on millions of loyal customers, then attempt to justify it as anything other than corporate greed. Above-inflation pricing schemes like these cause significant harm to customers and should be banned.
Until now, customers had no choice but to suffer this mistreatment. That changes today. We mean it when we say a rebellion is coming.”
As above, it’s perhaps a bit misleading to say that customers have “no choice but to suffer this mistreatment“, as there’s plenty of choice in this market already (literally hundreds of providers – see our ISP Listings). But not everybody is fully aware of what alternatives exists to the biggest ISPs and networks in their own location.
However, trying to figure out what Rebel actually sell via their website is a little bit more tedious than usual, since they ask for extra personal details (name, email) before revealing their packages, which they say is needed to “contact you about our products and services” (there’s no box to opt-out of this, but you can just input fake details to check).
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Package prices then start from £35 per month for their 74Mbps FTTC based package without a phone service, which rises to £55 for their top 1000Mbps tier – this includes their Heights Wi-Fi 6 HT-178AX Router. Plus, you can pay an extra £10 (monthly) if you want a phone solution and £5 more for every Mesh WiFi booster you add. But the order process does mention that “prices increase annually by the Consumer Price Index (CPI),” although they fail to clarify by which month this is set. Otherwise, the FTTP pricing appears to be pretty good for a 30-day term on Openreach.
Finally, there were a few issues that we spotted. Firstly, Rebel Internet doesn’t appear to state a complaints’ policy in their terms. All ISPs need to be members of an Ofcom approved ADR complaints handler, which should be clearly referenced.
Secondly, for an ISP that appears to have just launched, they’ve already managed to collect a lot of glowing Trustpilot reviews that go all the way back to 18th March 2022, while their Facebook/Twitter profiles only went live in December 2022 (here and here). We think the reason for this is that they actually existed before, albeit under the Rebel Fibre brand, in 2021. At some point they had a re-brand.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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both ex enterprise — no coincidence that Enterprise and Global merged wonder if they caught up in that and no longer had a role in the new structure
Well, if they got shown the door (as I have been in corporate restructurings) then top marks for dusting themselves down and making a go of running their own business. Going from the corporate world to running your own business is a huge step, and good luck to them.
I don’t care where people worked before, I care what they do now, and as a customer whether they offer me a good deal and competent customer service.
So it’s just an Openreach reseller with Plume WiFi. Not exactly going to shake anything up then are they – reselling the same service that literally dozens of other companies are. How rebellious……
Why is the website so slow? Do they just show spinner animations to make you think that there’s more going on in the background than a simple API call to Openreach?
ex-BT? One to avoid then for me. Don’t see how competitive they can be when they use Brokenreach as there are costs for using them that they control.
£35 a month for 30mb down, 6 mb up is FAIR according to rebel?
RPI is fair; CPI is not.
The CPI rate is lower than RPI, so you’re saying that as a consumer you’d rather they charge you the higher RPI rate?
There is no perfect measure of inflation, but the ONS/National Statistician has said that the RPI is not fair, variously underestimating or usually overestimating inflation by about 1pp cf. CPI(H), and in 2018 saying that “any use of RPI over [the] far superior alternatives should be closely scrutinised”.
The website is broken.
Not a good look.
WIFI that actually works?
When i tried their availability checker their website crashed with an error lol!
Aye right.
The website does not even recognise my postcode, or any other in my neck of the woods. Not a good start.
No thanks I will stay well clear of any isp using Openreach infrastructure they are the biggest provider of fibre in the UK but providers who use them to provide the service tend to be more pricier.
Im not going to move from Hyperoptic even when Openreach do eventually come to build fibre in my area London E1 as Hyperoptic dont do mid price hike duration of your contract.
@Mark Jackson – looks like Trustpilot has rumbled them, all reviews apart from one this month have now been removed. So they have one review and a score of 3.7, so their homepage needs an update.
Like others I can’t see quite what their USP is, like Brillband just a load of fluff about doing something different whilst selling the same old stuff.
All reviews still seem to be there for me, are you looking at the same listing?
@Mark Jackson – they have two listings on Trustpilot
Rebel Internet – rebelfibre.co.uk that has 4.7
Rebel Internet – rebelInternet.uk that has one review and 3.7
So it seems they are trying to use a rebranded one from an old company/website rather than the one for their actual site.
Interesting… Plume super pods as part of the set up – these are really good… top end router… and only a month by month contract… good price…
yeah looks like a re-brand to with a new website… rebel fiber has the 4.7 trusted review rating and just launched rebel internet which has only the one review so far…
Its different to the usual switch every 12/18 months to a new ISP with yet another crappy router… just to keep the contact cheaper!
You have to hand back the pods when you quit.
Who are they reselling? If anyone? I.e Cuckoo with Talktalk
I really wish that there was “too much choice”. Not in my postcode (B43) there isn’t…. if you want ultrafast broadband the only choice is Virgin media, and they know it.
Six houses up the road and BT magically say yes you can have 900Mb. Just how do BT/Openreach decide where to go first? Pin the tail on the donkey with a local map?
I rather go to UnchainedISP FTTC SoGEA 80/20 @ £35 a month than this ISP.
I don’t understand. How is £35/mo for 74 Mb/s cheap or fair?
It’s not fair, I pay £17 a month for 125mb on virgin media
It’s just the usual claptrap ISPs spout in a bid to get some free advertising.
Curious to know who are they reselling from, which provider provides the actual connections? Is it TTB, BTW, Daisy?