ISP Shell Energy to Launch Cheap UK Full Fibre Broadband Plans UPDATE
Energy provider and UK ISP Shell Energy will later this morning launch their first Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband packages, which will offer speeds of between 100Mbps and up to 900Mbps+ on Openreach’s national network (currently covering around 6 million premises).
As usual, all of Shell’s new packages will come attached to an included wireless router, 18-month minimum contract term (a 12-month option also exists), UK based customer support, free activation and unlimited usage. But at the time of writing, they’re not yet live, and so we don’t have all the details to hand.
However, it’s worth remembering that the monthly price for their broadband, call package and UK landline and mobile charges will increase each year on 1st April from 2022 onwards by the rate of inflation (the Consumer Price Index rate, published in January each year) plus 3%. This is a similar approach to the one that BT, Plusnet and various other ISPs take to price increases.
Shell’s New and Existing Broadband Packages
Fast Broadband (ADSL2+)
11Mbps Avg. Download (1Mbps upload)
Price: £15.99 per month for 18 months (£25.99 thereafter)Superfast Fibre (FTTC)
38Mbps Avg. Download (9Mbps upload)
Price: £21.99 per month for 18 months (£30.99 thereafter)Superfast Fibre Plus (FTTC)
67Mbps Avg. Downloads (19Mbps upload)
Price: £21.99 per month for 18 months (£35.99 thereafter)
Ultrafast Fibre (G.fast)
140Mbps Avg. Download (29Mbps upload)
Price: £41.99 per monthUltrafast Fibre Plus (G.fast)
290Mbps Avg. Download (49Mbps upload)
Price: £46.99 per month
Full Fibre 100
100Mbps Avg. Download (20Mbps upload)
Price: £30.99 per month for 18 months (£37.99 thereafter)Full Fibre 200
200Mbps Avg. Download (30Mbps upload)
Price: £35.99 per month for 18 months (£42.99 thereafter)Full Fibre 300
300Mbps Avg. Download (50Mbps upload)
Price: £39.99 per month for 18 months (£47.99 thereafter)Full Fibre 500
500Mbps Avg. Download (75Mbps upload)
Price: £43.99 per month for 18 months (£52.99 thereafter)Full Fibre 900
900Mbps Avg. Download (115Mbps upload)
Price: £49.99 per month for 18 months (£57.99 thereafter)
We’ll update again later, once we have more details.
UPDATE 12:20pm
The packages are now live on their website, although under a different page (linked above). We’ve updated the details above to add the post-contract pricing. Sadly, they don’t mention upload speeds, so we’re not sure which tiers they’ve chosen for upstream, but on 500Mbps it can only be 75Mbps and on 900Mbps it’ll be 115Mbps.
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 and Linkedin.
« Fujikura Subsidiary AFL Opens First UK Site to Make New Fibre Cable
Latest UK ISP News
- FTTP (5516)
- BT (3514)
- Politics (2538)
- Openreach (2297)
- Business (2262)
- Building Digital UK (2245)
- FTTC (2044)
- Mobile Broadband (1973)
- Statistics (1788)
- 4G (1664)
- Virgin Media (1619)
- Ofcom Regulation (1461)
- Fibre Optic (1395)
- Wireless Internet (1389)
- FTTH (1381)
Soon they’ll be offering free 1g package, thing is their partner openreach is struggling to keep up with demand. I ordered A&A on openreach even paid installation cost 3 months ago, still waiting for a date of installation. A&A gave me their router and everything but openreach is taking their time. On openreach website it says I can get fttp… otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered. Also community fibre, another moron, they are bothering my in-law knocking on their door trying to get them to sign up, while I called them up trying to have it installed in my property, they don’t seem to be in any rush.
“call package and UK landline and mobile charges will increase each year on 1st April from 2022 onwards by the rate of inflation … plus 3%. This is a similar approach to the one that BT, Plusnet and various other ISPs take to price increases.”
But different from Zen for example who don’t put your broadband price up every year. Are there other ISPs with the same Zen like price promise? The way inflation is going people will be seeing near on 10% increases soon.
Soz, edited out “monthly price for their broadband” in the above quote, in case anyone hasn’t read the actual article fully.
Even with annual price increases, the larger ISPs still often work out cheaper than Zen. Also you can haggle with the big ISPs over the phone, good luck trying to haggle the price with Zen (or other small ISPs).
> Are there other ISPs with the same Zen like price promise?
I don’t know other ISPs that promise *never* to increase prices. But there are ISPs that don’t hike the price up after the initial contract period has ended, letting you continue on a monthly rolling basis: Aquiss and Cerberus are two examples.
Price is just one factor, but you also have to consider quality, support, router quality and extra features (e.g. Static IPs etc.). Generally, the less you pay, the less you get back in quality, but experiences do vary.
This highlights the issues facing the Altnet providers. Because of the size of the Openreach/BT Network, big players like Shell can scale up very quickly as the Openreach rollout progresses. The Altnets will struggle to compete on price, and are also apparently struggling with their rollouts, due to supply & manpower issues, on the back of Brexit and Covid.
@Mark Found this on the small print
“The current maximum upload speeds that can be attained are: Full Fibre 100 – 20Mbps, Full Fibre 200 – 30MBps, Full Fibre 300 – 50Mbps, Full Fibre 500 – 75Mbps and Full Fibre 900 – 115Mbps.”
Good spot, thanks.
This sounds good. Hopefully the other larger ISPs like BT and Sky will follow suit. This must be using the new Equinox Openreach pricing?
The irony is that Shell of all people are offering the lowest price for the 900Mbps product thus far!
I can’t speak for Shell Energy’s service as an ISP, but their domestic energy supply service is lacking.
I had the misfortune of my supplier going bust in September, OFGEM moved my supply to Shell… I still have not received my welcome pack or bills, I cannot submit meter readings, my direct debits not being taken, my prior credit balance is no-where to be seen and Shell’s CS are totally uninterested.
I’d switch today if I had the option.
They used to be First Utility, which didn’t have the best reputation/experience either. Shell bought them up to get into the market.
We got switched from Pure Planet and haven’t really heard from them beyond the initial email either. Unfortunately, since we’re not officially with them yet, we can’t sign up for their rewards program… so no 3% off on fuel.
To be honest, though, if I had to deal with 235,000 new customers at once, I think I’d be snowed under as well. The government should be using the existing option to take companies of Pure Planet’s size into special administration rather than forcing other companies to take them on as a supplier of last resort. Of course, that’d cost money, but then it’s partly the government’s fault that companies are going bust due to the inflexible cap.
With these annual price rises I guess it would make sense to sign up to a new provider in April? My BT contract runs out in January so seems daft to take out a new deal that will rise in prise after a couple of months.
I’m also already on shell for my gas and electric. I did actually check last week and there was no sign of Full Fibre. Just logged in and now they are showing the plans there, however when I do an availability check it says they can’t provide broadband to my address. I already have full fibre with BT as it’s a new build house and there isn’t even a standard phone line.
I took out an 18 month contract for Shell broadband commencing the 18th of Feb 2022. Since this has been installed the WiFi signal has cut out at various times during day and night every other day.
I contacted SHELL ENERGYs ‘complaints department’ by phone, on the first day (12 days after connection) 2nd of March, I gave up waiting to speak with an engineer after 45 minutes on hold,
on the 3rd of March I was contacted by one of Shell energy operators and explained that I wished to cancel my contract to which I was informed I would have to pay over £300 to release me from the contract,
on the 4th of March I phoned again and this time waited 1 hour 15 mins on hold to speak with an engineer who then carried out remote checks and could find nothing wrong with the broad band or WiFi.
Tonight Sat 12th March the WiFi had completely stopped, no access to online services, I have attempted to reset, the router and checked all the connections but to no avail, we have no internet connection and no means by which to get the problem sorted in an amicable way.
I believe Shell Energy has not fulfilled their agreement to provide me with reliable broadband and I simply want to cancel this contract,
SHELL ENERGYs support service is next to non existant, its a 21st Century prob compared to what is presently going on in the world right now but none of us can do without it in day to day life.
Is there anything else I can do?
A totally let down and disgusted customer of SHELL ENERGY BROADBAND.