ISP Shell Energy Discounts Broadband Prices for Easter 2019

Thursday, Apr 11th, 2019 (1:23 pm) - Score 1,866

Energy provider and UK ISP Shell Energy (formerly First Utility) has launched a new range of discounts on their standard and superfast broadband packages (including phone line rental) for new subscribers, which reduces the monthly rental for the first 18 months of service by several pounds.

As usual new users will receive unlimited usage, a free wireless router, phone line rental (standard call charges), free connection + delivery, an 18 month minimum contract term and UK based support. On top of that they also pledge not to increase your monthly charge at the end of the minimum contract period.

Customers of Shell’s gas and electricity services may also benefit from additional discounts. Apparently the reduced prices will be available to order until 14th May 2019.

Fast broadband
11Mbps Avg. Download
Price: ~~£19.99~~ £17.99 per month

Superfast Fibre
35Mbps Avg. Download
Price: ~~£29.99~~ £23.99 per month

Superfast Fibre Plus
63Mbps Avg. Downloads
Price: ~~£34.99~~ £27.99 per month

Tags: FTTC

By Mark Jackson
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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Mobile giant Vodafone UK and Sky (Comcast) have reportedly two among several "groups" that have approached budget conscious fixed broadband ISP TalkTalk about a potential deal (most likely an acquisition), which in theory could create a much larger provider with more influence over the industry. Just to recap. In 2020 TalkTalk became the subject of a £1.1bn takeover by Toscafund - controlled by hedge fund tycoon Martin Hughes (here), which including debt valued the broadband provider at around £1.8bn. The deal took the ISP private and gave them more financial flexibility for their future plans. Since then, they've backed Freedom Fibre (here) and this week made the notable acquisition of Ethernet provider Virtual1 (here). According to the FT (paywall) and Sky News, TalkTalk is now said to have asked investment bank Lazard to review its options after allegedly being approach by several groups, including Vodafone and Sky (Sky Broadband). Lazard is a logical choice as they recently acted as Financial Advisor to TalkTalk on the Virtual1 transaction. Some industry analysts have reportedly suggested that TalkTalk itself could now be worth "at least" £3bn. But this seems rather optimistic for an ISP that doesn't have any significant fixed line broadband infrastructure to call its own (excluding their old unbundled LLU network) and largely just piggybacks off Openreach (BT), CityFibre and Freedom Fibre. But TalkTalk do have a strong business and wholesale side. Funnily enough, Sky Broadband are in a similar position with their own fixed line base, while Vodafone also likes to piggyback off Openreach and CityFibre. At present, Vodafone has a fixed broadband base of 991,000 customers, while Sky Broadband is estimated to be home to around 6.7 million and TalkTalk has approximately 4.2 million. Suffice to say, anybody gobbling up TalkTalk would instantly become a much larger provider, giving them a greater say in how the UK broadband market develops and more opportunities for convergence (Vodafone with mobile, and Sky with mobile and TV). Crucially, TalkTalk's consumer base is mostly made up of those on older copper and hybrid fibre lines (i.e. ADSL and FTTC / VDSL2), which are ripe for a future migration to FTTP. At the time of writing, all of the aforementioned operators have decline to comment on the reports, and TalkTalk has yet to receive any serious formal offers. In other words, we strongly suspect that this is largely just an exercise in spin to help TalkTalk drum up some more productive interest in the idea. But at the same time, it's not unreasonable to suspect that they might succeed, as the interest seems genuine. On the other hand, we see reports like this every year or so and only a very few ever convert into a serious offer. Time will tell. Much may depend upon whether or not TalkTalk’s new owners are more flexible and pragmatic about doing a deal than the previous lot. Arguably, TalkTalk might have gone much further by now had they taken some different decisions a few years ago (e.g. co-investing in FTTP instead of Pay TV).

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Cheapest Big ISPs for 100Mbps+:

Community Fibre £21.00

150Mbps (150Mbps up)

Vodafone £23.00

150Mbps (27 - 150Mbps up)

Virgin Media £23.50

132Mbps (20Mbps up)

Plusnet £25.99

145Mbps (30Mbps up)

NOW £26.00

100Mbps (18Mbps up)

Sky £27.00

145Mbps (20Mbps up)

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Comments

8 Responses

Olly says:

April 11, 2019 at 7:25 pm

Anybody know the quality of their network? Are they running owned 21CN host links, resold, TTB tails etc??
1. Olly says:
  
  April 13, 2019 at 2:50 pm
  
  NM, got it. First Utility went bust and was “bought” aka rebadged as Shell Energy.
  
  Their network is still the same, and from what I can tell is TalkTalk retail resold. I can’t find any ASN or IP allocations to indicate First Utility or Shell Energy run/ran their own network at all, so I’m positive it’s the retail TalkTalk offerings resold.
  Source: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/03/energy-supplier-first-utility-opens-uk-home-broadband-service.html
  
  PS, not to be confused in any way with SSE, who actually DO have their own network and even fibre that spans the length of the country.
  Source: https://ssetelecoms.com/app/uploads/2016/05/SSE-Enteprise-Telecoms-Network-Map-Digital.pdf
2. Brian says:
  
  April 24, 2019 at 12:23 pm
  
  First Utility didn’t go bust but were brought by Shell over a year ago. They use the Talk Talk Business network. Never had any issues with the service and I like the fact they don’t have end of contract price rises or up front costs.
Craig says:

April 12, 2019 at 4:51 am

Whose network do they run off?
1. AnotherTim says:
  
  April 12, 2019 at 9:46 am
  
  I don’t know whose network they use, but they don’t offer any broadband at all in my area which is BT only.
2. Sarah says:
  
  April 13, 2019 at 12:57 am
  
  Didn’t they buy SSE?
3. AnotherTim says:
  
  April 13, 2019 at 10:30 am
  
  Well SSE do offer ADSL2+ in my area, so they certainly aren’t exactly the same even if they are connected in some way.
Dave19775 says:

April 15, 2019 at 6:34 am

Thry run off Talk Talk (like the Post Office). Basic router, no portal. I had no issues with First Utility.