Air Broadband Users Hit with Disconnection Letters by CityFibre and OFNL UPDATE16
Customers of UK ISP Air Broadband (ZYBRE) have faced a difficult week after those connected via OFNL and CityFibre’s alternative full fibre (FTTP) broadband networks received worrying letters from the two aforementioned suppliers, which warned them of service termination.
In case anybody has forgotten, ZYBRE acquired Air Broadband last November (here) – giving them a customer base of 10,000. At the time, AirBB’s most recent accounts on Companies House (dated to the end of 2021) noted that the ISP had 14 employees, although their net liabilities had also jumped sharply from £11,240 in 2020 to £165,948 in 2021 (these are negative numbers).
Air Broadband is one of several ISPs in the market, like ZYBRE, that has otherwise made a name for itself by selling services (Layer 2) over lots of different alternative full fibre (FTTP) networks (AltNets), such as CityFibre, FullFibre Ltd, OFNL and many more.
However, customers on the OFNL side of Air Broadband’s (ZYBRE) service received somewhat of an unpleasant shock at the end of February 2023, which occurred after the network operator issued a letter that said: “regrettably, as of the 17th February 2023, your [ISP] Air Broadband, is no longer able to provide ISP services across the OFNL Network.”
Customers were then told to select a different OFNL based provider because the “Air Broadband service you are currently utilising will terminate on 9th March 2023“, while those that fail to do this in time were warned that they “will be disconnected“. One of those affected was kind enough to supply ISPreview with a copy of the letter, which we’ve pasted below (personal details redacted).
Naturally, we queried this with OFNL’s support department, which said: “Unfortunately due to the fact the Air Broadband has undergone some issues [customers] will need to change providers. What [customers] will need to do is process a migration to remove Air broadband … but it will take 14 working days. After this, you will need to sign up to a different provider on the OFNL network.”
We asked whether the 14-day window would mean that those taking action this week could face downtime, even when swapping to another OFNL provider, and were told: “Unfortunately yes, it means that you will no longer have broadband after the 9th of March,” until the process completes. We have requested an official comment from OFNL on this, but they have yet to supply one.
CityFibre’s Letter
The situation then took another turn after network operator CityFibre issued a similar letter to customers of “Zybre/Air Broadband” toward the end of this week, which said that “due to circumstances outside of our control, your Zybre/Air Broadband service is likely to cease shortly.”
The network operator has also set up an FAQ page on the matter, which said: “It has come to our attention that Zybre/Air Broadband is in breach of its contractual obligations to CityFibre and a number of other suppliers. Customers have also raised major concerns regarding the quality of service they received from the company. Zybre/Air Broadband’s issues mean that your broadband service is likely to cease to work at any time and any Zybre/Air Broadband installation will not go ahead on the CityFibre network.”
The development with CityFibre only cropped up today and as a result they haven’t yet had a chance to furnish us with an official comment, but we do expect one to follow shortly. Meanwhile, the CEO and Founder of ZYBRE, Jonny Robinson, informed us that “without prejudice” their Air Broadband customers “all are moving to zybre and air will likely go into administration.”
In short, the issue largely seems to stem from the AirBB side, although some alternative networks appear to be treating AirBB and ZYBRE as being in the same situation. We understand that ZYBRE has issued some communications to customers on this, but at the time of writing we’ve yet to see one of those ourselves.
Meanwhile, some details of how the AirBB to ZYBRE migration is being handled remain unclear. For example, at the time of writing, ZYBRE is not listed as an ISP on OFNL’s network (here) and OFNL’s support team informed us on 7th March 2023 that “ZYBRE are not on the network yet, so [you] wouldn’t be able to join them today.” One issue here is that OFNL typically supplies sites for new build homes, where the alternatives can vary and may be very limited (i.e. what network will ZYBRE put them on and is it still FTTP?). AirBB customers on the CityFibre side may also face a similar issue in some specific locations.
As you might expect, there are quite a few customer complaints floating around on social media (as well as via our inbox) about all this, with some struggling to reach AirBB/ZYBRE’s customer support team. Ofcom are understood to be aware of the problems, and we expect to get a comment from them sometime today. Clearly this is an extremely worrying time for those receiving such letters, and it is a developing situation. We will endeavour to update as more details surface.
UPDATE 12:08pm
One of Air Broadband’s customers on CityFibre’s network has now been kind enough to share a copy of the email they received yesterday afternoon (9th March) from ZYBRE. But suffice to say that it has caused some confusion, given the latest communication from CityFibre (above), which seems to have gone out at around the same time.
Copy of ZYBRE’s Email to Air Broadband Customers
Dear XXXXXXXXXXXXX,
I am delighted to inform you that Air Broadband has been acquired by The ZYBRE group https://www.zybre.co.uk/, a next generation provider of residential full fibre internet and entertainment services.
In these uncertain times, the acquisition by The ZYBRE group is an exciting development for Air Broadband’s customers. As well as amazing Gigafast broadband and great service, ZYBRE offers a complete broadband service proposition.
These are difficult decisions to make with any company, and Air Broadband’s team have strived to provide customers with broadband service but cannot continue to do so.
This change is supported by our partner networks, CityFibre, Full Fibre, Prime, VX, OFNL and others and you can contact them also if you which to do so.
What happens now:
We are working hard behind the scenes to ensure that ‘business as usual’ continues for your broadband service. Your contract with Air Broadband, and Direct Debit Mandate, have been securely moved to ZYBRE, so you don’t need to do anything. All the support you need will now be managed by the ZYBRE customer team and really you shouldn’t notice a thing except the name on your monthly service bill.
Should you receive any issues connecting on the day we transition your service over, a quick off/on of your router should help.
Over the coming weeks, we will be streamlining our systems and processes to enable the best possible experience for all our customers. In the meantime, you can continue to contact us as follows:
help@airbroadband.co.uk – has been redirected to ZYBRE’s service team
The help line number 01223653400 has been redirected to ZYBREs Service team
I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome you personally. I can assure you that you will be very well looked after and be able to enjoy the incredible benefits of being a member of the rapidly growing The ZYBRE community.
Best wishes
Jonny Robinson
CEO, The ZYBRE Group
UPDATE 12:19pm
We’ve now had a comment from CityFibre.
A Spokesperson at CityFibre told ISPreview.co.uk:
“Due to circumstances outside our control, Zybre/Air Broadband is likely to soon be unable to provide its customers with a broadband service. While we will continue to provide Zybre/Air Broadband with connectivity, we would recommend customers choose a new internet service provider as soon as possible. Switching is quick and easy and customers can find out what providers are available to them by using our postcode checker at CityFibre.com.”
UPDATE 2:41pm
We’ve finally got a comment back from OFNL and there’s a bit of good news with respect to the migration process. But concerns are now growing for the other networks that ZYBRE/AirBB are known to work with.
Statement from OFNL to ISPreview.co.uk
“These matters are beyond OFNL’s control and that we are working hard to minimise any inconvenience for Air Broadband customers. OFNL will be maintaining services next week while customers work with their new Providers to migrate.
The 14 days migration period is waived for all Air Broadband customers moving away and we will work with the customers new Provider to migrate as soon as possible. We will take into account the timescales required for the delivery of a new router and to ensure any interruption to the customers service is minimised.”
UPDATE 4:49pm
The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has now issued a statement on the situation.
An Ofcom spokesperson said:
“We are aware of this issue and in the process of speaking to the network companies involved. We understand they are attempting to contact all customers impacted and trying to avoid people being disconnected.
Our regulations state that all communications providers must have policies and procedures in place to make sure vulnerable customers are treated fairly. Providers should understand the needs of these customers and make sure they get the support they need.”
UPDATE 13th March 2023 @ 10:34am
Some of AirBB/Zybre’s customers claim to have received a message from the ISP over the weekend (we’ve yet to see a copy of this), which indicated that CityFibre may be issuing a statement reversing their stance on Zybre sometime this week. Zybre has similarly informed ISPreview.co.uk that they hope to have a resolution with CityFibre early this week too, but for now there appears to be no change and we’ve asked for a clarification from CityFibre.
However, until Zybre issues a detailed statement to clear up the confusion and clarify how they’re handling migrations across different networks, then a lot of details about their plan and approach to migrations remain unclear.
Customers continue to struggle to reach the ISP via their support lines and we suspect that Zybre’s Ofcom approved ADR complaints handler – Ombudsman Services: Communications – might have a busy time with all this.
UPDATE 13th March 2023 @ 2:56pm
We’ve yet to hear an official line from CityFibre on the aforementioned communications, but a source within the operator has indicated that they do not currently expect to change their existing stance.
UPDATE 16th March 2023 @ 7:24am
Zybre appears to have finally issued an official public statement and apology via Facebook, although it doesn’t answer all of the questions people may have.
Zybre’s Statement
CUSTOMER NOTICE
We would firstly like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience caused by recent events. We understand the concern and frustration that has been felt by some.
Customers have experienced outages across our networks in the last few days and an intermittent service across the last month. In most cases we have now rectified this and we continue to work on all outstanding matters.
We are in open dialogue with CityFibre with a view to securing the best solution for customers moving forward.
We accept that we have not met the expectations of some of our customers and we are striving to make the necessary changes to resolve these issues.
It is apparent that our failings derive from the acquisition of Air Broadband and the novation of customers from Digital Home. We believed firmly that we were doing the right thing in acquiring the customers from 2 failing companies with a view to ensuring customers would continue to receive service under our brand. However the burden of these 2 ISPs has drastically affected our wider operation.
Please bear with us as we resolve these matters and restore our platform.
Contact at this time is best served via our email support@zybre.co.uk
In addition, CityFibre has also updated their FAQ page on the Zyber/AirBB situation. The page now starts with the following statement, which was published yesterday and does at least confirm that they’re still talking to Zyber.
CityFibre’s Updated FAQ Page Statement
We understand the concern the likely ceasing of Zybre/Air Broadband’s service will cause you and we are doing as much as we can to support Zybre/Air Broadband customers during this period.
We understand Zybre has lost service for some of their customers. We’d like to assure all Zybre customers on CityFibre’s network that CityFibre’s network remains fully operational and available to you.
If you would like to take an alternative service from another ISP, It’s very easy to switch on the CityFibre network, just check using our post code checker below.
In the meantime, we’re contacting Zybre to try and support getting your services restored however please be aware this is not in our direct control.
(updated 15/03/2023)
UPDATE 16th March 2023 @ 5:29pm
One of Zybre/AirBB’s other alternative networks, LilaConnect (VX FIBER), has now put out a statement about their relationship with the ISP.
LilaConnect Statement
“LilaConnect has kept all Air Broadband customers connected. They will have access to 30 days of LilaConnect service free until the 13th April. This will allow them time to choose a new provider. Unfortunately, due to the transition, customers did go offline for a couple of hours yesterday. LilaConnect apologies for any inconvenience caused and worked hard to ensure the issue was solved as quickly as possible.”
UPDATE 18th March 2023 @ 6:57am
We’ve had a communication from Richard Palmer, Director of ISP Merula Limited, which is another provider that uses OFNL’s network. Apparently, OFNL have moved all existing AirBB customers to the Merula network, although they are not at present customers of the ISP.
In other words, Merula are just providing continuity of service at the network level and don’t have access to any customer details. Customers can of course choose to officially move to Merula or can place a migration as normal to any other OFNL supplier.
Richard Palmer said:
“This means that if customers have an issue with the connection – short term they should be making contact via us.
They will have to bear with us a little as while the traffic is swapped to us – and we have ‘adopted’ the vast majority of Air’s routers (aka we are accepting their auth on our network / issuing a Merula IP to them) – we don’t yet have the connections live on our OFNL account – so we can’t run all tests – we are expecting that on Monday.
That said – we will do all we can to help if they have a connection issue. We can raise any questions to OFN to check any lines down or who have an issue.
However, if anybody does need to contact Merula then, due to the lack of portal access, they ask that any questions be sent via email to ofnl@merula.net.
UPDATE 23rd March 2023 @ 5:06pm
Over the past few days, we’ve seen further confusion coming from both the CityFibre and Zybre/AirBB sides. On the one hand, Zybre appears to have been telling some customers that the “issues with CityFibre and Air Broadband have now been resolved” and that CityFibre may “remove the FAQ page and post an update on the mater shortly“, before telling customers not to switch ISP and warning that if they do then termination charges may apply (if you’ve moved, and they do pursue such charges then we’d recommend complaining to the provider’s complaints handler – https://www.ombudsman-services.org/sectors/communications).
On the other hand, CityFibre’s support team have been telling some customers that they “will not be providing Zybre with our services moving forward“, although they’ve since softened the language of their FAQ page a bit (it’s now vaguer). But they have not removed that page, and it continues to warn: “It is possible that your Zybre/Air Broadband service may cease to work shortly“.
Officially, CityFibre has declined to issue an updated statement to us in order to help resolve the mixed messaging being received by Zybre/AirBB customers. But we understand that, legally, the network operator may not be able to directly instruct Zybre/AirBB customers to change ISP (this may explain why there has been a degree of vague language in the most recent comms and FAQs).
However, we understand from our sources within CityFibre and other ISPs on the same network, that the dispute with Zybre/AirBB has not been fully resolved. In the meantime, CityFibre is continuing to keep customers online (such efforts tend to carry a cost). Zybre is still understood to be actively working on a solution too, but in the meantime CityFibre seems to be doing all it can to avoid a mass outage.
UPDATE 29th March @ 1:52pm
We’ve just had the following statement from Zybre regarding the possible sale of broadband customers to Home Telecom (TalkTalk), which I’ll paste in full.
ZYBRE Statement
ZYBRE are pleased to announce that they are in advanced negotiations with Home Telecom part of the TalkTalk group.
This afternoon ZYBRE announced that they are progressing talks with a specialist division of the TalkTalk group, Home Telecom, this is “subject to contract” and supported by ZYBRE’s existing network providers. The conclusion of these contract details will enable Home Telecom to support all ZYBRE customers post the completion of current negotiations – expected to conclude early April.
Home Telecom ask that ZYBRE customers bear with them and accept this assurance that they are working in the background to provide support to customers in the long term.
Jonny Robinson CEO ZYBRE said: “It’s been a difficult time since the acquisition of Air Broadband and regrettably our service hasn’t lived up to our usual standards. We completed acquisitions on Air and DH to provide continuity of service to customers, who would have seen their ISP go under and with it a total loss of service. However, the task was unfortunately too complex for a smaller ISP like ZYBRE. With that we firmly believe that Home Telecom part of TalkTalk is the best fit for our customers.”
As a provider established for 13 years and managing a base of 66,000, Nigel Barnett CEO wants to assure ZYBRE customers that they will be in safe hands and whilst there has been some recent issues out of our control, Home Telecom look forward to being able to update ZYBRE customers as soon as possible.
*** Please be aware currently that Home Telecom do not have any of your records and are currently unable to connect to your home.
***Important****
Any ZYBRE/Air/Digital Home customers that leave prior to this completion may be subject to early termination charges as per contractual obligations. If you have a migration planned already we suggest you cancel with your new provider to avoid double contract charges.
UPDATE 6th April 2023
We’ve had a statement from Ofcom on Air Broadband and their membership of an Ofcom approved complaints handler (ADR).
Ofcom Statement
“We are extremely concerned by the issues that customers of Air Broadband and Zybre are experiencing.
We are looking into this as a matter of urgency, and will consider what further steps may need to be taken, including possible enforcement action.”
UPDATE 24th April 2023
Over the past week or so, both of the websites for Air Broadband and Zybre have vanished, seemingly without any explanation. Prior to this, the announcement about a possible acquisition via Home Telecom/TalkTalk was also taken down.
UPDATE 25th April 2023
Zybre’s website is now back online.
UPDATE 3rd May 2023
Sadly, our attempts to get a reply from Zybre have yielded no fruit and the remaining customers continue to complain about a lack of communication / support from the ISP. Meanwhile Zybre’s records at Companies House report that the provider has received a “First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off” (here).
The document itself isn’t yet available to view, but such legally binding official notices tend to indicate that a company is at risk of being struck off from the official register of companies. Such notices can be raised for various issues, such as non-payment of tax, failing to inform Companies House of a change in address or a failure to publish company accounts etc. (Zybre’s accounts have been overdue since Feb 2023).
However, this is only the first step towards compulsory strike-off, which means that Zybre may still be able to rescue the situation. If your company is struck off the register, it will cease to exist as a legal entity, cannot trade and its assets (e.g. property or bank accounts) will be forfeited to the Crown. Not to mention the reputational damage this outcome incurs. Credits to one of our readers, William, for spotting the update.
UPDATE 5th May 2023
Now FullFibre Limited has dropped Zybre from their network. As the article above has become quite long, then we’ll be switching future updates to the new article (here).
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.
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Of course those affected have been cut off and can’t read this 🙁
Because no one has a phone. Oh, wait, they do.
This feels like a huge mess? You’d think Zybre would have moved the customers over to their platform and let Air die if it was in that much of a state.
Having the wholesalers contact customers directly is a huge mess, and isn’t going to look good for either wholesaler when its the ISPs fault?
Unless I’m missing something and Zybre has bitten off more than it can chew?
Why would a company like CityFibre want to deal with Zybre who (it looks like) have acquired another company to gain their customers but aren’t interested in taking on their liabilities? Zybre need wholesale networks more than a company like CityFibre needs to write off someone else’s debt.
Companies rarely take on a predecessor companies liabilities when the existing company is in trouble, which is why they buy customer lists etc and not the whole company.
Precisely….don’t expect Zybre to provide a good service as they can not even connect me going on two months waiting…likely same situation for them…from what I hear the problems have been caused solely due to Zybre not having a clue about what to do with regard to connecting people but also refusing to take responsibility for any liabilities or bills with regards to networks…why would they pay their bills now? Likely moving over to them as he claims will mean having to change in a month or two when they do the same thing they Daren to have just done to Air Broadband
I am very glad to see these wholesalers put Zybre in their place. Take a quick look at their social media, reviews, etc.
Alongside OFNL and Cityfibre, Zybre has also been removed from Full Fibre’s services. I am sure there’s more to come (hopefully Vodafone, that’ll hurt their coverage).
Next up Ofcom.
I was cut off today, same day I receieved the letter….Working from home is going to be fun for a while, thanks for the heads up Zybre!
James, I too have had many cut offs today but fortunately having contacted city Fibre have been assured they will act in the customers best interest and not leave us high N dry. we shall see hey!
They say an alterantive is available to migrate but having checked they say “Talk Talk” Full Fibre is not available to your address. City Fibre tell me its because my line has not been “released” keep checking but then I thought, why wont Air Broadband answer and if I sign to a new contract do I end up paying 2 ispS!! fulkl f..ked circle of 8!
No Andrew, You have been removed form the old ISP – no contract anymore so no bill. You should be migrated across?
Internet went down at at about 10.30am. Went downstairs to reset the router only to find a letter from city fibre telling me that I was about to be cut off.
A little notice would be nice, I need the internet for work.
Exact same boat! Looking at vodafone to replace but currently been onhold to Zyber for 60 minutes to “confirm” they have cancelled my account as I sure as hell will be.
Yes – first I knew was getting cut off – and I noticed when the alarm told me the internet had gone off. I checked and then the letter arrived. setting up a new one is a nightmare – two hours on a text chat with vodafone so far who have an identical plan, speed and price
does also raise an interesting question over emergency calls once the PSTN has gone, if the wholesaler cuts off the broadband connection & therefore takes out the customers VOIP connection who is liable
It doesn’t raise any questions.
If this happened on the Openreach network then the PSTN line would also have been disconnected.
I’ve never known a company to fold customers like this but keep their landline running.
Though Openreach usually give a bit more warning than Cityfibre appear to have done here.
I understood that in France the line remains active for emergency calls, but no other. While I was renovating a property I found a box, so I plugged in the phone, got a dial tone, and tried a call. Then I got a recorded voice saying emergency calls only. This is a bit of a worry as with the phasing out of PSTN copper, no battery backups in the OTN, and unreliable mobile.
Still we French are ahead usual, our Train Vitesse has been around for ages.
Their CEO has lost wholesaler confidence. From what I heard has major other problems.
It’s all very well, but if I’m still a customer under contract with Zybre (and I got the email yesterday and letter today) it’s not that straight forward until we get something definite. All of the communications are, too generous, vague! It’s a mess…
If your service has been cut off then the first step is to cancel your Direct Debit
Me too! I have had a legally binding contract breached by a 3rd party. These things work both ways. Why should I now get a more inferior speed connection with another ISP or pay more for the same speed when I have met my contractual obligations? Are CityFibre going to pay compensation or the shortfall for another ISPs package?
@Tom. There’s no legal concept of a 3rd party breaching a contract. Your contract would be with your ISP who have a separate contract with Cityfibre. I don’t see how Cityfibre are at fault here and why you think they owe you compensation?
@Anonymous – agreed. Only recourse is to the supplier with whom you have the contract. Good luck with the that if they’ve gone bust, too. Best spend the money you’d spend on a small claim down the pub.
@Anon,
Because people think they are entitled to compo if the wind blows backwards.
I have someone today who was subject to an MSO – She not only wanted compensation for loss of earnings/loss of customers and trade on her £18 a month Residential ADSL line but she demanded priority fix and a DONGLE for when future MSO’s happen!
If I knew when the exchanges ere going to die I would be winning the Lotto 3 times a week and not care!
But some people.. meh :/
Zybre bought DigitalHome ISP, that’s how they got the CityFibre deal. I’ve just received the letter and it explains why I was on hold to Zybre tech support for 4 hours (and then cut off) on Wednesday. was on hold (1st in line) for 3 hours this morning until I gave up after reading the letter.
I’m half way through my contract and don’t know what the early cancellation situation is? Even though city fibre have advised to change IPS as soon as possible.
I was on hold for a while before I too gave up after I got the letter. Trouble is all of the wording is very vague, so very unsure of my position. It’s actually working at the moment again (having had an outage for several hours this morning), but I’m trying to persuade CityFibre to allow Zen to supply to me.
Looks like Cityfibre have removed Zybre from their provider list – they were showing for my address earlier in the week and now AWOL.
Grab some popcorn, this’ll be interesting to watch (sorry if you are affected and have the headache of changing supplier though).
Zybre has less than 2* in 175 reviews. Should’ve looked at this number before signing up. At least they don’t even have 4 digits worth of customers
If everyone did that, no one would ever go with an altnet.
Sometimes you have to go with the unknown, to get the best deal.
The rating was around 4 before all this nonsense started happening about a month ago
I signed up with Air broadband 17 months ago and they were great. Good pricing for fast speeds both up and down and great support. Over the last 8ish months while the speeds have stayed consistent reliability has got significantly worse and support was almost non existent.
This wasn’t helped by them not announcing if they had outages and having a status page that always showed 100% uptime.
The first I knew of the Zybre buyout was when I called Air Broadband support and got the Zibre welcome message.
I’ve sent over 10 emails to both Zybre and Air broadband requesting details of my earliest contract termination but no reply over the course of a few weeks.
Been down since around 10:45 this morning. Cancelled the direct debit. It’s a shame as Air Broadband started so well.
Likewise I’m cut off as of receiving the letter today. The FAQ page says:
‘CityFibre will continue to provide Zybre/Air Broadband customers with connectivity in the short term for as long as possible while you choose a new broadband provider.’
To try to clarify this, I called CF a la:
‘If you can’t find the answer you are looking for, you can call our Customer Service team on 0800 083 6160.’
Spoke to a very nice lady who had no idea what I was talking about. Waiting for a call back!
I’ve spoken to them today as well, and he said it was the first call he’s had about it…
Air Broadband was also, as far as I am aware, the only provider on OFNL that offered the discounted social tarrif. This has resulted in a significant hike in costs for those benefiting from that.
Its the only one on CityFibre too (I do not class Vodafone’s 30mb Social Tarif as a genuine offer)
Reminds me of when 186K went bust.
Oh yes! – remember the day Screaming.net stopped the free evening 0845 access? :/
The problem is, Air Broadband was the most attractive supplier on CityFibre due to its 100mb/up/down social tarrif. I was thinking of going for this when my contract with TalkTalk ended in July.
If Air Broadband is going out of business it would be good for one of the other CityFibre providers to match this deal.
Hmm. An offer that bankrupted the company, maybe not a great idea to copy it!
I’m in Solihull and along with my neighbours received the CityFibre letter this morning. I’ve forwarded it to Zybre for comment!
In the meantime the connection is still live – but like my neighbours we have a 2nd feed from another Carrier (Virgin in my case) as I’ve always been suspicious as to the long term reliability of these minnow Altnets and half expected disruption one day.
I’m sorry to see the demise of Air (interestingly their website is still fully live!) – I’ve had a pretty much trouble free 15months with them and even though I negotiated an initial 12month contract to give me the option to switch I would have been happy to stay with them and pay the extra compared to some of the alternatives – Vodafone currently offering 900/900 for £35/m but on 24m contracts subject to CPI uplift in April
I’m also in Solihull and was with Air. I haven’t had any letter or email about this, other than the one on Monday to state that Zybre acquired Air Broadband and that they’d move me to their network. I was without internet from Monday lunchtime to Wednesday night while they migrated me to Zybre, during which time the ONT had no service LED. It was only through a contact at CityFibre that I found out what was going on as Zybre don’t answer calls or emails.
As of today at 13:04 I have no connection, although all 4 lights are on the ONT are lit.
Of the providers available, several are limiting upload speeds so I won’t choose them. If I wanted to go with Vodafone, they are insisting that I have an engineer visit the premises and that puts me back to March 27th at the earliest even though I’ve tried explaining that nobody needs to visit my house as I already have a line and I will be using my own router.
@Alan, Although Zen’s website says the speeds aren’t symmetrical they don’t actually limit the upload so you get full speed. It’s related to the Ofcom speeds code of conduct. but from experience and checking with Zen the upload speed isn’t capped.
I’m also in Solihull. Lost our service light today. Sure CityFibre should have given us at least a small window to switch over. Not sure who do go with from the alternatives…
Is that a child on the homepage? :/
I am in a similar situation. Since the 10th Feb and after an announced network issue on the Zybre site I found out that I was now a Zybre customer. Have had appealing service since then, which apparently was meant to be being fixed. Basically I can’t stream anything video related. Fortunately I am relatively network aware and have found a work around by funelling all of my traffic through my PIA VPN. I only get 80mps doing g this but I can watch TV at least. I ha e already chosen to kjve provider as the Zybre service is not appropriate. Apparently when I last spoke to them I would be compensated for this!
Looks like Zybre might be in trouble too.
Their accounts are over a month late:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13380642
two and a half hours on text chat with vodafone, and now its a three week wait for an engineer. They need to check my city fibre line is there and plug in the router that is coming in two days time. No need, oif course, but the system is requiring a visit.
I’m really pissed off – so avoid virgin folks. I dont have the patience to cancel and start again
Virgin or Voda? I’m confused :/
Been shopping around from the ISP page @ Cityfibre. After getting bored of being on hold @ Zen / Giganet / etc, I spoke to a very nice lady @ No One – who was the first person who actually knew what was going on.
She confirmed the demise of Air/Zybre, but because they still have active customers at CF, CF cannot (right now) provision these from any ISP. But she is in active contact with CF and there is a plan for CF to release the lines next week, whereupon they can pick up the addresses right away with no delay or engineer visit.
Sounded very confident so I went ahead!
That’s promising to hear – good luck
Just got cut off from the Zybre customer support line after 3 hours and 59 minutes on hold, as the “next in line”.
Great stuff.
Same happened to me on Wednesday auto call drop at the 4 hour mark.
Little app tip – it’s called WeQ4U
You’re welcome 🙂
I got the letter e-mail last night saying no problem, welcome to Zybre. Okay fine. Today I got the letter through from CityFibre and not 20 minutes later my internet cut off in the middle of a review meeting. Ringing AirBB line cuts off after 6 minutes every time. Ringing Zybre CS it says 2 hour queue, not a chance I’m waiting in that to get cut off at 1.5 hours. Tried using CityFibre selection and spent 30 mins on the phone to Zen only to find out I need to talk to CityFibre. Another long queue and now I’m waiting for a call back?! I got nothing about a 9th March cut off so now I’m left without internet and my job is at risk if I can’t get it going, and SOON. No surprise people just stick to the tech giants like Virgin.
“No surprise people just stick to the tech giants like Virgin.”
Ha! as a former VM tech agent let me tell you that they are just as bad if not WORSE! I would ruther be in limbo on CF’s network that VM’s anyday!
Every aspect of VM’s customer service and support is indeed awful, and they aren’t making any sustainable return on capital, but even allowing that they are a going concern that’ll be around for a very long time yet. I suspect most people would rather have a working connection from VM along with the poor service than to be stuck in limbo with no connection as Zybre implodes.
In the energy sector and elsewhere there is the concept of “supplier of last resort” that exists to ensure continuity of service when a company goes down, and given the Wild West nature of telecoms supply and the approach of the Grim Reaper for many altnets, it’s long overdue that Ofcom should have established a SoLR function for telecoms. They’ll probably get round to it a couple of years after Alnetmageddon.
Note also that zybre has all over their status page that there is something wrong with the network – its pretty fishy.
Yes and the homepage says “KEEPING YOU
CONNECTED”
lolololol
No email from Zybre yet, just the letter through the post from CityFibre. We tried to leave last month but were told we’d have to pay a £300 admin fee, as we’d only signed up in December. The service has been absolutely appalling from the start – promises made and not kept, the installation being a complete farce. We were told we were signing up to a rolling contract, a contract that we’ve never received a copy of. I wish I’d never heard of them!
“a contract that we’ve never received a copy of.”
Therefore you were never legally binded to anything – move on
I have emailed Zybre and told them that I have stopped payment to them, and that I have no contact with them. Air Broadband have broken the terms of my contract with them by no longer providing any services to me. Useless the lot of them. Just spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone waiting to speak to them. Got cut off….
Somehow I now have internet back again… anyone else? It’s a different IP address (I had a static before) so maybe this is Cityfibre providing some alternative/temporary connection?
Exactly the same has happened to me. Had a static IP to get rid of CGNAT, now I’m using an IP from a company called GTT. On the phone to them now to figure out if they are now providing my service!
@Warren which underlying network is that? CityFibre? GTT sound like they’d be a good ISP, Tier 1 peering company would be pretty big and established I’d have thought.
GTT bought Interoute, which was IIRC easynet.
GTT/Interoute are a bunch of cowboys. Used links from them at my previous company and although we paid for multiple links they’d over subscribed their backup network-which was 1/10th of the capacity. Another issue was latency over their MPLS is laughable, unlike BT who have multiple POP, so connection between two sites is served by your closest hop, they only had a POP in London, doesn’t work great from northern England.
Just cause someone is “Tier 1” don’t expect them to be competent.
I got the welcome to ZYBRE email yesterday, had no contact from air or city fibre, no letters! Today received an email from another provider saying As per your recent letter from CityFibre, Zybre/Air Broadband is likely to be unable to continue providing your broadband service. As a CityFibre partner, we’re here to help and we’ll make the switch as easy as possible.
Yet recieved nothing, no communication! No service today and work from home! Livid. Phones for ZYBRE rings and hangs up. Absolute Joke
Managed to speak to someone at CityFibre, they insisted they’ve not cut the service off yet and that any disconnections have been done by Zybre.
How do I get my money back just paid for the month?
Well, depends on what’s gone wrong. At the moment, it looks from the outside like an unplanned insolvency (they’ve gone bust). In that case you’re now an unsecured creditor, and at the back of a probably very long list of people who the receiver will be telling that they’re never going to see their money again, I’m afraid.
Pah! I am an idiot – you and any other customers affected should ask your bank about making a claim under the direct debit guarantee and they should refund your money promptly and without issue.
According to https://www.zybre.co.uk/network-status-update/
Zybre have had a network issue which is being resolved and customers on Cityfibre should still be back working
The thread of this looks extremely similar to a Giganet fault thread today which was only affecting their customers in the Wolverhampton area. Unless Zybre are routing all their traffic through that one broken fibre I think that might just be a bit of a red herring.
For reference: https://status.giga.net.uk/incidents/1mfl5m839v44
1) Can we and how do we seek any action against Airbroadband / Zybre. They have never provided me the minimum service and as someone who WFH this is absolutely unacceptable to lose connection like this without any warning. Air BB and Zybre both have not been picking any calls up on any of the numbers they have listed sales technical or customer service most calls have just been cutting straight off.
If you work from home you should have a business line not residential as there is no guarantee with residential and is just best effort.
You need business broadband to get any sort of SLA
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Well said that Man!
I had to say this at least 12 times a day – It’s why I moved from Tech to Sales – Just sell FTTP now – No whinging from people working from home on £20 FTTC.
I have to pay through the nose for business connectivity as I WFH and need to be up ASAP if it goes down (although I have EO-FTTC as a backup) so they bloody well should too!
Good to see the greatest hits coming out, Coventry. Answering phones at Plusnet, office based, definitely needs leased line and dedicated Ethernet backup at home.
Probably using company discounted FTTC.
I received the email from Zybre yesterday saying ‘business as usual’ and lost our Internet at 10:30 this morning with no warning whatsoever! As my sons were trying to help, that letter from City Fibre telling us it’s ‘likely to cease shortly’ was put through our door! So, not only did we have no warning, City Fibre told us after it happened! I’m in my 4th week of a new job, working from home, and had to use my phone data to connect as a hotspot. The earliest we can get a new provider is 17th, so I’m going to have to use my phone data for a week! As well as this, my dad has dementia, and enjoys watching YouTube videos, so he can’t do that for a week, and my disabled mum, who’s nearly 80, spends much of her day on Facebook, and she now can’t do that for a week! It’s just absolutely disgusting how they are treating us!
You probably weren’t disconnected, there’s also a network issue which is on the Zybre website https://www.zybre.co.uk/network-status-update/
Just an unlucky coincidence.
But CityFibre have started emailing and texting people to look for an alternative ISP now so take action now.
Just had an sms from CityFibre:
Hi, its CityFibre here, the network behind your Zybre/Air Broadband order. Due to circumstances outside of our control, Zybre/Air Broadband is unlikely to be able to provide your broadband service and so your installation will not go ahead. To get full fibre installed quickly, you can choose another provider on our network, visit cityfibre.com/options to find providers available in your area. For more info visit cityfibre.com/zybreairbroadband
Email from CityFibre:
We’re CityFibre, the all fibre network used by your future broadband provider Zybre/Air Broadband. Due to circumstances outside of our control, Zybre/Air Broadband is likely to be unable to provide you with a broadband service.
What this could mean for you
Zybre/Air Broadband is unlikely to be able to provide you with a working broadband service and so your Zybre/Air Broadband installation will not go ahead. We can assure you that Zybre/Air Broadband’s issues have nothing to do with the performance of CityFibre’s network which continues to operate as normal.
What you could do next
You may wish to choose another broadband provider to provide full fibre broadband to your home as soon as possible on the CityFibre network.
We work with a wide range of broadband providers including Vodafone, TalkTalk, Zen and Giganet. Choosing another provider is easy and you can be up and running in just a few days. Simply click below, enter your postcode and choose a broadband provider that is right for you.
CHOOSE A BROADBAND PROVIDER
If you have questions and for further updates on Zybre/Air Broadband, click here for more information.
Many thanks,
The CityFibre Team
More troubled altnets, but apparently the altnets are still coming…..
In this case, it’s a retail ISP that uses AltNets, not the AltNets themselves, that is in trouble.
In your face Fibre Fred….
I’m sorry but is anyone here going to mention the elephant in the room that Zybre actually acquired air broadband back in late October/very early November last year and therefore the CEO of Zybre are openly stating or at least heavily implying mistruths without being questioned on it? https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/11/multi-network-uk-isp-zybre-acquires-rival-air-broadband.html
Also Zybre have been kicked off the networks of many of these wholesalers
We have tried to change provider from zyber, we were originally digital home customers,my husband spent a couple of hours on this, however it seems our network Mac address cannot be ported over a new provider as it is not being released by Zyber and they are not answering the phones
Clearly not to be trusted…shame, as Air Broadband has always provided me with a good service before Zybre took over…it’s a joke they expect everyone to transfer over “without prejudice” was the quote ha ha what a joke…wouldn’t go near them now
Precisely….don’t expect Zybre to provide a good service as they can not even connect me going on two months waiting (transferring from Air)…likely same situation for them…from what I hear the problems have been caused solely due to Zybre not having a clue about what to do with regard to connecting people but also refusing to take responsibility for any liabilities or bills with regards to networks…why would they pay their bills now? Likely moving over to them as he claims will mean having to change in a month or two when they do the same thing they have just done to Air Broadband…never had any problems before with Air until Zybre took them over, since it’s been nothing but hassle…avoid
Is anyone elses internet still not working? The update says all service has been restored but mine is still not connecting.
Nope still out been looking around at alterative suppliers and do see on giganet status page a post about the situation stating they believe CityFibre has not purposely discnnected anyone and to phone CityFibre if this has happened – will be trying them first thing.
Not sure if it makes any difference but I was originally a Air BB customer migrated supposedly to Zybre (not that ive had any notification about this)
Very poor all around, letter and service loss on the same day, no notice whatsoever!
Sounds like the same boat as me, was on Air then found out they swapped to Zyber after an outage a few months ago. Got an email from Zyber yesterday saying our service was with them. Minimal communication from both sides.
Then a letter today from City Fiber and possibly disconnected? Will call them tomorrow to see whats going on.
Either way order with giganet already placed so swapping off ASAP.
I have managed to sign up with Giganet….earlier in the day when trying it told me I was with another company (Zybre) and could not sign up without going through them first.
The earliest date for activation was given as 27th March….I am going to call them later today
to hopefully get an earlier date as like all of us I just need the connection to be swapped to them, I have my own equipment and do not even need their Router.
Giganet appear to be quite a large company with good reviews so I am taking that as a positive and going with them….fingers crossed.
I was originally with Digital home who were taken over by Zybre…I only found that out by word of mouth on my neighbourhood whats app group….what a blimon mess…City Fibre should have been all over this and need to take a close look at their operation as it has definitely
been lacking with this fiasco and puts them in a bad light.
Seems they have done the same to Air B that they did to digital home, come in and try and take their customers but have no experience or understanding of how the industry works… Zybre if you look at them , don’t even offer half the products they have listed on their website and the company has barely been around for a year…seems they have royally messed things up!!
How did you manage to arrange a switch? Surely the new provider needs confirmation from Zybre that the contract has ended?
I’m also ex Digital Home and now zybre but had nothing from zybre. Only the CityFibre letter.
Received the email from Zybre on Thursday (9th) stating I’d be moved over to their service from Air. Lost service yesterday (10th). Still haven’t received the above letter. What a farse this is.
update from me: received the CityFibre letter on Saturday (11th) advising me to find a new provider. Called them to get an answer about contractual agreements with Zybre but they didn’t know. Annoyingly their phones automated message suggests all Air/Zybre customers reboot their router after Saturday 7am as connection should have returned but then also point you to this URL: CityFibre.com/zybreairbroadband which advices you a connection is unlikely to occur with Zybre at all. I’ve now switched to Zen which will take 5-10 days service to go live, no engineer/installation required. The chap at Zen informed me of 2 things: the contract with Air/Zybre is essentially void since they are in breach of their contract with CF; but that if they do try to hit anyone with fees, to contact Offcom immediately who are already dealing with this situation. And 2, thousands of people have switched to Zen already because of this issue (and hence the 5-10 wait time). He also pointed me to this exact thread for the best place for news about this (which obviously I was already using)
Well, I’m glad I found this thread, I think 🙁
Yes total you know what all round, not happy with CityFibre at all but I still have internet but sounds like its gonna be a nightmare trying to swap over 🙁
Supposedly only TalkTalk available in my area but hopefully I can get GigaNet or Zen when my account is released 🙁
I’m so confused, like others I received a letter yesterday, my internet had gone off before I had finished reading it, yet its back on this morning? whats going on.
Your internet has come back on now? Mine is still out. The service light came back on on the little black ONT box. But my router won’t connect.
There was an issue yesterday morning from 6AM for me and it was off until 11AM for me but then it was back on.
This was an actual network issue that just so coincided with the letter… which I didn’t get until 2 or 3PM.
Same service light back on ONT but not picking up an IP I do wonder if its because I was originally an Air customer with a static IP to get round CGNat and its all just gone up in smoke.
I don’t have a static IP. But I was using a different router/mesh. I’ve since plugged in my old to link from air. But still no internet connection. I wonder if the clan of 911 has anything to do with it. Or zybre are just really slow at migrating users across.
I also paid for a static IP with Air and my internet’s still down since Friday so it’s sadly not the reason.
ollie, you need to set your router to dhcp and so long as you have 4 lights green on the ont it will pick up a non-static IP – this allows the folk in your house to access internet but means you are not able to host anything – not ideal but at least kids can watch iplayer etc.
@qb, sadly this hasn’t worked and my Router appeared to have already been set at DHCP. Thanks for the help anyway.
As far as I know, City Fibre own the cable that comes to my house so if Zybre are not gonna be allowed to use it, then why bother migrating customers. Sh*tshow.
CityFibre need to sort this out – there must be thousands of affected customers who have now had this crap letter they have sent out.
I signed up with Digital Home Broadband in July 2022 and they provided a router which has no option to change the account login name from admin, cannot change the default password, Cannot change the WiFi name or password – all are defaults.
I complained about this to Digital Home who said they would update the router firmware – never happened. My solution was to buy a decent router and use the supplied one as a passthrough with WiFi disabled.
Digital Home taken over by Zybre and I tried a solution with them but didnt get a reply. Cut off for a few hours in January – complained – no response.
When I got the City Fibre letter I swapped over to Zen Broadband and if Zybre goes off before I change over, will use my phone.
As far as I am concerned Zybre have been useless and I am glad to be able to get out of the contract.
How did you get out of the contract?
Did you have to write to them and is it only a month notice??
I have no idea what will happen about my contract but if I stop paying them, how can a defunct company get money from me?
If Zybre is defunct then the company will appoint administrators/liquidators to sort out the company’s finances which includes collecting all monies due. So that is how all money owed to Air/Zybre would be collected.
I would not take any legal advice from any poster here (including myself) as nobody yet knows what will happen to your contracts and your financial obligations.
I was informed by Zen that Air/Zybre should not come at anyone with early cancellation fees as they have breached their own contract with CityFibre and therefore everyone else’s contracts are void due to that. If they do try it however to go to offcom immediately who are already aware of the situation.
I’m in the same boat, once city fibre rolled out I signed up to air broadband as it was the only provider in the area. Everything was fine for 6 months, now emailed by Zyber to say I’m with them now. Then letter from city fibre to say I’m likely to be disconnected.
Problem is the only option is talktalk, and they can’t offer anything close to what I had.
I’m hoping city fibre can get an agreement with Zyber, at least until done better options appear in my area.
Don’t understand why they would invest in rolling out a fibre network when you can’t use it as no suppliers!
TalkTalk is my only option also.
Howoever I have been on livechat with No One internet and they have said CityFibre are updating them on Monday. They were also going to ask why they are not on the list of suppliers on the CityFibre website for Chester where I am. Hopefully CityFibre can sort that out so we have a choice.
I don’t want a 2 Year TalkTalk contract with crap speeds.
Zybre were on the list of available ISPs here via CityFibre’s national product.
They now aren’t.
They claim via their own checker to be servicing me via CityFibre.
Much the same story as others.
City Fibre are just the last mile tail provider, and I would like to correct a user that posted on trust pilot that City Fibre is complicit to this. City Fibre is most definitely not complicit. There is / was a wholesale agreement between Air Broadband and CityFibre so it is a contractual relationship. Which Zybre / Air / DigitalHome has in effect breached.
There are plenty other altnets out there that can provide a really good service, who are partnered up with City Fibre, OFNL, etc.
Companies like Merula who are well established in the market (although relatively unknown) and are able to run a decent network to support their customers.
To be honest I wish all these amateurs would just go down the drain, and I am really sorry for all the customers that have to suffer at their hands. Saw multiple reviews mentioning Zybre/Air/DigitalHome have been reported to trading standards as well, and really hope that Trading Standards can do something.
I am on OFNL, before I signed I firstly contacted Air Broadband, poor contact lost my order, then Merula no contact at all they didn’t even pick my call. So I went to MTH and I am happy about it.
Lol Merula don’t ever pick up the phone and are apparently not in all the areas they claimed they were in before so they a no go unfortunately
Been using Merula on OFNL since June, have found their support very responsive (and good!) so can’t say I agree that they never pick up the phone.
I moved to Air/Zybre and got shafted as well. After a complaint to fullfibre, ofcom and god knows whoever else i got my line released and moved to another fullfibre-backed provider, squirrel internet. And they have been utterly brilliant.
So I’ve just had email from zybre at 00:20 on a Sunday morning claiming that city fibre will be issuing a statement reversing their stance on zybre. Regardless of that I told zybre that I’ve seen no evidence of that and that my contract was with air braodband and did not consent to what’s gone down with zybre. I told them my direct debit had been cancelled and I wouldn’t be paying them a penny more. They didn’t seem to argue this.
Do you have a copy of that message to share? https://www.ispreview.co.uk/contact.shtml
Can anyone advise on contract issues? — I have year to run with Air/Zibre — I cannot contact them. CirtyFibre say service will cease but I currently have good service. Contract gives provider up to 28 days to fix issue. How can I switch provider and not break contract?
I had about a year left to run on my Air contract, but I’ve just checked my account status on the customer portal (click Manage under my services) and it lists my service status as ‘ceased’. I assume this means I’m now out of contract. Worth checking yours.
Reply from Zybre to my complaint about lost connection on Friday.
“Please accept our apologies for the downtime while we performed a critical migration of your service.
Your service has now been restored. Thank you for your continued patience.”
I’m going to email them again to find out what’s going on and explain next steps.
do you actually have a restored service? when i came down this morning. i noticed a green light on my router. unplugged the router to use my own mesh network again. and it never connected. went back to my supplied router. wont connect again.
Yes, it works now under GTT but I’m not sure if this is what Zybre provided or if it’s City Fibre allowing to change provider in the meantime. Although, email came from Zybre. It’s all really confusing…
Our internet returned this morning – found an email from Zybre which arrived on Tuesday which basically was that everything was rosy.
Because of City Fibres letter, I have arranged a different provider to take over.
I have now emailed Zybre support and await there reply.
I had a visit yesterday from a Giganet salesperson in Poole. He seemed to confirm that my Air Broadband had ceased from Friday, and that my internet was now being temporarily provided by CityFibre themselves (was down from 1pm Friday to about 12am Saturday). My Air Broadband customer portal page says my Service Status is ‘ceased’.
He also suggested that the 27th was the ‘switch day’ though I’m not entirely sure if that meant we’d have to wait until then or if CityFibre would release the line sooner if asked
Just checked my status and it does say its ceased. Also I did a speed test (Its fantastic!) and the provider is saying GGT – so I’m officially confused!
All a bit of a mess, guessing as its the weekend the people who could give a definitive response and let us know are off work until Monday and having a snowball fight somewhere…after all its only their customers so its not very important.:):)
Yes I’m seeing same. Air service ceased and GTT / Swish appear to be enabling access. I don’t really know what this means or who is managing. I spent over 2 hrs in queue trying to talk to Zybre on Friday before they obviously pulled the plug on their phones. No response to mail. I guess its back on phone on Monday.
What a nightmare I am on giganet and I can 100% suggest them their service has been amazing. If anyone wants a £25 discount hit me up on the forums or on tbb
People who seem to be reconnected temporarily to GTT, are you all using your own routers or the router provided to you from Air? I’m wondering if that’s my problem.
I still have router from ABB and it all works with GTT
Well I signed up to Vodafone and it should be live on the 21st but mine came back to life within 10 minutes of signing up. I have the GTT name as well and I am using my own eero router setup.
Guess today we should get more info, know I am not staying with Zybre/Air even if by some miracle they get it sorted out, order placed with alt supplier.
Anyone actually got hold of Zybre? work commitments means I cant sit on hold till this afternoon and no email correspondent as of yet.
I was the second in the customer service queue at 9am and was told the wait was 89 minutes to start with and hung up after 50 minutes of waiting as still the second in the queue. I have also emailed customer services and technical support.
I very much doubt to many people will be able to get in touch with them, was going to give benefit of doubt and see what they had to say….I mean at least some sort of statment to people left in limbo would be appreciated especially as its a normal working day now.
The sheer lack of information and the ability to get any is very frustrating.
UPDATE – Had a response to my support email, got a quick reply. Migration was performed but with the ‘Service’ light on the ONT still being off after a power cycle they have escalated it via a fast-track path with CityFibre.
Let’s hope we get more info today. I sat waiting for Zybre ton answer their phones for an hour or so Friday – number 20 in the queue but 86 minutes wait time which went down much slower than the clock. I suspect they only have one poor person on the phone taking flack from all of us.
UPDATE-‘Service’ light already back on again, internet light on router green and internet working fine again.
Also tried the email contact, getting speedy replies but it’s not working after they “reactivated” it.
They’ve said they’ll need to send a new preconfigured router (??) which I’m not keen on as I’m already trying to migrate over to Zen. Just trying to get internet back in the immediate term.
Well thats a little unnerving, no way do i want any more hardware sent out, I also am trying to get away asap but just want working internet in the intrim.
If i get home later and its not up guess I will try to get them to supply the config details more than capable of imputting some settings myself…but then i fail to see what would have changed to make the current one stop working.
They’ve gone quiet on me after I asked to be sent the config details…
UPDATE: the new router that Zybre said would be sent by 24 hour delivery on the 13th has not materialised! Shocker.
Clown show.
Yes had a response today much the same, although my System light has been on since Saturday without internet.
The email today asked me to power cycle both router and ont but as i am at work will have to wait till this evening to see if internet has been restored.
this has been my situation as well. like a comment above said about emailing. I got a response 10 minutes later. asking me to restart both router and ONT box. and it was all fixed.
pretty suspect to me honestly…
I have been told by someone who works there, that zybre hope to have new owners in place this week????
So are our contracts still valid or can I just ding Zybre out and go with another ISP that city fibre recommend as I signed up for 2 years with Digital Home and then a month ago was moved to Zybre – even though I have not been told any of this officially.
Sounds like they are in breach of contract to me and I can walk away??
I had a similar issue, phoned them and was on hold for over 3 hours with remaining time going from 10 mins to 100mins, so I emailed them with the subject of disconnected internet, asking for migration to be cancelled so I could move to another company.
Within minutes of sending my internet was connected and told their services were more robust and here were my new residential terms of service, where were drastically different then airbroadband.
Now requesting cancellation under the 14 day cooling off period. Lets see what happens.
Which email address did u send it to?
Support@Zybre.co.uk
I’ve spoken with someone at CityFibre in the last hour or so. They are in the difficult position of having all the cards to fix a problem not of their own making. So it’s costing them money to fix these other companies’ issues. They are obviously having discussions with TalkTalk to resolve the problem with some of our homes being marked as unavailable to them whilst our neighbours are (it’s a marker on a database somewhere), but they’re also looking to widen the ISP availability, although this won’t be immediate. And I believe her when she says that they’re doing all they can as quickly as possible – this issue only raised its ugly head last week, after all.
She wasn’t able to shed any light on how long it’s going to be before they actually withdraw services from Zybre, before anyone asks.
She also agreed with me when I suggested that it was a horrible coincidence that this happened at the same time as the physical fibre issue near Wolverhampton on Friday, confusing a lot of people into believing that they were one and the same thing.
I’ll update again here if I hear anything else which is useful to everyone else in this discussion.
I was on a rolling monthly contract with Air Broadband via the OFNL Network and migrated to another ISP on the 7th. On March 1st, after receiving my cut-off letter from OFNL commencing from the 9th of March, I sent an email to Air and Zybre explaining that I would understandably cancel the direct debit due to no service being provided. I also called OFNL, and they advised me to cancel the direct debit. I went ahead and cancelled the direct debit with Air Broadband today (13th March), and sent two emails to Zybre, to confirm that the direct debit has been removed by myself and to request that they do whatever they need to do on their side to finalize everything.
I have tried to contact them over the phone, but like many others, I have not been able to reach anyone (either the queue doesn’t change, or the phones are closed). I am concerned that I have not received any response since my initial email on March 1st, and I hope I will not face any negative impact on my billing or credit score. This is especially concerning since no one can contact them to confirm anything.
This is exactly my concern too. I had 5 months left with Air BB. No new contract signed with Zybre, or any confirmation of an account. Indeed, my email is not recognised by their system. Stopped the DD and have arranged for Giganet installation this week (though not had a router yet – which is concerning as the installation is Wednesday).
Yeah, have been on hold for 2 hours this morning. Don’t think anyone can get through, and I’m at the point in the queue the wait time just goes up indefinitely… I am recording it, just so I have any evidence…
I spoke to OFNL yesterday, and they said I can just go ahead and cancel the Direct Debit, presumably because there was no service being provided. Not sure what CityFibre’s stance on it is for other affected, as they seem to have mixed messaging about if they’ll continue with Zybre or not!
Guess we’ll all just have to wait and find out…
Hi James,
Exact same situation as you: I was on rolling with AirBroadband, managed to get in touch with ZYBRE and also got an email from one of their employees email me a confirmation email that they would cancel my contract from March 1st. Surprise, surprise, I received an invoice for the month of March to be paid on April 1st.
As I cancelled my DD with them as soon as they confirmed my termination date, they were not able to collect payment. Now finally got to speak with them again (via email this time) and ZYBRE is claiming they never received my termination notice (hard to claim since I’ve got written evidence they processed my termination).
Needless to say they’ll be in a huge regulatory mess pretty soon.
I have to say the radio silence on Zybres part, to me at least, speaks volumes. I’m not sure what I expected to receive, but something at least. I can’t help but wonder if the email we received the night before the CityFibre letter was intended to cover themselves or misdirection as they knew what was coming.
Slightly disappointed at the lack of clarity in CityFibre Comms, but understand they are in a difficult position.
Anyway, direct debit cancelled and signed up with IDNet, goes live on Friday.
I’m curious what will happen with the Air router I have, no way am I going to pay for it to be returned!
In case there was any doubt Zybre are not answering their phones. I have been at head of queue since lines opened for over an hour and no response — also all direction options (sales, customer service, tech support) take you to the same queue. Has anyone spoken to Zybre?
I get no response to emails and no clarification from CityFibre.
Air T&C give following as reasons I may terminate contract — none of which apply as I currently have service. I don’t think I have a choice except to wait for worst.
1. we have told you about an upcoming change to the service or these terms which you do not
agree to (including a change to our prices) and you have given us notice to end the contract;
2. we have made an error in the price or description of the broadband service you have ordered,
and you do not wish to proceed;
3. we have suspended supply of the services for technical reasons, or notify you we are going to
suspend them for technical reasons, in each case for a period of more than 28 days;
4. or you have a legal right to end the contract because we have broken the terms of the Contract.
If it helps any others, I’ve just sent the following email (below) to Air BB after receiving their emailed invoice this morning. Air BB, through their own actions, have eroded all my trust in them from their actions and behaviors i.e. not allowing their customer base to contact them to find out what is happening.
I sent this to finance@airbroadband and support@airbroandband for full coverage, and included my invoice number in the Subject line for their reference. I’m a Norwich resident and disappointed with both Air BB and City Fibre.
Dear Air Broadband,
Unfortunately, despite numerous attempts to contact you, you are not answering calls and cutting people off from on-hold queues, I’m serving you with formal notice that I am cancelling my Direct Debit with you today, as you are no longer providing me with the services I contracted for.
I’m willing to pay any outstanding balances owed via BACS transfer when you formally invoice up until the point you stopped providing service and City Fibre took over.
If you attempt the direct debit it will fail, and any charges I incur by your action will be recharged to you, with any outstanding balance after 30 days being charge at 20% per day.
If you have any questions, please contact me ASAP via phone on xxxxx xxxxxx.
Kind regards,
Yeah, have been on hold for 2 hours this morning. Don’t think anyone can get through, and I’m at the point in the queue the wait time just goes up indefinitely… I am recording it, just so I have any evidence…
I spoke to OFNL yesterday, and they said I can just go ahead and cancel the Direct Debit, presumably because there was no service being provided. Not sure what CityFibre’s stance on it is for other affected, as they seem to have mixed messaging about if they’ll continue with Zybre or not!
Guess we’ll all just have to wait and find out…
A few things I could talk about but don’t know how litigious Zybre are so best keep quiet.
Hope those losing their access are all reconnected to something swiftly.
Go on. Spill!
Signed up to Giganet on Friday and have spoken to them about the situation.
In short they are still waiting for definite confirmation from CityFibre but all being well they are hoping to switch the first customers (I’m guessing they mean those that signed up in the past few days) over this Friday.
Also said CityFibre will not turn off live customers – guessing here they’re making sure people have time to switch whilst they sort things behind the scenes.
I should add I’ve been with Air Broadband for a year and signed up to a new provider after receiving the CityFibre letter last Friday.
Just spoke with a really really helpful lady with CityFibre. She confirmed, Zyber are NOT using their infrastructure any more, and cannot provide their service to those on it. I did recommend that CityFibre might want to be really clear to folks about the situation as it is causing a lot of sleepless nights for a lot of folks.
I’m still waiting to here from other providers if they are going to be added to the City Fibre list as I only have the option to go with Talk Talk at the moment which I am not happy about.
Does anyone else have this issue??
Yes, I’m in Norwich and City Fibre’s website doesn’t seem to offer any other provider on their network other than Talk Talk that doesn’t offer a connection to compare with our Fibre 200 deal that we are still receiving at the moment from as far as we know Air Broadband. No one has informed us that our provider has changed and we are on a contract until January 2024. I’m not sure what we’re meant to do.
TalkTalk can’t currently see that we’ve got fibre – although they can see that neighbours have it. There’s a flag on a database somewhere that makes us unavailable to them – presumably because we’re connected via Air/Zybre.
I know that City are talking to TalkTalk to try to resolve this, and they’re also talking about opening up to other providers, but the timescales they gave me on Monday for this aren’t quick enough for me.
I’m interested in what Mark Colston says though – are you also in the Norwich area? And where have you got the information that City Fibre are opening up this week? I want to go with Zen as well.
Yes, I’m in Norwich, TalkTalk is the only option listed and even then it’s not actually available.
I’ve been with Zybre since the beginning of March, only one official email from them saying my DD was set up (now cancelled!), a couple of emails from support as I was getting geolocked by BT and Amazon streaming services.
Emailed them today and nothing, I think I will be finding a new supplier tomorrow…
I’ve been told that City Fibre have the ability to be an ISP but don’t actually provide it. I was also told that Air BB/Zybre customers have all been moved over to City Fibre ISP as an emergengy so we are all getting a connection from City Fibre and that they will not turn up off.
I’ve spoken to a couple ofproviders who also dont understand why they are not on the City Fibre list. Why would City Fibre not allow all providers as its basically the same network.
I’m waiting a few days to see what these other providers say, if I have to go with Talk Talk i’ll be a bit pissed off.
So, I have just had an invoice email from Air Broadband! Still invoicing me for the additional stuff they are not providing me with. Absolute shables.
I’ve had an invoice too – my DD is cancelled already. But its come from an unknown email address so I’m not opening the pdf as I assume its not legit.
I’m moving over to Zen on Friday/Saturday morning. which is when City Fibre release the network I understand.
@Mark – are you in the Norwich area, and where did you get the info re the network being opened up this week?
Ditto invoice lists the Static IP i was paying for but no longer have, what a total mess.
Also looking like will be transfered over to new supplier on friday although the auto email suggests a engineer visit which would not be need so will need to check that.
Yep invoice for me too.
Oo, are CityFibre releasing the Zen network to areas that currently only have Talk Talk, that would be awesome.
Had an invoice for April this morning. Not really sure what to do with it as I’m not being provided a service (OFNL cut them off on the 9th) and I cancelled the direct debit on 13th…
I did email them (Zybre and Air together) in advance that I was going to cancel it, and for them to do what’s necessary on their end to end everything so I’m not invoiced further, but as usual had nothing back from either…
Any advice?
@Paul
No I’m in the Birmingham area.
I’ve had another email from Zen (my new provider) and the switch over has been brought forward a day to be done over the night of Thursday so swap the kit over Friday morning.
The new modem has already arrived and is ready to be setup.
Hi James,
OFNL did not cut off your services on the 9th March as we left all services running and requested Air Broadband customers move to other Internet Service Providers. If your services are down then that will be related to something that Air Broadband has done, not OFNL.
If you go onto the OFNL web site and enter your post code in the post code checker you will see who is available and we will work with your chosen provider to restore your services as soon as possible.
Graeme, I did migrate, however to answer your response – the letter from OFNL clearly stated the Air Broadband service would be terminated by OFNL on the 9th. To me, that reads as OFNL will stop supporting Air Broadband Customers connections on the 9th, as also stated further down the letter – they would have no service if they did not migrate to another ISP in-time. To back this up, your website doesn’t show Air Broadband as an available ISP anymore when I put my postcode in.
I did migrate to another ISP (MTH Networks) so still have a connection.
Your comment doesn’t answer the question of what people on either on a rolling-monthly contract (like me), or have time remaining on their yearly contract (like others on this comment section), and who have migrated to another ISP, off the back of the advice given in the OFNL letter – need to do following this termination with regards to billing.
We cannot contact Air Broadband or Zybre via the telephone (the phone line just disconnects) or e-mail (we never receive a response) to sort this out. I’m aware it’s not OFNL’s problem, but it’s YOUR network and YOUR resellers, so accountability must come into it somewhere
If it helps any others, I’ve just sent the following email (below) to Air BB after receiving their emailed invoice this morning. Air BB, through their own actions, have eroded all my trust in them from their actions and behaviors i.e. not allowing their customer base to contact them to find out what is happening.
I sent this to finance@airbroadband and support@airbroandband for full coverage, and included my invoice number in the Subject line for their reference. I’m a Norwich resident and disappointed with both Air BB and City Fibre.
Dear Air Broadband,
Unfortunately, despite numerous attempts to contact you, you are not answering calls and cutting people off from on-hold queues, I’m serving you with formal notice that I am cancelling my Direct Debit with you today, as you are no longer providing me with the services I contracted for.
I’m willing to pay any outstanding balances owed via BACS transfer when you formally invoice up until the point you stopped providing service and City Fibre took over.
If you attempt the direct debit it will fail, and any charges I incur by your action will be recharged to you, with any outstanding balance after 30 days being charge at 20% per day.
If you have any questions, please contact me ASAP via phone on xxxxx xxxxxx.
Kind regards,
I am still pretty confused to be honest – I was passed from Digital Home to Zybre with no official notification or new contract. I have just been charged my monthly DD payment which was £45 instead of the usual £35. I still have full service but not sure who is now supplying that service or how long it will last so am unable to tell Zybre to terminate contract due to lack of service. There has been no real information from City Fibre other than to change your ISP and there has been nothing at all from Zybre – a bit loathed to dump Zybre in case they try and pursue me for the time left on my contract but if I try to go to another ISP they may say that I cannot be set up as Zybre still have ownership of my connection. This is so messy I wish they would just put there hands up and say what is going on so that we can get on and move to another ISP.
In terms of the contract, the hope (at this stage) is that Zybre are kicked off the fibre networks. At this stage, they are unable to fulfil any contract they have with you and are therefore in breach, so you have no financial commitments to them any more. The only argument might be that payment is due up to the day that they fail to provide that service.
I’ve cancelled my direct debit ton Air. Not that they’ve taken any payments from me anyway…
Hi Paul,
Yes I agree and also hoping it goes that way but I still have full service at the moment, just cannot 100% say who is supplying that connection. I may cancel my DD and then see what happens as time goes by – they will either fold and I will lose my connection and then I can go to another ISP or they will demand their money next month and I can then take is from there I guess.
Seems Zybre Limited have now got a CCJ filed against them for £25k or so. Credit Risk score dropped from 9 to 2!
Stay away good people! Cancel your direct debits, and don’t look back.
I was without an Internet connection since 08th February. I signed up to air broadband on early December. On Saturday I noticed that my connection was restored which must have been cityfibre taking action. I already cancelled my direct debit previously and my order with Zen goes live tomorrow instead of the original date of 27/03.
Correction: zen is live from 17/03.
To add insult, they justinvoiced me for the new month! Good job I cancelled the DD!
Just sent a cancellation email to Zybre and set up a new ISP (Vodafone) and within minutes my internet went down!
Coincidence I hope
My internet has just gone down too, so probably not directly related! I cancelled my DD and signed up to another provider on Friday. Due to migrate 17th. I suspect this is just another bump in this debacle.
Aaaaand the GTT internet is down!!!
Came here just to check if it was affecting anyone else.
Yep, ours went too around 1pm. Fortunately the migration is booked for tomorrow. Just hope the new router turns up.
Likewise here – down for the past couple of hours. Got my router from new ISP, just waiting for news as to when they are able to migrate.
It would appear that Zybre/ AirBb have ceased trading. Hence everyone has been disconnected.
Have you seen an announcement or anything? I cant find anything. Would be nice to see something concrete regarding this whole series of mess ups by them.
@Clive – that wasn’t the CEO. He was a minority director, and resigned in disgust. I know it first hand (and no, he’s not a mate and I didn’t speak with him before this morning). The new company has nothing whatsoever to do with Zybre, and I’ve been threatened (legally) for mentioning them in the same breath as Zybre – this is all down to Jonny who owns the majority shareholding. He’s offered to respond to a post I put on LinkedIn this morning, but so far hasn’t.
In the meantime, I’ve been communicating with someone very helpful high up in CityFibre, and truly believe that they are doing all they can to resolve this for all customers using their fibre.
I’ve tried to sign up with Vodafone. I’m in Ipswich and they’ve said that CF have decommissioned lines in my area and there is “no fibre route” on their internal systems. Are we sure this is 100% Zybre? I had broadband up until Friday then from Saturday 16:00 – Tuesday 20:00. Nothing now for nearly a day.
CF insist Vodafone can take the line without Zybre’s permission but Vodafone say CF haven’t made it available. This is a mess.
@ Paul
When you say “I’ve been communicating with someone very helpful high up in CityFibre, and truly believe that they are doing all they can to resolve this for all customers using their fibre.” how confident are you that by “resolving” they mean not only transferring services to new ISPs, but also making sure that we don’t get screwed (legally) by Zybre due to outstanding contracts. Technically if Zybre are kicked out from the CityFibre network than our AirBroadband contracts are null and void, but if they are allowed to stay it’s much more complicated.
@BenF- I think the only legally clean way forward for us is if the networks stop supplying Zybre. Then they are out of contract and we all move with no threats hanging over us. Would love to know the legal implications of signing up to Air after they’d been bought and simply getting an email from Jonny saying they now owned us.
Mine has just returned. Still being provided by GTT. Must’ve been a temporary glitch.
Yep, mine just come back up
Did you have to restart router / modem ?
Mine is still down.
Mine is back also. Didnt have to do anything. however im not using the equipment supplied by airbroadband.
Didn’t do anything, it just came back. Still using the Air router
I’ve jsut been thru the mill with thme CF have been briliant and are trying to expidate my migration to Zen – today i receieved an Invoice from Air for upcoming April – ive never received an invoice before. I’ve cancelled the direct debit but still unsure where I stand legally. Any thoughts?
I’m concerned that CF has more or less instructed us to move providers but if we’re under contract and the fault turns out to be more nuanced and somehow Zybre survive, then we’re going to owe. If that happens, you can bet CF won’t be paying my termination fee!
https://www.zybre.co.uk/network-status-update/ has an outage today which is probably fake because there’s no way to contact them anyway but FYI…
I share the same concerns as Richard. CityFibre can simply state that they have “recommended” that we switch supplier, however given the context provided (“your Zybre/Air Broadband service is likely to cease shortly”), coupled with the multiple outages we have recently experienced, and the nonexistent customer service from Zybre, every reasonable person who relies on internet for their work/kids education/etc would have followed CF’s recommendation and switched supplier.
I’m guessing there are hundreds (thousands?) of us in the same situation, so if Zybre indeed survives (or is bought by someone else) and they decide to sue us for owed monies…would it be possible to join forces and create a class action lawsuit to challenge that (i.e. spread legal cost)? I wonder what would be the right platform for that.
I’ve got a Giganet visit booked in for the 17th, I’m assuming they’d check that the line was free to install their service before they turn up but a bit worried now that they may just connect up a second ONT… does anyone know if it’s like a BT line where you can only have one service at a time?
THe page reads that it will be a remote transfer https://www.giganet.uk/zybre-air-broadband-activations/
I got a automated email saying engineer booked for 17th but I do not believe this is the case its just them saying you’ll transfer over on friday.
But hey been a strange week who knows.
Thanks OJ, sounds positive, not yet received the Eero router as of yet!
On midnight Thursday 16th March CityFibre will release their line to my property allowing my new ISP, Zen the ability to enrol me onto their network. I have been super impressed by the sheer professionalism of Zen’s Customer Service Team who have sent me regular updates via email since I told them of the situation last Friday.
The new router arrived yesterday, it’s all ready to go once CF have released the line, a quick reboot/purge of the ONT is all I’m required to do my end.
I cannot fault the communication from both CityFibre and Zen who have jointly, worked a way through this mess to offer a bespoke solution in challenging circumstances.
I shall update you all here on Friday morning when I’ll hopefully be up and running with a trustworthy, Which? & PC Pro multi-award winning internet provider…feeling at peace, oneness and enlightenment with ZEN 🙂
I am switching to Zen too and in our case the date was brought forward to tonight with switch over in the morning effectively.
Zen have been excellent. I emailed Kevin their customer service guy and got a reply almost instantly despite being a bit busy I would guess!
I also phoned CF and they took my details in case there was an issue when the switch occurs.
Impressed with both but particularly Zen.
Yep, same experience with Zen here, except my router hasn’t arrived yet. But they’ve given me the config details and I’ve entered them into my AirBB router so fingers crossed I’ll wake up to internet tomorrow morning.
I’ve got nothing but praise for how Zen have handled this so far, so fingers crossed the connection goes live as scheduled.
Spoke to soon. CF say there’s another open order on the line (Zybre attempting to migrate??) so Zen can’t take it over.
AARGH!
Looks like Zybre are starting the gaslighting, they can’t be bothered to answer phones or emails but have plenty of time for this on Facebook
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0wt9xZg1GfyYKiSamJavbR1GxMVokD25cdiLYo8kQd6LscwsLF6NbSj8X6FNkkgqLl&id=100064378657325
What is it? I’m not on Fiend face.
To quote:
“CUSTOMER NOTICE
We would firstly like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience caused by recent events. We understand the concern and frustration that has been felt by some.
Customers have experienced outages across our networks in the last few days and an intermittent service across the last month. In most cases we have now rectified this and we continue to work on all outstanding matters.
We are in open dialogue with CityFibre with a view to securing the best solution for customers moving forward.
We accept that we have not met the expectations of some of our customers and we are striving to make the necessary changes to resolve these issues.
It is apparent that our failings derive from the acquisition of Air Broadband and the novation of customers from Digital Home. We believed firmly that we were doing the right thing in acquiring the customers from 2 failing companies with a view to ensuring customers would continue to receive service under our brand. However the burden of these 2 ISPs has drastically affected our wider operation.
Please bear with us as we resolve these matters and restore our platform.
Contact at this time is best served via our email support@zybre.co.uk“
Also with Zen they switched me on overnight by the looks of it – stunning service. This was the mail i received from CF it seems pretty clear that they are advising you to switch providers…
Thank you for contacting CityFibre to report these concerns.
We understand that there has been some interruptions to your service, and we just wanted to provide some further information,
It has come to our attention that Zybre/Air Broadband is in breach of its contractual obligations to CityFibre and a number of other suppliers. Customers have also raised major concerns regarding the quality of service they received from the company.
Zybre/Air Broadband’s issues mean that your broadband service is likely to cease to work at any time and any Zybre/Air Broadband installation will not go ahead on the CityFibre network. We are working on keeping your connection up for as long as possible.
We recommend that you choose another provider to supply broadband to your home as soon as possible. If you currently have Zybre/Air Broadband, you are already connected to the CityFibre network and switching providers is easy. You can have working broadband in just a few days, this also saves the hassle of a further broadband installation.
We work with a wide range of broadband providers including Vodafone, TalkTalk, Zen and Giganet. We recommend contacting a new provider as soon as possible to discuss a ‘working line takeover,’ or placing a new order, with them. Please see our Availability Checker here: https://cityfibre.com/ to see the providers available to you.
We sincerley apologise for the inconvenience caused to all Zybre/Air Broadband customers. Please see further information on our website here: https://cityfibre.com/zybreairbroadband
Thank you for your understanding, and we are sure a new provider will support your connection to keep you up and running.
I’ve just spent time on the phone to CityFibre to figure what on earth is going on.
By default, Zybre still have control over the lines to their customers. Despite being the infrastructure provider with the technical ability to reclaim the lines so we can move to other suppliers, CityFibre have some kind of contractual difficulty with just doing it en masse. I was told that they may take up to 2 weeks in order to fully reclaim all the Zybre lines. Therefore as my line isn’t reclaimed, I can’t go with anyone else right now unless I use OpenReach which isn’t as good.
I’m advised that CityFibre are trying to get alternative access to ISPs for customers that are stranded and that people should have a connection today according to customer service’s latest brief. This will involve a MODEM and router reset (by the way, when you do this, make sure that everything’s off for 15 seconds, turn on the MODEM, wait 2 mins and then the router).
CityFibre also told me that they were making residences without a connection a priority in terms of the activation date, but from what I can see the ISPs can’t really do much about the availability dates when you book with them so that appears fairly useless, albeit well-intentioned.
So I’m currently playing a waiting game. I don’t know how people posting above got an immediate replacement, but well done if you did!
Their customers on LilaConnect are being disconnected too. Lila sent a letter to impacted customers today, saying they’re giving them 30 days free service & providing instructions for signing up with them directly or via another provider.
This was the letter I was planning on sending:
My Dearest [Broadband Provider],
My heart aches as I pen these words to you, for I fear that our love affair must come to an end. Alas, it pains me to say that I must cancel my direct debit with you, as you have stopped providing me with the sweet and passionate internet connection that we once shared.
Our union has been a tumultuous one, with many ups and downs, but I had hoped that our love was strong enough to withstand any obstacle. Alas, it seems that fate has other plans for us.
As per the terms and conditions of our contract, I am entitled to a refund for the unused portion of my subscription. I beseech you to grant me this small mercy, for my heart can bear no more pain.
Please, my love, confirm receipt of this letter and the refund amount that will be issued, so that I may know that our separation is not in vain.
Yours truly,
[Your Name]
Zybre actually replied to an email. They stated that my supply is with them and that my contract has migrated to them. I have made them aware that I have cancelled the DD, have not signed any new agreements. I also told them I am transferring to a new supplier tomorrow, and do not wish to be supplied by them. Waiting for a response.
Anyone just had an email about direct debit changing names from Air Broadband to Eazipay Ltd re Air Broadband?
Yep. I am fuming.
I’ve had one too.
“If you have any questions about this change please call Finance as soon as possible on 01223 653400”!!!
Considering the number of former Air Broadband employees who are happily celebrating their new employment on LinkedIn, I don’t think anyone is going to pick up the phone.
Yes.
Why do you think have they done this? Is the hope that it will make things more confusing for people who are trying to cancel their direct debits?
And the best part of that phone number is… it disconnects you just like all the others… surprise, surprise!
Not sure why they’ve done it, but someone’s clearly doing things. Very annoying that they can also answer Facebook comments (I can’t even post a comment as they limit who can), but can’t answer the damn phone or emails…
If it takes a class action – I’m up for it. and the instruction from City Fibre needs taking into account as well….’We recommend that you choose another provider to supply broadband to your home as soon as possible’..There is no ambiguity there.
Totally. Count me in on that. Seems strange that they’re able to reply to on social media. Yet can’t answer phones or reply to multiple emails. If they do much as dare to try and take me to court to get the remainder of my contract I will hit them with solicitors. They have very clearly breached contract.
My business has been offline now with zyber for well over 72 hours. No comms phone or other wise I wasn’t even aware of zyber untill 3 days ago. Needless to say I’m out of pocket and as far as I’m concerned this constitutes a clear breach of contract. Simply putting up statements on Facebook or this forum is not good enough. My Contract is with air broadband not zybre or city fibre and have received no direct comms from them as such the contract which has a month left to run anyway is broken effectively. I have done what they should have done as a common curtsy and advised via mail that their services are no longer required due to their breach. I’ve already done more than they have for me as a customer they don’t en pick up the phone. If they would like to chase me for the last month I’d love to repay them with an invoice for my lost business. I’ve gone with giganet and have recieved their eero box already I’m hoping it will go live ASAP or they provide me with the details here’s hoping. If there’s one thing I can’t abide is sheer incompetence especially when it comes to simple communication which is very clearly the case with zyber.
Some food for thought for those on OFNL’s backbone, I ran a little test… ofcourse I wouldn’t recommend you doing this test unless you know what you’re doing.
Before I moved to MTH Networks, Air Broadband used LAN 1 on my ONT. MTH are using LAN 2 currently so this wouldn’t affect the test, as MTH aren’t using the same port Air Broadband were.
I reconfigured my router back to the configuration I had setup (using an old config backup I had) when I was using Air Broadband (pre-OFNL letter) and plugged into LAN 1. Guess what I find… NOTHING! No activity light, and no internet.
If there was any doubt for me before, OFNL have definitely removed Air from the network. Even if Air were to be paid for April’s Service, you’d recieve no service as they physically cannot provide one anymore…
I’ve had confirmation from City Fibre that my service is being migrated to my new one overnight.
Fingers crossed it all goes to plan.
Ditto @Mark Colston, SMS text received from CityFibre at 21.22hrs this evening confirming switchover to Zen between 00:00 and 07:00 tonight. I also received a further email today about the Air Broadband
Direct Debit change from 1st April – sent from EDDI aka noreply@accessacloud.com
Interestingly, and I don’t see any mention from others about this, on the morning after the service was disconnected by CityFibre, a letter arrived from Zen offering me their services, 2 days later, a letter from Talk Talk, the following day, Vodafone. Today, I had a Giganet salesman knock on my door making it the full house of alternative providers approaching me for my custom after clearly being tipped off by CityFibre that I was a ‘free agent’ for them to approach. I feel it’s fate that the company I chose after my own investigations was the same company who contacted me first. There’s even more Zen to this story than meets the eye! 🙂
Zen and CityFibre have done a miraculous job in turning round my order in less than 1 week. At this exact time last week I was happily working from home and little did I know I would be disconnected in just over 2 hours. Roll forward to this morning, right now I’m about to host a Teams call where cameras and screen sharing will be in full use.
The whole process. from the moment I called Zen to the moment all lights turned green this morning, has been a breath of fresh air and offers hope to those of you still waiting to get your life back online. Zen is the future, trust me, trust them, it’s a safe pair of hands in this crazy world we live in.
Have a fantastic weekend – I’ve formally thanked Kevin and his superb Team for all their hard work in the last 6 days and wish them and you all continued success and growth 🙂
Zybre are now on the ombudsman-services.org website, and have heard some people have had success with it. I will be filling out my complaint when I get the time at work… better than banging our head against the wall with Zybre
Regarding the change of direct debit mail – i haven’t received one. When I try to log into the Zybre portal with my Air credentials it states there is no know user with that email. I have never received comms from Zybre regarding my new account takeover apart from that mail we all got last Thursday previous to the switch off.
Well what a few days this has been….a stark few days that completely that threw us into reality…the little box we took for granted suddenly stops working and….no internet, no Sky TV, no mobile phones..we have such a poor signal indoors we have to use wifi calling, my autistic grandaughter unable to do her studies for her masters degree in banking law and really stressed out, so many missed messages and calls.
Soon got to grips…managed to get basic sky tv in main living room only, got used to going into the garden to get phone signal and catch up with missed calls emails etc, grandaughter had to go to her other nans house to do her online studies and team viewer stuff etc.
All a bit chaotic at first but did not take very long for the new regime to kick in. My new little box due to go live Monday and hopefully back to normal…my wife now getting fed up with me saying to her….it could be worse we could be living Syria or Ukraine then we’d really have something to moan about.
Good message. Glad you’re getting things sorted out.
I’ve been telling myself a lot this week that these really are first world problems. I’m an avid supporter of Ukraine, and feel so badly about what’s happening there – and here I am getting stressed that I might lose my 500Mbps internet link…
Well, another day and another ton of attempts to get a response from Zybre… No response.
Yesterday evening I had an email (much like others have had) telling me the company name on my DD would be changing. I replied with a strongly worded reply telling them they wouldn’t get any more of my money and DD had been cancelled. To my surprise I got an email tonight apologising for the email and confirming that my DD had been cancelled. Supposedly signed by the director. But they stopped short of confirming that I was released from my contract.
I got this also. It’s not from Zybre — it’s from the EDDI direct debit payment processor.
Wonder when we will be contacted about return of equipment…..will just box mine up and put in shed for now….no doubt someone somewhere will buy a job lot from whoever administrates as somebody will surely be appointed if there are significant debts.
Anybody else having issues during this period on GTT. My latency goes from 36 to 999ms and high packet loss which makes gaming in the evening impossible. Been pushed back another 4 days with onboarding to Giganet on CF. If this is now the norm I’ll be going back to VM as it’s dire at the moment.
My service with Zen went live yesterday and has been excellent once I plugged the cable into the right port.
Ok, so found out I only had a month left of my contract so have cancelled the DD and signed up with Zen. Not going to email Zybre as I was never told officially that they had taken over DigitalHome so they can find out when the money stops coming in from me – sod them.
Looking forward to getting Zen and not having to worry about this BS any more and a disgraceful company called Zybre.
So now, when you try to ring Zybre (still not been able to speak to anyone) you get a recorded message saying they have too many calls due to “The outage”. Over a week of trying to contact them now, and now response.
Holy!
I just got the following mail from Zybre. I was 13 months into an 18 month contract with Air Broadband, and have not signed any new contract with them. Get this…
“I hope you are well.
The letter that you received last week did explain that your service with ZYBRE via the CityFibre network will end.
However, due to a statement that will be released by CityFibre today, your service will continue as it should and has done since your time with us.
We do apologise for the confusion and inconvenience this has caused for you but rest assured that your service will still be active for the remainder of your contract.
However, If you would like to end your contract with us, there will be a termination fee as you are still in contract.
Your termination fee is as follows:
17 months left = £544
If you have any further questions, please do let me know.
Kind Regards,
Jack Viner ”
What?
They are ridiculous, do you think they’ve re-upped the contracts for users on City Fibre without telling anyone? At least you’ve had something from them which proves they do still exist… numerous calls and 7 e-mails to all e-mail addresses (Zybre and Air Broadband) I can find online has still not proved fruitful for me thus far.
Have you checked your account status at Air Broadband? When I log in to ours it says “Service Status Ceased”. Also, when I run speedtest.net it tells me GTT are my provider. If this is the case for you then you have proof that their email is simply not true.
I have screenshots of both of the above, as well as logs of the numerous failed calls, and the unanswered emails. Also CF’s FAQ page. Given the information available It is entirely reasonable – essential – for us to act, moving to a new supplier.
I’m on OFNL not City Fibre, and OFNL have told me they won’t be bringing them back to their network as far as they know.
I never had to their status page, so not something I can check easily, unfortunately – so have to stick with firing emails and phone calls into Zybre. I was on a monthly rolling service with Air Broadband, so I don’t think there should be exist fee’s etc.
I’m on OFNL not City Fibre, and OFNL have told me they won’t be bringing them back to their network as far as they know.
I never had to their status page, so not something I can check easily, unfortunately – so have to stick with firing emails and phone calls into Zybre. I was on a monthly rolling service with Air Broadband, so I don’t think there should be exist fee’s etc.
That’s a shame, but running a test at https://www.speedtest.net will tell you who’s actually providing your service at the moment. I’ve got tests run from when the line was first active (as we had issues) and it was AB. It now shows it’s GTT.
I’m with another supplier as OFNL advised me to continue receiving an internet connection. Air Broadband’s connection to my ONT is no longer there – as I rolled my router back to the Air Broadband config and can no longer connect to the LAN port Air Broadband were using.
It’s just impossible trying to get a hold of Zybre to confirm that they can cancel the monthly rolling contract + billing, which is all I want.
I noticed that Air Broadband’s Finance / Accounts phone line now redirect to Zybre, although you still can’t get through.
As far as I am aware GTT don’t offer internet users direct to consumers, so it all depends who has the contract with GTT.
If it is Zybre then they could argue that they’re still providing services as per the contract and so any minimum term is still enforceable.
This is the problem with the vague and uncertain comms CityFibre have put out – if a customer does still have service but they migrate away on CityFibre’s advice then they’re leaving customers exposed to termination charges from Zybre.
Things seem a little bit more certain with OFNL if the update from the 18th is correct – Zybre are no longer providing services to any Zybre/AirBB customers and so their contract with customers is void.
I would have thought that too Adrian in terms of OFNL side of things.
OFNL have told me that there’s no current plans to bring Zybre back into the fold, and they are no longer on the list of available ISPs.
In terms of the contract being void due to not being on OFNLs list, OFNL said I’d have to talk about that with Zybre.
If only someone with access to Zybre’s e-mails could confirm that to me!
I do have screenshots of all that – both the service ending with Air Broadband, and I am with GTT.
How long did it take to get that reply from Zybre from your last e-mail?
Then we can all only trust that this is the end of it (with regards Zybre).
We’ve all had unambiguous information indicating the service with AB/Zybre has ceased (supported by the impossibility of contact with Zybre). It is not credible to expect us to ignore this and CF’s recommendation to move accounts in the hopes that – against all evidence – Zybre comes back to life. Connectivity is a vital service.
I hope this doesn’t end up in the courts but if so my position is that AB/Zybre owes me a partial refund for March as they only provided my service for the first week or so of the month and then ceased, could not be reached on the phone, did not answer emails, leaving with me with no other option.
I raised a case with Ombudsman on Friday, to hopefully compel them to answer me, and get the rolling contract + billing cancelled – as I saw on Twitter someone managed to do so.
As far as I know they are still “around” you just have to be extremely lucky to hear anything from them…
Jess –
In my view, unless your connection is currently offline and has been for an extended length of time then I’d say there hasn’t been any unambiguous information saying the service with AB/Zybre has ceased.
CFs comms are peppered with words like ‘likely’ and the name of the provider you’re seeing on speedtests etc. doesn’t necessarily have to match the entity that has the contract with you to provide service. Zybre could have a contract with GTT to provide service.
Whether Zybre would have any luck trying to enforce minimum terms or not under these circumstances I have no idea, it is far from clear cut.
Adrian – to clarify, the unambiguous information I’m referring to is my account status when I log in to my AB account, it literally says “ceased’ (and I assume is available to AB customers). Agree that to a greater (GTT proving my line) or lesser (CF’s use of the word “likely”) degree the rest is supporting. I don’t think I mentioned before, on 10 March I rang CF to ask for more information. I assume that call was recorded. I was told CF were “100% cancelling” their contract, there was “no chance” this would change, and that it takes up to two weeks for the process to complete.
All that said, I’m braced for this not being simple.
I have emailed almost daily since the 10th. The only one I got a response from was when I mentioned payment – funny that. I am wondering if we need to be pooling resources to take legal action?
This is a really sad situation for the customers of Air Broadband/ZYBRE who deserve more clarity and certainty. I have noticed a few comments mention GTT (who are a tier 1 ISP) typically involved in wholesale products that are of little relavence to the average consumer. Sometimes these tier 1 providers lease IP addresses to other ISP’s and can sometimes show up when databases are not updated. To identify a service provider look up the Autonomous System Number (ASN) on a site such as https://bgp.he.net or https://bgp.tools this will give you an idea who is temporarily supplying your service during this ‘transition’.
Connection came back up today at 15:25. It had been down since 10th March. I was an Airbroadband customer, Zybre did respond to emails last week about no connection and advised reboot as service should be restored.
It appears to be using GTT network now IP and AS number are GTT.
DD is currently cancelled, be interesting to see who sends the bill when it’s due, and potentially re-set up DD if the service is set to be stable.
I’ve got home and my connection is now back on GTT same boat as you I cancelled my dd. Will see if giganet can take it over as still no response from zyber…
Well, I’ve been down since the 10th March still no service.
Tried to go with Vodafone who state they can’t do a working line take over cause City Fibre system shows a live service, and it won’t allow it. Even though I have a letter from City Fibre saying move to another ISP, but they are not making it easy/even possible to do. Vodafone stated they have 1000’s in the same boat it is escalated within their business so no idea why they are not allowing them to do a working line take over.
They are not getting much back from City Fibre; Vodafone told me now to speak to Zyber to try and cease the service so they can provide.
I’ve emailed on the 10th and today tried calling multiple times get no response.
I called Giganet as they sent me a letter trying to get my to join, they have advised they can do a working line take over I’m going to see how they get on.
I think most will agree what an absolute s**t show!
I was contacted on Friday 17th by CityFibre and was told that they had taken over as ISP from Zybre, but only temporarily, and I would need to find another supplier asap
I just contacted CityFibre this morning, they confirmed this they have temporary taken over service. Which confirms what some folks have seen above with it being GTT IP’s etc.
At least some folks have something now and can look to move away. They also advised that other ISP providers should be able to do working line take over of the service. CityFibre Provisioning teams are prioritising these from various ISP’s now.
This is still such a mess. So we’ve got Zybre claiming that they have resolved their issues with CityFibre and they can continue to provide a service, and CityFibre still taking over Zybre lines.
Why is it so hard to get some clarity, so those of us who switched but still have outstanding time on their AirBroadband contracts know where they stand?
You’re right, BenF. It’s a complete mess. I feel for the fibre providers, as they’re having to sort out the mess left by Zybre. I suspect, but don’t know, that there are probably different solutions being put in place by different cable providers for different areas. And/or for the different ISPs that Zybre adopted.
It’s frustrating not having all of the postcodes/cities/towns that people on this thread are writing from so we can understand what the situation seems to be where we live. Maybe people would oblige by adding their postcode area in future posts.
Here in NR8 we only had one other choice when CF laid their cables in December (local streets are still being cabled now) which is TalkTalk and I really don’t want to go there. I know for certain that they’re trying to increase the possibilities for us, and that there will be more available around the end of the month. The list is significant.
But in the meantime, Zybre tells one of us that there will be an announcement from CF by the end of yesterday that they’re continuing, and this hasn’t appeared, and two other fibre companies have already transferred at least some of their Zybre customers to their own or another ISP, if only temporarily.
I wish Jonny would comment. I wrote this up on LinkedIn last week, and he approached me to ask if it would be useful if he commented on it. I obviously said yes. He didn’t…
It’s a total mess, but I feel the cause is all Zybre:
1. Has proved Impossible (for me anyway) to get through to them on the phone and there have been no replies to any emails.
2. The only public communication from them has been misleading (at best) and proved unreliable.
Although frustrating I’m sympathetic to CF use of “likely” as this is presumably new territory for them. I think they’re working hard to do the best they can for a problem not of their making.
I hope one upshot of this is that OFCOM (or whoever is responsible for such things) comes up with a transition plan for situations like this akin to what happens when an energy supplier goes bust. In the meantime it’s stressful for all us as you face the choice of making a switch based on the evidence available, or waiting until you’re cut off: if Zybre were fine why wouldn’t they have responded to that LinkedIn msg by now.
We’re IP33. We currently have GTT providing our connection. CF have confirmed to me on the phone this morning that this is their doing (ie Zybre is not providing my service). We’re moving to Zen.
Zen have been excellent. Easy to get hold of. They call/email back when they say they will, are diligent and thorough. And this during a time they must be under extra pressure.
Well that’s interesting. I’ve just heard from Jonny that CF will be removing their message today as they’ve agreed a way forward, and also that only a relative handful of Zybre customers have been migrated, and those were because of outage issues.
I’m not sure that I’m holding my breath…
Yep! Here in Chester CH2, we only have Talk Talk available and I am not prepeared to sign a 2 year contract.
At the moment my connection is fine and I am trying to find other providers No One/GigaNet/Zen but none have got back to me yet on why they are not available in my area.
I’m waiting this out… for now!
Lack of info is key here.
Has city fibre engaged GTT to provide service to those affected, and is it short term.
or has Zybre engaged GTT and technically we are still with Zybre. Is Zybre even functioning as a business anymore.
Thankfully as a homeworker I’ve run two separate services to home with diverse providers ie BT / Virgin, then moved to City Fibre to get 2 FTTP provisions. Virgin and City Fibre.
(previously posted as a reply – wish I could edit…)
Well that’s interesting. I’ve just heard from Jonny that CF will be removing their message today as they’ve agreed a way forward, and also that only a relative handful of Zybre customers have been migrated, and those were because of outage issues.
I’m not sure that I’m holding my breath…
I thought it’s more than a handful that migrated…I was migrated last week to Zen, and I was certainly not the only one.
If CF will indeed remove their message, in my humble opinion they have misled customers…I don’t think they should have published statements like that if they weren’t sure that Zybre would indeed cease to provide a service. Yes Zybre have acted negligently, but ultimately it’s us customers who will be out of pocket if we are still tied to old contracts.
It was 63 who migrated, apparently. Most on Air, and related to the outages on 10th. But a few have reported here that they’ve migrated, so I take that number with a pinch of salt.
If Zybre continue to operate, I’m going to be jealous of those who have got out during the last week or so. I really wanted to use Zen. I have had their standard service for ten years plus and can’t fault their customer service but needed fibre speeds.
Waiting patiently for the CF page to change…
I’m the same bn19jl was with air broadband internet cut off the 10th got the letter from city fibre on the 13th switch to zen same day was told my service would go live Thursday/Friday last week now been told I was taken off that list and I’m down on the next batch tomorrow City fibre says switching provider is a simple process should have internet in a few days.
CityFibre just responded to me on Twitter and said this at just gone midday today;
“Hello. CityFibre will not be providing Zybre with our services moving forward. We advise you to change to another ISP in your area. Thank you.”
I also suggested they may want to use this definite language on their info page, so people know where they stand. Since their outrageous email I have had no follow mails, but a new one by someone apparently unfamilliar with anything I have previously written about. Not going to lie, this is really not doing much for my sleep or peace of mind. I just want out – and I don’t want to get ripped off in the process….
The worst thing is the lack of support from the likes of Ofcom and Trading Standards. I have (for all the likelyhood it will get picked up) raised this with BBC Watchdog. Might be worth a few others here doing the same?
Thanks Sefotron, most interesting. So clearly either Zybre or CityFibre is lying, let’s keep waiting to find out the truth.
I’m also shocked by Ofcom’s indifference to all this. When I have some time I am going to write to my MP about this: what’s the point of having a regulator if they can’t do some appropriate due diligence checks on companies such as Zybre before giving them access to a critical utility such as broadband.
“Outrageous email” from Zybre.
I am speechless. This is from CityFibre’s page;
“If you currently have Zybre/Air Broadband, you are already connected to the CityFibre network. You may wish to stay with Zybre, or if this is no longer a choice for you, you can stay on CityFibre’s network through a wide range of broadband providers. Simply click here, enter your postcode to find out which broadband providers are available in your area and choose the best deal for you.”
Yes. I’m pretty hacked off now. There seems to be an agreement for the foreseeable future. But having just spoken with CityFibre, they can’t say what it is or for how long. They’re not taking any new connections, though, so on the basis that other providers have kicked Zybre off and they can’t expand on CF, their income will dwindle and they’ll be in more of a mess than they are now. They still haven’t submitted account for their last year (according to Companies House).
I’m looking for contract breaches to get out without paying for the next 16 months… Unfortunately service supply isn’t something I can complain about – I only had a few hours without it on 10th March, and that was down to a physical cable issue.
I’m wondering whether there’s something about the method of transferring me to a new company (I started with Air after they’d been bought but only got an email from Jonny on 9th saying I was his now).
If anyone knows a good contract lawyer, can you pass them in my direction, please 😉
Yep, Cityfibre have distinctly rolled back on the previous “likely ceasing of Zybre / Air Broadband’s service” statement that they originally posted.
I’m getting the feeling that CityFibre might’ve landed those of us who have migrated to another provider on the back of the recommendation in their letter in the do-do.
What a mess.
Disgusting is a word I would use for the whole situation with not particularly nice words for CF, Zybre or Air – with no thoughts to the poor customers that got disconnected on the Friday and promptly took advice from the CF letter that arrived that day and arranged new suppliers.
No clear info, no real means to get hold of Zybre, a company I had not even heard of until the Thursday before when I received a rather hasty email saying that customers where being migrated over to them from Air, which had not gone smoothly (email went to spam) I imaging just to cover themselves for the disconnects on the Friday
Thankfully I got out and have been transferred over to another supplier and much to my relief I only had a month left on my Air contract (with no new contact terms agreed with Zybre) which I will bite the bullet on and complete, but this is no good for people just at the start of a contract I sincerely hope they are able to get out of with as little trouble as possible.
Yep, thoroughly annoyed if CF have back tracked on all this.
I was one of those who received a letter, who’s internet then promptly went down and because I work from home, hastily arranged for a new provider. I waived the cooling off period so it would happen faster, because who knew when it would disappear again, after all CF told me it would stop working in the letter.
Now I find, after I’ve migrated, that I may well be on the hook for the remaining 14 months of my Air.
Thanks a bunch CF.
Disgusted by the complete lack of Comms from either company.
agreed to move to Zen on 14th have recieved new router but no internet connection
recieved an email from zen explaining as i had city full fibre installation would not be required but recieved an email saying installation to take place on 30th
contacted ZEN explained everything
ZEN help told me switching is the longest part not the installation
contacted and asked for an activation date all to no joy
starting to think all providers are the same take your money and run merchants
I am still going over to Zen I will worry about any fallout from Zybre later. I only have a month of my contract left and I was with digitalhome uk who have disappeared I have never been told officially that I am with Zybre so I cannot see why they would expect me to honour any contract and I was not asked to agree to any new terms or contracts. I still have a service but have no idea who is actually supplying it. As far as I am concerned digitalhome uk / Zybre are in breach of contract to me and I will happily go to court to fight this if they decide to go down that road. I am based in Portsmouth.
Signed up to Giganet the Friday I received the letter, router received last Thursday and went live with them yesterday. All very smooth and no complaints. I cancelled my DD with Air/Zybre middle of last week and sent them emails to confirm this.
After reading the comments posted yesterday I rang City Fibre yesterday just to see what the situation was with Zybre. They confirmed to me that Zybre were still be kicked off the City Fibre network, but this process does take time (weeks). I don’t know how far along that process is.
As far as I’m concerned if Zybre come chasing me for a termination fee (I think a had about 5 months left on my contract with Air not Zybre) then I’ll treat it like they treat their customers and ignore it, they aren’t getting a penny more from me. I don’t see the company lasting anyway to be honest.
Worcester here (WR4), Air Broadband Customer, also resolving under GTT (Cityfibre’s temporary service), spoke to Vodafone that many times I can’t keep count and even though a few advisers have contacted cityfibre to do a “working line takeover” their systems just don’t seem to want to accept it quoting a “cancellation period”, that and getting through the wall of advisors trying to get a quick sale put through is insanely difficult.
Trying Octaplus, they don’t always seem to answer the phone but said an order was put in for me yesterday and I should hear tomorrow.
Also contacted CF just now given the recent statement change about Zybre, they say it remains the same and all Zybre service will cease.
What an absolute s***show, think it would be worth writing to BBC Watchdog as another commentor mentioned.
Poole here (ex) Air BB customer, I too had service through GTT. Signed up with idnet the day we got the letter through and the connection died. Migrated yesterday and couldn’t be happier with the service. Guess I’ll see what happens when Zybre try to take next month’s payment from a cancelled direct debit.
Totally disappointed with the communication from CityFibre, it seems to be conflicting messages coming out from them when people phone compared to the faq page they have.
C’mon CityFibre, give us a definitive, unambiguous statement so we know where we stand.
Received this at 17.28 today.
Good afternoon,
The issues with CityFibre and Air Broadband have now been resolved. As result of this, they are going to remove the FAQ page and post an update on the mater shortly.
This also means there is no need to look for a new provider and your service will continue to run the same as usual.
There is no need to cancel your existing service. If you do, termination charges may apply.
Please let me know if you have any further questions and I will be happy to assist you with whatever you need.
Kind Regards,
Jack
ZYBRE Team Leader
Not sure who to blame for the lack of Comms around the CityFibre availability. Zybre say one thing, CityFibre another. Hopefully CF users find out for certain soon…
As an OFNL user, hopefully they now open the phone lines back up and I can just speak to somebody to sort my account closure, because OFNL have been firm in not allowing them back it seems
Ah. Standard template. Exactly the same, with the same spelling mistake (mater) as I got at lunchtime today at his second attempt at a response to my cancellation request letter.
He still hasn’t come back to me to refute any of the contract breaches I allege, though, despite having had three opportunities.
Just copied this from the ‘Zybre Air Broadband CityFibre – WTF’ Facebook group. Looks like CF has caused panic and are now doing a Bojo!
“I’ve just been onto City Fibre for the last 25 mins. It’s not possible to speak to anyone beyond their service desk but it is as I feared:
Zybre are now starting to respond to customers and are contactble albeit through email only and no guarantee of a reply. Zybre are back on the network and they have confirmed that anyone going to http://www.speedtest.net and seeing “GTT” appear as their provider are using Zybre connection. CityFibre are not offering Zybre to new customers but are maintaining a connection to existing Zybre customers.
Worryingly, I pushed them politely but quite hard about their decision to post a letter to everyone telling them to move and being in breach of contract with Zybre, more on others behalf than my own as I’m not yet with anyone else. After a few attempts to get me to contact Zybre to discuss it, I was encouraged to take “legal advice” with regard to my contract and that they couldn’t comment on my arrangement with Zybre.
So in summary, it looks like Zybre failed for about 2 weeks but they’re now up and running again, responding sporadically to emails, their phoneline is working but with a recorded message to use email and contracts, regretably, will be enforceable with termination fees unless we can somehow wriggle out of them. I was told that them taking over Air and not informing me might be grounds for a breach but that doesn’t sound right to me. Takeovers happen all the time – if my mortgage company gets taken over then I don’t suddenly have a free house!
CityFibre can be contacted at complaints@cityfibre.com and I was encouraged to do so by a fairly stressed CSA…”
City fibre would be stupid to give out legal advice about contracts between zybre and zybre’s customers.
City fibre would also be stupid to instigate a bunch of panic with vague statements like “your service is likely to cease, you should look at other ISPs” when it seems actually zybre are continuing to provide service.
But here we are.
IMO it looks like zybre had/has some issues with city fibre. City fibre jumped the gun and aired CF & Zybre’s dirty laundry to all of zybre’s customers and competing ISPs. Zybre (temporarily/permanently?) resolved whatever the original issue was and now customers that listened to city fibre are left with egg on their face & are likely liable for early termination fees.
In my own personal case – my contract was with digitalhomeuk which then got acquired by zybre. My contract states;
“We may transfer the Agreement to anyone at any time provided this does not adversely affect your rights under the Agreement” – so that covers moving to Zybre and Zybre now owning the contract & needing to uphold the terms of the agreement.
To your point – acquisitions are not get-out-of-contract-free cards.
On the topic of cancellations & early termination fees, my contract states;
“If we change the Service or the Agreement (to your material detriment), except where any increase or change is required by law or any regulatory authority, then you may end this Agreement early without incurring an Early Termination Fee”
I’d be hard pushed to argue either bad customer service or 3 hours of connectivity issues constitutes a materially detrimental change to my service or agreement – neither points even have SLAs in the contract.
If others’ contracts are similar and they cancelled with zybre…they will be liable for early termination fees. I’d be tempted to send the bill to city fibre though given their communications ultimately instigated people cancelling.
I’ve just moved from Zybre to Giganet while still in contract. Probably worth paying the early termination fee to get away from them, but…
Does anyone know how the Cityfibre migration/provider lock process works? Zybre’s Terms of Service mentions ending the agreement if they’re unable to provide the service for more than 31 days.
Presumably that’ll be the case now, because CF and/or my new provider won’t let them take back the connection?
Well, Giganet are brilliant, and I am going to be 250 quid out of pocket for leaving Zybre early. Going to be complaining to Ofcom and CityFibre for their part in this. That’s my paltry savings gone for no good reason. Brilliant.
Just had an email from ZYBRE, they seem to have ignored my first email asking what’s happening with the CityFibre situation and only responded to my second one asking for my Static IP address back which I believe is part of my contract.
”
Good afternoon,
At this time, we are unable to provide a static IP for you.
Are your services still offline?
Kind Regards,
Jack
ZYBRE Team Leader”
This kinda defeats the purpose for me of having a 160Mb line, with BT you can get a nice IPv4 address but no speed to make use of it, CityFibre networks offer the upload but don’t really allow you to make use of it without paying extra, in this instance my line is held hostage and I mayaswell be using 4G.
Absolute shambles.
Anybody know where we stand exactly with our contracts? My direct debit remains cancelled.
If you were on Air, and already paying the extra for a public IP address (which I’ve just learnt is slightly different to a static IP) then if Zybre say it can’t be provided they would be in breach of contract and you’d be one of the lucky ones.
I can’t find reference to static IPs on either of their sites, or in the Air contract.
They’ve just given me a “Static IP” which seems to be the same as the one I was already using and resolves as a totally different IP “Network Sharing Device” so I don’t have my Public IP.
Replied to them with a copy of my Air Broadband Bill stating “Public IP”.
Fingers crossed.
looks like airbb and zybre are run by the same people and have done this to get rid of airbb debit that has occured starting again with clean slate so to speak
Zybre bought Air, claiming that it was to save them from going into liquidation. Certainly Air’s last accounts look as though they had a large amount of debt (six figures). Who knows what the terms of the takeover were, but the previous directors have all resigned and Jonny, who owns Zybre, is the only active one at Air now.
But there ‘s evidence somewhere that there’s also a CCJ for around £25k hanging over Zybre, and they have failed to post their first financial year accounts, and people will jump to their own conclusions about that.
And I have heard that there are a number of disgruntled ex-Air employees who don’t have jobs, but also don’t have compensation due to them.
So far from a clean slate, it may well be that someone has bitten off more than they can chew. There have been ‘breaches of contract’ between Zybre and several fibre companies, two of which seem to have removed Zybre from their networks.
And with people trying to leave Zybre, and CF still apparently saying that they won’t take on new Zybre connections, it’s easy to see why people might think that Zybre will disappear in the not too distant future.
It’s now over 28 days of since issues first started (mid feb), unable to stream or work from home. Several occasions total loss of services. What is my IP has my connection with GTT in Canada since 10 March which is detrimental to streaming services that check your UK geo location. So netflix, Prime, Disney, iPlayer and Channel 4 etc all affected. The communication from ZYBRE gave a help email but is a non deliverable address, phoning them you get cut off after a while.
As far I see it the service is not meeting the contract and service provision I signed up to with AirBB
My GTT (possible temporary connection, who knows at this point anymore) has just gone down again. Orange Broadband light on router like a DHCP/RADIUS login issue. Service light still on ONT fine.
Same here mate.
Same as well.
Hope new ISP will be better, changeover scheduled next week.
I can confirm the same I just spoke to cityfiber they said to call 03301333693 which is digitalhome some other isp….
Of course no answer through to answereing machine, will try tomorrow.
Cityfibre told me the other day they were providing temp connectivity now seem to have pulled it.
I’m trying to get giganet but I can’t get through to them and they’ve not come back on my emails after i signed up.
I’m Derby I feel there are different issues for folks based on where they are.
Just had a response from ZYBRE after reporting disconnection.
“Good evening,
We are going to get one of our engineering team to look into this issue now.
Thank you for your patience.
Kind Regards,
Jack *removed*
ZYBRE Team Leader”
Status page confirming a CityFibre maintenance outage: https://www.zybre.co.uk/network-status-update/
I’ve been with many ISP’s over the years and deal with them for family etc, never have I ever received a service with as many outages and issues as this one.
McDonalds Wi-Fi is probably more reliable.
My connection is still down approaching 24 hours later. No response so far to this evening’s email. I don’t believe CityFibre would be having such prolonged issues from a maintenance period without hearing of such an MSO on here or elsewhere.
Please ZYBRE! keep updating status pages until fixed or otherwise or open actual support tickets to check back with users that issues are resolved.
Does any Air Broadband customer recall receiving written notice from them of the transfer of the contract to another organisation? Letter or email perhaps? I can’t remember one.
The contract I have with them says:
“We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under the contract.”
If they did not tell us in writing, then is that not a breach of the contract by them and therefore cause for us to be able to terminate the contract within any minimum term, without prejudice, per the following terms of the contract:
“Ending the contract because of something we have done or are going to do
If you are ending your contract for a reason set out below, the Contract will end, and we will refund you for any services which have been paid for but have not been provided (if applicable). The reasons are:
…
4. or you have a legal right to end the contract because we have broken the terms of the Contract.”
I might be clutching at straws, or it might be we were given notice in writing of the transfer of the contract to another organisation by them? Perhaps the email from Zybre counts as this? I don’t know.
Welcome your thoughts!
They never wrote to me when they did this (in fact, I only found out months later when the line went down and found that AirBroadband was shut down).
I’m currently arguing with “Jack” from Zybre on two points – this being one of them. He is refusing to even attempt to respond to my accusation that Air did not inform me – breach of contract, and they are not a member of an ombudsman service, as claimed in their contract. This is not only a contract breach but is also a breach of the rules governing ISPs, which state that they must be a member of such an organisation.
He’s come back three times so far basically saying “no we didn’t breach contract. Do you want a termination invoice?”. Each time I’ve asked him to prove that that they haven’t. Last response was sent mid-evening yesterday. I invited him to terminate my connection with immediate effect or provide evidence and am hoping that my internet suddenly disappears!
If he comes back to me again without a suitable response, I’ll tell him we’re at deadlock and ask what the complaint escalation process is. According to the contract it’s the ombudsman service that they’re not a member of…
I suspect that there might be an internal discussion along the lines of:
“Bugger – we’ve broken the terms as he says, but if we acknowledge that then every single Air customer can leave immediately with no termination fees payable”.
And it’s true – the floodgates would be open.
I was never notified by Air BB that they had been sold.
Additionally our contract went live *after* the news reports I’ve now found online say Zybre had bought Air BB. At no point when I was talking to Air BB at this time did they inform me it would not be them providing the service.
As you’ve quoted, this does not meet the terms of their contract.
> I might be clutching at straws, or it might be we were given notice
> in writing of the transfer of the contract to another organisation
> by them? Perhaps the email from Zybre counts as this? I don’t know.
I am going to be cynical, and suggest that this was the reason why the buy-out notification email was sent the night before everyone’s service was interrupted. It feels like a lawyer may have read the terms of service at the eleventh hour, and recommended the email be sent to attempt to indemnify Zybre against mass direct-debit cancellations.
I have been quite fortunate here, in that my initial contract with AirBB had just completed when this particular volcano erupted. I sympathise with those who were not so lucky.
The Air states that “we” will tell you – meaning Air. And the email was very much from Jonny/Zybre telling us it had already happened.
As Jess says above, though, I wonder whether there’s something in the fact that the contract was signed with Air, based on Air providing the service, but after they knew that they would not be doing so and yet not telling us. I signed up in December, after the transaction, so am in this boat.
Still hoping to be cut off without warning…
Paul – yes, I made 10 phone calls to Air, one before Zybre’s announcement on 4 November which I’ve found talked about here: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/11/multi-network-uk-isp-zybre-acquires-rival-air-broadband.html?no_cache=1667548865 the other 9 over the next few weeks. At no point during these calls did anyone at Air tell me this had happened.
We’re now with Zen, who’ve been great in very trying circumstances.
Sympathies for your limbo; it’s been a very stressful two weeks.
I trust that they (Zybre/their administrators/whoever takes them over/runs it) will see that with the information available from CF on 10 March, the failed phone lines at Zybre, the absence of any response to emails, my account status online at Air being “ceased” means moving provider was my only option. Connectivity is an essential service. If it has to go to ombudsman/court then so be it.
They do now appear to be registered with the Ombudsman. However, they state they cannot take care of anything that happens pre- registration… so…
Sefotron – interesting. Here’s an excerpt from my Air contract:
“Complaints / Alternative dispute resolution
If you are unhappy with our service, we will do our best to put things right. As a consumer you have rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. For information about your legal rights as a consumer you may visit the Citizens Advice website (www.citizensadvice.org.uk (https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/)). We are subscribed to Ombudsman Services (https://www.ispa.org.uk/consumers/complaints/ (https://www.ispa.org.uk/consumers/complaints/)).”
Potentially another contractual failing?
NO connection as of 22.03.23 terminated at 18.30 and seems new isp,s are waiting for the 14 day cooling of period to elapse before connecting people up
CityFibre is doing all it can to avoid a mass outage?
Sounds like that’s precisely that they have at the moment.
Absolute nightmare. No internet since 22 March this time. I can’t get a response off of Zybre their call line cuts me off before I can ever reach anyone, if they even exist. CityFibre only have receptionists and I’ve been waiting 2 weeks and have been told 4 times they will call back and still nothing. Companies like Zen say I need to talk to CityFibre first. What a joke all round, I can’t actually even cancel or swap due to all companies locking eachother up or simply no ability to talk with any, or anyone that can actually do anything. In any given week for a month now I’ve had more issues than I had with VM for 6+ years in total, what a shocking display.
Couldn’t agree more mate, in a similair boat, been on Openreach ISP’s for years and never have I ever encountered as much s**t as I have with ZYBRE/Air Broadband.
Frankly I’m at the end of my tether and I’m fortunate enough to have an Openreach FTTP line sitting in my premise that’s inactive, CityFibre/ZYBRE can do what they like at this point, I’m sure any reasonable judge or legal decision maker would see how unreasonable they’ve been and how essential connectivity is/impossible it’s been to reach a resolution, they’re not even providing me with a deadlock letter.
I’m going to sign up with AirBand first thing when they open today (not to be confused with Air Broadband), My CityFibre line can sit and rot as far as I’m concerned, they’re not getting another penny out of me, just a shame Openreach doesn’t have symmetrical speeds on the upload.
Best of luck to anyone else in this boat we’re currently sinking in.
Our lines are being held hostage and we’re being fibbed too, in need of connectivity.
What is one supposed to do after exhausting all other options?
Exactly the same here. No reply to this morning’s or yesterday evening’s support emails. Technical support phone line just advising of a known issue on a loop with no one to speak to. Trying to work from home tethered to a mobile rinsing my data. Spoke to CityFibre last night who said because I’m not a customer of theirs i.e. an ISP they cannot deal with me to let me know if there even is an ongoing CF maintenance period issue, which I’m sure there isn’t as every other CF ISP would be screaming the same. Unfortunately Openreach FTTP isn’t live here yet, so once I know whether or not we’re still tied in to contracts or not I will be up and off back to Virgin Media I was previously with for 10 years+. I can only pray Ofcom grow a pair and formally take this case on to get all the screwed over customers some closure.
For all the others asking, I joined AirBB in October and was not made aware prior to the ZYBRE email ‘Important Information: ZYBRE Acquires Air Broadband’ on the 3rd March that there had been any sale/buyout/acquisition of the company back in November if they are trying to say we were given the required notice 30 days prior so it wasn’t a breach of contract.
Is anyone else starting to wonder if ZYBRE’s status page is a load of rubbish?
https://www.zybre.co.uk/network-status-update/
I don’t feel like it takes 3 days to re-splice a fibre/fix an issue, other ISP’s have these issues fixed in a few hours.
Red flags all around.
Just read this on the Zybre WTF Facebook group.
“Just spoke to the guys at Zen to get my broadband swapped over… apparently Zybre has gone into administration… If you’re still with them at this point, don’t expect any of your issues solved….” (10am 24/03/2023)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/181695567939037/permalink/188723823902878/
Great news if true.
OMG. It does seem no one is there, no responses AT ALL!. Best start speaking to Virgin and hope they can re-activate quickly and nothing comes of an early termination charge. Why the mistruths and deception needed though.
AirBB DD cancelled. If they haven’t gone bust then they will have to create a new ZYBRE one.
I’ve just managed to get Vodafone to put an order through for Openreach specifically after explaining I have both CityFibre and Openreach and CityFibre is currently in limbo and unreliable.
May be an option for others in the same boat.
I read VodaFone can provide Static IP’s to get around the CG-Nat issue, I wonder if it’s still a problem with Openreach?
BT don’t use CGNAT – you get a good old standard IPv4 address. It’s a dynamic IP but that’s easy enough to work around with dynamic DNS. You can get a static IP on their business packages I believe but they’re more costly.
I too have had the same cut / paste message from ‘Jack’ which I don’t believe for a minute is a real person (or at least, the one sending these replies). Maybe we should setup a list of Zybre / AirBB customers who will happily share the details of Zybre’s incompetence with a small claims court if it comes to that. Given their wholly inadequate service, attitude to customers in ignoring emails and turning off their phone lines and not to forget not providing the services agreed – I’d be happy to share my 2p on the situation.
i have presently paid for AIRBB , Zen internet and dont have a connection to either Zen have said because i have city fibre they do not need to visit and can do everything remotely but for some reason haveing paid on 14th recieved router on 18th i have to wait till 28th so i have paid 19.99 to BT INTERNET for a hotspot for 5 days you could write a comedy about it the uk internet service is a license to ripoff consumers and nothing anyone can do about it
New update on outage: https://www.zybre.co.uk/network-status-update/ ~12:00 24/03
Also added some postdated updates from 23/03 which weren’t there this morning!
Finally just got back on around 2pm after 43 hours of outage. Completely unacceptable unless the whole datacentre had been razed.
Has anybody actually managed to obtain a deadlock letter from ZYBRE yet? They plainly ignore my request and throw me the standard “We can offer you a termination invoice” garbage.
Tempted to start asking some no-win no-fee solicitors about this.. it stinks.
I think the very start of the contract invalidates the whole thing. It states that the contract is between you and Air Broadband (Company number 08597161). However Zybre are the ones trying to collect who are Company Number 13380642. That is not who the contract is with. The correct legal thing to do here is immediately issue new contracts with that changed accepting previous terms and dates, I’m sure we’ve all seen this in over time. Usually we don’t even care because the same service is provided, sometimes better so why complain?
The contract also states a lot of “may charge”, which they will have to justify as they haven’t set the conditions for this. They also state that if you cancel they will pay for services not provided. Since 09/03 that’s almost 4 days, out of 14. That is 71% up time, you’d get better in the 90’s with dial up re-dialing very 2 hours. Now, if Air Broadband appears again then sure, but remember what CityFibre said? They can longer provide services. They will try to bully money out of people but the contract leaves them out of the loop. The contracts are also inconsistent and are written poorly. Get signed up to a company you can actually call and talk to, which by the way after ringing a few seems to be most of the ones CityFibre recommends (I went with Zen – very nice to deal with).
I’ve written to Zybre/Air a number of times. To the first few, where I set out the basis for contract breach, I got responses from “Jack” saying that they weren’t in breach, without providing the evidence/reasons. He finally offered an invoice for me to exit. My last two emails over the last two days have been “Please respond to my requests”, and “can you tell me what your complaints escalation process is – we’re at deadlock”. No replies, though.
But they don’t have a complaints escalation process, because Air Broadband, who I’m contracted to, doesn’t belong to the dispute resolution organisation that they claim to, so there’s nowhere except the law to go to. I spoke to Ofcom this morning, as have many, many others apparently, and they confirmed the lack of dispute resolution available, and gave me the lawyer advice.
Fortunately, I still have a service, and I’ve actually got a backup “slow” broadband service from ZEN who I still pay because my landline is bundled into that. They’re going to be able to provide an FTTP service to us here in Norwich via CF in a few weeks – sometime in April – so I’m all set to go with them. I have reassurances from CF that they’ll facilitate a working line takeover.
Air BB was all over Google last year, promoting its social tariff. My daughter is among the many vulnerable people who’ve been left stranded without internet – no warning from either the ISP (she joined the month ZYBRE acquired Air BB) nor the network City Fibre. If the internet was treated as a public utility, as it should be, these companies would be forced to take their duty of care seriously. Ofcom should hold them all to account.
Has anyone actually asked for a termination invoice and received something detailing charges?
I paid an exit fee from Zyber last Thursday. Still no invoice, receipt or confirmation that my accound is now closed. I am close to contacting my bank’s fraud department.
Anybody noticing that WiFi-Calling doesn’t work on ZYBRE? I’ve been using a BT Hotspot and I get Wifi calling immediately for VOXI, never happens on the ZYBRE network I’ve noticed, just wondered if it’s an isolated thing or if others have experienced the same.
We were supposed to get this but they never managed to port across our landline number despite many messages and phone calls to them to push them to sort it.
Anybody actually had success with Ombudsman services? I’ve got an account with them but fear I don’t have an 8 week unresolved issue or a deadlock letter so they’ll close my case.
Can’t say I’ve noticed anything on the WiFi calling. I’ll keep an eye on it.
In terms of the ombudsman, if you were previously an Air customer, there is no independent dispute resolution service available, as they weren’t a member of the one they claimed to use. They have subsequently joined a different one who won’t, I understand, deal with cases where the complaint started before they joined – as in all of us. This is one aspect of my argument to Air/Zybre that they breached contract. Ofcom confirmed this to me earlier today as well, and suggested that a lawyer may be needed if Air/Zybre ever issue invoices.
I have asked Zybre what their complaint escalation process is, but haven’t heard from them in two days now, having had three emails in one day previously (all denying breach without providing evidence and offering me a termination invoice)
My thinking is along the lines that, if Zybre ever do start to send these invoices out, we should absolutely get together to hire a lawyer to challenge them. It’s hard to see that they could win, with the state of the contract and business. But I have a feeling that it won’t get that far.
To anyone on CityFibre, I understand that they can help to push a working line transfer through if Zybre don’t let you go. I think they would want to understand what stage you’re at with the complaint/discussions, but they know a lot more about the state of the business than we do, and are certainly being very helpful to me.
Doing a transfer, though, wouldn’t avoid the possibility of Zybre chasing you for the termination fees, so there’s the reward of getting to a decent company alongside the risk of having to pay twice. I’m going with the risk as soon as my favoured provider are able to access my area (Zen in Norwich).
I think that’s a Brilliant idea Paul, I’m currently not active in social media though so this could be a problem for me, perhaps I should make a throwaway account and join that FB Group?
Power in numbers for sure!
Paul, I don’t know if I might’ve just found another clause on Air’s website.
“Ending the contract because of something we have done or are going to do
If you are ending your contract for a reason set out below, the Contract will end, and we will refund you for any services which have been paid for but have not been provided (if applicable). The reasons are:
we have told you about an upcoming change to the service or these terms which you do not agree to (including a change to our prices) and you have given us notice to end the contract;”
Could one argue moving to ZYBRE was a change of service and we had no reasonable time to contest it/notify them as we were only notified when the change had already happened?.
Taken from https://airbroadband.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/
Another one, all the “Maintenance” on ZYBRE’s status page and I’ve never been notified once.
https://www.zybre.co.uk/network-status-update/
“Our commitment to you
We aim to provide you with continued service; however, we will not be liable for service problems due to events arising out of our control.
Occasionally, Air Broadband Limited or our Network Partners will need to carry out maintenance or upgrade works on the network which will be done at times during the night to minimise service disruption. Where possible, we will provide advance email notification when such work will be carried out and details provided on our status update page on the website.”
I know for a fact atleast one of them (March 14 2023), says “planned maintenance”.
And their status page is fishy, why haven’t other CityFibre users had the same issue..?
Maintenance also kindof implies that it’s planned.
I think it might be worth checking with a no-win no-fee solicitor, it sounds like you have some valid points, one would assume they’re in breach for the lack of Ombudsman for Air.
Important info for those switching to Vodafone: they will not cancel your existing fibre contract and are unable to connect your home until Zybre release the “port” for your home. You will need to contact Zybre first support@zybre.co.uk to cancel.
I can’t guarantee it will work, but we just had an unpleasant experience of waiting for Vodafone to install only to find out after 2 weeks that they had cancelled our order silently. After live chatting with them for an hour this is the information we found. Good luck!
If you’re fortunate enough to also have an Openreach line they can manually use that one using a system called Siebel, easyswitch team are the ones you want if you have both CityFibre and Openreach.
Following in from the comments about legal action. I’m certainly down for joining forces.
In terms of moving broadband. I push city first enough and they’re their own FAQs at them to get my connection re established after the initial down time on the first Friday. Yet the only time zybre replied to me was to claim they’d got it working again.
I had to badger city fibre a lot. Maybe I got lucky. But I managed to transfer out to giganet on 20th. It’s worth noting that giga currently offer three months free AND although they state it’s a 12 month term they confirmed to me in writing that it is only applies to the price. It’s actually a 30 day rolling contract so if I do loose my battle with zybre over termination fees, I won’t end up caught up in two contracts.
We would be in favour of joining together in legal action against Zybre
Air BB gone and account ceased. And no formal communication from them. Service apparently moved to Zybre.
If ZYBRE can’t operate on City Fibre then it’s simple case they can’t provide the service to its customers. Breach of contract on their part, let them chase you to the courts…. too many element where the ISP has failed to meet the contract.
DDebit cancelled.
New provider due to connect if a few days.
HI Gaz, Just check that you can actually get the transferred service. I was told by Vodafone that they cannot provide me with a fibre service because I still have an ‘active account’. Apparently it’s up to the customer to get that disconnected and then we suffer up to two weeks’outage until the new service is connect. Not to mention having to pay any in contract charges… Who did you move to, if you have had success others may try too.
Good luck
I got connect to Octaplus. Back to normal internet.
Not had or heard anything from ZYBRE or Air BB.
My AirBB contract was taken over by Zybre and I’ve been cut off for 5 days and then for 3 days last week. I took Cityfibre’s advice to find a new supplier, Vodafone, however they are unable to transfer me because I still have an ‘active account’. It seems that we cannot even leave Zybre unless we pay the erly termination fee and CityFibre are not helping customers to cut the service early. It would be in their interest to do so and allow customers to take a new agreement with an ISP on their Fibre. As it is, because I need the service to work (like many people) I have now taken a BT copper line as a backup and will just have to run two contracts.. This is really poor service from CityFibre and Zybre..
Have you tried (possibly after confirming with CF) asking Vodafone to request CF do a “working line take over”? This is what CF had me ask of Zen. We went live with Zen last week.
Zen had live chats (think with WhatsApp) with CF person managing this process.
That’s not the case, I’ve left zybre and transferred to Giganet. No communication from zybre despite multiple attempts to contact them. I moved Monday 20th
I’ve seen quite a few posts saying they can’t get away from Zybre until Zybre confirm, but they all seem to involve Vodafone. So I’m wondering if Vodafone either don’t know the process all the other providers are successfully using, or their systems won’t allow it.
I have no inside knowledge, but it certainly sounds like some ISPs are quite capable of “pulling” the line from Zybre’s grasp with a working line take-over. I had success with iDNet doing this (their online signup procedure identified the working CityFibre line in place and automatically indicated a “working line take-over”). Several have reported the same success with Giganet and others providers.
I’ve been told that VodaFone stick to their scripts a bit too much, they came back to me once saying yeah we’re gonna do a working line takeover, then started saying I need to cancel with ZYBRE, I’m currently trying with “No One” and I’ll post back here if successful.
Live in Solihull Lost connection on 10/3 with Zybre just after welcome email. No response from support. Came back a few days after then down again , backup then been down since 21/3. Tried moving ISP twice but neither could do it as said I had an active service. Tried to get Zybre to cease my service said I would have to pay termination fee for breach of contract. Phoned cityfibre, told me to contact ISP. Can’t move backwards or forwards. Still paying Zybre for no service, can’t move. Not happy.
I’m also in Solihull, I had no issues moving to Zen. I called the straight after I ordered the new service and explined I was moving from Air BB and they were very helpful in expediting everything without Zyber’s involvement. My previous service went down on Friday the 10th, I ordered Zen on Monday 13th and it went live at 4 AM on Friday 17th.
Well today has been unusual. Internet went down around 1am this morning, rang Zybre got a recorded message to email. So I did. Around 10am Zybre ring my doorbell! Asks if my internet is still down and have I requested a move to another ISP. When I said yes and that I’ve got the router ready for connection on Thursday. He then said quietly “try plugging in your new router”.
I did and I am now up and running with Vodafone.
Yet another problem with cr@ppy ZYBRE @zybreuk broadband as, on the odd occasion it works, they route through USA causing issues eg bbc to default to .com and screws up on demand players
No answer on the phones – either a recorded message or goes to answerphone, no reply to emails.
Same here mate, BBC redirects to bbc.com.
At this point if “No One” can’t take me over I’ll be getting the cable cutters out and forcing myself back onto the openreach network.
Atleast theirs is reliable!
If you do a line check with https://www.speedtest.net/ what do you see?
I had an issue with being ‘outside the UK’ and speedtest results showed my connection was being provided by GTT (not Zybre). I spoke to CF, explained the problem I was having. They confirmed GTT was the temporary cover (as mentioned in their FAQs) but that “it’s restricted”.
Yeah sure enough I have GTT too, my TV also thinks I’m 6 hours ahead for some reason. Blatantly due to the network as it sets automatically.
Yeah.
We’re now with Zen. (you can see my earlier posts above). I had to go with the information available to me (Air account listed as “ceased” online/Zybre phone lines cut off/multiple emails not answered, coupled change of provider to GTT and CF’s letter and phone conversations).
Just checking my original contract with ABB and it state….’Ending the contract because of something we have done or are going to do’ – ‘3. we have suspended supply of the services for technical reasons, or notify you we are going to suspend them for technical reasons, in each case for a period of more than 28 days;’
So does that mean they can not supply me for 27 days and still not breach their contract and I would have to pay termination fees if i left within that period? sounds harsh
I would agree but it would seem that recent service issues have not been for a technical reason but a contractual one so that might apply to our advantage
Check your contract again and check the company registration number you signed with vs Zybre. That is the contractual arrangement you’ve signed. If they’re not the same company registrations they need to send you a new contract which is standard practice, which they have not. If they do send one, do not sign it. You can’t just change a contract without sending a new one out. Do not pay a fee to these crooks. It also states that they WILL pay you for services not provided so count that up along with any days work you may have been unable to complete during this time. It also says they MAY charge you a fee during minimum term, get concrete information on how they justify this with a shockingly low 71% up time. Add to this the fact that we have 0% customer service and they just switch their lines off when they feel like it and they will likely have a hard time finding a lawyer to take the case. It’s also important to note many of us had no issues under Air Broadband, a separate company, but have had nothing but issues with these Zybre crooks. Without a doubt they are separate entities except for the guy taking the big pay packet at our expense.
The e-mail said: “Your contract with Air Broadband, and Direct Debit Mandate, have been securely moved to ZYBRE, so you don’t need to do anything”. I never agreed to this and was not even asked, even Virgin Media allow you to jump ship for 14 days for ANY changes to contracts. When i select a supplier I do my own research and Air Broadband delivered. Zybre have failed at every step. They even failed their contractual arrangements with CityFibre.
@Roger – I raised that “contract has been securely moved to Zybre” statement with them when I was told today “Your contract is and will remain with AirBroadband, we just look after the customer base”. But change of service is also confirmed by Jonny in his 9th March email when he says we might have to reboot routers on the day of transition. Definitely looks like a change of service to me – which they didn’t pre-notify, and therefore didn’t give us a chance to jump ship. Funny, that!
So, paid my exit fee from Zybre last Thursday. Been mailing every day since to try and get final confirmation of account being closed and a receipt. Nothing. Going to give it a few more days, then i am going to Trading Standards, and talking to my bank. Absolute amateurs. Absolute shambles. I cannot believe such morons are allowed to sell anything, let alone fibre internet.
That’s messed up, I do hope you manage to get it sorted and I’m glad I didn’t consider paying them a termination charge!
I’ve actually had a few different names respond to me recently from ZYBRE, although I am skeptical this is actually different people and not just one person realising we’re all catching on and talking on social media, it’s still all excuses and no action on their behalf – I’ll be curious to see if they vanish after they manage to collect some direct debits (if anybody still has them in place).
I really do hope Ofcom pulls its finger out here and realises there’s a gap in their regulations that allow this sort of situation to happen.. They really do need to put something in place so as this doesn’t happen to people again, especially considering their Social Tarrif was targetted towards people that are on benefits/vulnerable in the first place and they ran a Google ad campaign targetting those demographics.
my story
Air broadband home customer (1000 + static IP) subscribed on March 2022
9 March – received email from Zybre about taking over
11 March – realised my IP addressed changed (I was abroad and this broke a lot of things for me)
13 March – sent an email to Zybre and AirBroadband to complain (no response from Zybre and AirBroadband bounced back Status code: 550 5.1.10)
14 March – received letter from CityFibre with recommendation to switch provider
16 March – internet stopped working and I cancelled Direct Debit via online banking
20 March – subscribed to Giganet
22 March – sent an email to Zybre asking to cancel contract (no response so far)
27 March – Giganet line activated and I use my own router, their router came next day
hope they are not going to get back to me regarding payments which is 6 month left
we also have business AirBroadband line in the office, it went down for a couple of days (sometime between 15-18 March)
its currently working and even IP address has not changed
so still not sure what to do with it as its currently working and we have a backup line,
and about a year left on the contract
It’s almost as if they know businesses are more likely to go down the legal route as they’re not an everyday joe without the resources too.
I’ve been quiet for a few days, but see that there’s a real variety of situations. Some have been moved (by CF?) to GTT. It seems that this is for continuity of service, but should also allow those people to move more easily. I’m still showing as Air Broadband in all of my testing, and have had only relatively minor outages. I feel for those who have simply been cut off without the ability to move – this is downright rude, and extremely unprofessional. I would urge those people who are on CF and in this situation to call CF and raise an issue with them, after contacting an alternative supplier to get confirmation that the line is still marked as belonging to Zybre/Air and needs a active line migration. They can be very helpful, but remember that they are having to deal with a mess created entirely by Jonny. They might have handled it better in some respects, but generally they’ve tried to be very helpful towards my situation.
At the end of this, I’m not staying with Zybre/Air even if they recover (which I somehow doubt) – they couldn’t pay me to.
I’ve been emailing them about their various breaches of contract – change of owner without notice, no dispute escalation route, couple of other things, terrible business practice not telling customers like me who signed up in December that they had been sold, etc.
So far, Air/Zybre have not addressed properly any single point I’ve made, but have simply time and again offered me a termination fee invoice, which I’m politely declining every time. So far, 10 emails from me (including three reminders), and six responses. But they’ve also raised another couple of issues which, while they claim they are answers, are actually further breaches.
I happen to know that I’m leaving as soon as my preferred supplier (Zen) is available, and am told that this will be in the next few weeks. When that happens, Zybre/Air can chase me for termination and I’ll be as responsive and helpful as they are. But I’m hoping they cut me off in frustration before then.
I recommend leaving a review on this site for Zybre as most people won’t encounter this thread and we can save a lot of people a lot of hassle, and money: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/isp/zybre/?category=17
Just had the following from Zybre support:
We are providing your broadband and will continue to provide a service. You can terminate your contract and look for another provider but you will be liable for termination fee’s subject to the length of your contract. We are in advanced talks with a major provider to move all of our customers over to them with minimum disruption and no termination fee’s. We will be issuing communications to that effect later today.
Was that prompted by an email from you to them, or out of the blue?
But anyway, at last. At face value, that looks like Zybre is going out of business.
Whilst I feel bad for anyone employed by them, if they’re losing their jobs, this is down to a very few people around Jonny who wanted to go too far, too quickly, in what seems to be an under-regulated industry.
I really hope I get that communication soon.
This was in response to an e-mail to support — it’s the first response I’ve had in 3 weeks of trying.
Responder said she would forward any communication to me and I will post here if I get anything.
Just had this from ZYBRE!
“Hi Nathan
We haven’t breached any contracts and we are working with a major provider to move our customers with minimum disruption and no termination fees.
We will be releasing a communication later on today.
You can find another provider if you would like to but termination fees will apply .
Kind regards
Philippa”
Maybe there’s an end in sight?
Excellent. That’s two so far…
So my understanding of the likely rules would be that we get transferred, with notice, and then have a period within which we should be able to move to a chosen supplier if we don’t want to stay with the new one.
Just waiting for my version of that email…
That would suit me!
Same here, although I’m currently in the process of getting “No One” to attempt a Line Takeover, this really throws a spanner in the works… we’ll see what happens.
Air Broadband now have an active petition, from a creditor, for winding-up.
Nothing against Zybre, as yet, unfortunately.
Petitions to Wind Up (Companies)
In the BUSINESS AND PROPERTY COURTS IN MANCHESTER
INSOLVENCY AND COMPANIES LIST (ChD) No CR-2023-MAN-000209 of 2023
In the Matter of AIR BROADBAND LIMITED
(Company Number 08597161)
and in the Matter of the INSOLVENCY ACT 1986
A Petition to wind up the Company presented on 2 March 2023 by EXERTIS (UK) LTD of Technology House, Magnesium Way, Hapton, Burnley BB12 7BF claiming to be a Creditor of the Company of The Old Sunday School, Chapel Street, Waterbeach, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB25 9HR will be heard at the Manchester Business & Property Court, The Civil Justice Centre, 1 Bridge Street West, Manchester M60 9DJ at 10:00 am on Tuesday 11 April 2023 (or as soon thereafter as the Petition can be heard).
Any person intending to appear on the hearing of the Petition (whether to support or oppose it) must give notice of intention to do so to the Petitioner or its Solicitor in accordance with Rule 4.16 by 16.00 hours on Thursday 6 April 2023.
The Petitioner’s Solicitor is Pannone Corporate LLP of 378-380 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4LY. Ref: KIW/308102.
Ah crap, looks like we’re off to TalkTalk/ Craphone Warehouse. No thanks!
https://www.zybre.co.uk/important-information-regarding-zybre/
Interestingly, I had a letter from Home Telecom a few days after the original CityFibre letter, offering me their services. They seemed to be some kind of broker from what I could tell. I didn’t take them up on it.
My migration happened over a week ago. Wonder where this leaves me, stuck with a fee, I guess?
Not sure how this affects OFNL customers, as Talk Talk / Home Telecom are not on the OFNL network!
Direct Debit remains cancelled as I can’t get anything from them, and was on a rolling contract anyway…
That’s interesting, and kind of predictable. Jonny’s doing something right, anyway, offloading customers to someone else before the creditors catch up with him at Zybre as well as Air.
But I also got a letter from them a week or two ago. I called them and they were not only useless in terms of telling me who they could place me with (they mentioned lots of companies in the letter but couldn’t tell me who could supply me), they claimed that they would provide like for like service and cost, but that I couldn’t give the details over the phone because the SALES team I was speaking to weren’t allowed to send this information to the SALES team who would match the deal. Promised a call back which never happened.
I’m not going to go to TalkTalk.
And I’ve just told Air/Zybre that under the terms of the contract, they’re giving me notice of a change which I do not agree to, so I’m terminating my contract with them.
@Paul, you seem well versed in the legalise of this, is it this clause in the contract:
‘we have told you about an upcoming change to the service or these terms which you do not agree to (including a change to our prices) and you have given us notice to end the contract;’
That should allow us to terminate the contract?
@r.
I’m certainly not in a position to offer legal advice, but that’s the one I put to Air/Zybre. Their comment back was:
“There is no change to the service or price just a change of provider. Banks get taken over all the time and you don’t get out of paying your mortgage because of the take over. You have the choice to leave but you are still in a contract and the termination fees will apply”
which was useful and relevant (not)…
I agree that they have the contractual right to change the supplier, but I think that the clause you quote should apply.
I’d say that if a real lawyer looked at the contract they would point out that it has inconsistencies, and a lack of definition. I’m a pedant, and read things literally which is, I think, how the law should be treated. I’ve had a lot of experience in financial services constructing and reading contracts alongside very expensive lawyers, and see them being extraordinarily precise about terms and definitions.
To me “an upcoming change to the service” includes a transfer to another supplier. If they didn’t want to include that in the reasons for leaving then it should be specifically excluded.
I’ll be interested to see what happens when/if Air are liquidated to all of us with an Air contract.
@Paul, thank you for taking the time to reply. I’ve read your posts here and found them all very well written and considered, so thought I’d ask the question.
It certainly seems that way to me too, a change in supplier implies a change in service.
The bank analogy is, flawed, imo. They would do things properly in the first place!
Cheers.
Thanks for your kind comment. There are lots of us in this position, and I’ve found a lot of people very helpful on here. If I find something that might be useful I want to share it, as do others, to help the wider group.
I’m not holding my breath, but if Air goes under in April, the outcome for all of us depends on what position TalkTalk takes on the contracts we’ve all signed with either Air or Zybre.
I’ve bitten the bullet and BT goes live on Friday, Cityfibre have been utterly useless, haven’t called me back once.
I’m going to also write to BBC Watchdog like the other commentor here did, hopefully they can shine a light on the issue if enough of us get in touch.
Service outage yet again this morning. ZYBRE status page showing an ‘Office’ outage which I’m not sure how that could affect customer’s datacentre connections.
If you’re fortunate enough to be in an Openreach area I recommend signing up with them for now, the Air Broadband router works pretty good with it! Better than theirs lol
By them I mean BT 500/75.
Down again, what a surprise. Many days work lost over this companies incompetence at this point. As usual no communications.
I have been hit by the Air Broadband issues. I changed providers based on the advice by City Fibre. Now Zybre are saying I need to pay an early termination fee.
Ofcom website say to follow their complaints procedure, then obtain a deadlock letter from them and go to the Adjudicator. So I’m going down that route.
This is one of Air’s issues – they aren’t a member of the dispute resolution service that they claim to be in the contract. I believe that this is not only a breach of contract but also of the regulations governing ISPs.
I’ve asked maybe six times for their complaints escalation process, but as yet they haven’t even tried to tell me what it is.
When I called OfCom last week, they suggested the legal route is possibly the only way to go as they’re well aware of the issues, and that Air didn’t join the organisation.
I can’t give advice, but I’m waiting until a suitable alternative is available in my area and will then be jumping ship. I won’t be paying them anything. I have almost daily email conversations with them about their various breaches of contract (they’ve been described earlier in the thread) but they haven’t actually addressed a single one of them yet.
And I’ve just finished a (long) email to BBC Watchdog to support the other two posters above who have done the same. I hope they take it up.
Im in the same position ive been emailed a termination fee infact the first set of comms to me from zybre they didnt even tell me they took over. Surely theve already breached tos aleady with the prelongged and repeated outtages
I’ve just had an unexpected visit from two CityFibre engineers that knocked my door for a “full install”, they noted I already had a full install, told them I wasn’t expecting them and sorry they got called out and that I’ve have had lots of failed line takeovers recently & cancelled orders and the nightmare Air/ZYBRE have caused.
I think Vodafone is responsible but can’t be certain.
CityFibre’s incompetence continues!
To add to this, another engineer turned up and said “I don’t know why the other guys couldn’t sort it, so they sent me” my ONT has been replaced for Vodafone supposedly, then half way through he realised it was a cancelled order (kinda did say I wasn’t expecting them).
Now I’ve officially been disconnected from ZYBRE by CityFibre… I wonder where this leaves me, guess their contract is void now with any luck.
Oh, they plugged my line into another port too!
I’ve just left a comment on Zybre’s page announcing the planned migration to Home Telecom/TalkTalk.
They’ve responded to a few comments on there, so it might be a way of getting answers.
Alternatively, they might just delete them…
I’ve noticed that my comment is “awaiting moderation”. Hmmm. Don’t suppose it’s going to be there too long.
Finally moved over to Giganet now order placed 20th live on 28th March, they were able to do a working line takeover without issue.
I tried with Vodafone it would of been cheaper for me but they failed. It should have been easier for them given their investment/partnership with CityFibre. They were just failing in getting it done. Saying I needed to get the Zybre/AirBB ceased first and pretty much left me to it not great.
I’ve emailed Zybre saying I’ve left now, mentioning breach of contract as I had a static IP which they can’t supply now, no response to that.
Had a letter to my home address from CityFibre stating that my BB service providers AirBB/ZYBRE was due to be terminated and that I should
change over to another provider. Went to CF website and followed a link for my address which stated that the only provider I could use was TalkTalk. I contacted TT and they said they would send an engineer out, I pointed out that I already had a FF connection with Cityfibre and just needed the connection swapped over. When the man arrived he said he was from Openreach and could only provide me with a copper connection! and after an exchange of information left. I have spoken to CityFibre and TalkTalk and no-one can give me an answer except we will get back to you or ring us tomorrow. Can anyone in the Norwich area on CityFibre advise me if they have been able to resolve this issue.
Hi Kim. I’m also in the area. When CF laid cable here they only opened it up to Air and TalkTalk. With Air now effectively gone, customers who didn’t initially connect can get TalkTalk only. Those of us who went with Air are still registered with them until they disconnect is. In theory, the only way to disconnect is to pay the termination fees. You can then move to TalkTalk.
If you’re happy going with them then Zybre/Air seem to be in the process of selling us to them via their Home Telecom brand anyway, so you don’t need to do anything. They say this will happen in the next few weeks if they sign contracts.
I obviously have no idea what terms the transfer will be on, but I know that I’d prefer not to go with them.
However, I have it on good authority that CF are working with several other ISPs to provide services here. I was told “early April” so I’m hoping this will be visible next week.
Note that when you go on any availability checker, as well as checking whether you have fibre available to you, they also check whether you are connected to anyone else. If so, they simply say no. (This is my experience, anyway). If you have a near neighbour who doesn’t have fibre broadband yet you’ll get a better idea of what’s available by using their address to check which companies can provide their service to you. Then you can call them to check the situation for taking over your supply.
The next week or two will be interesting, waiting for Zybre to tell us what the transfer means to us contractually.
Thanks for the information Paul. I had phone call from TalkTalk this morning cancelling my order. They seem to think that they will be able to meet my requirements soon and are getting back to me on Friday, this seems to back up what you have posted. I have cancelled my DDs to Air and TT as this seems to get a response from these companies and it is easy to set up another DD once I know who is providing what. As you stated the next week or two will prove interesting. If the BB gos down in the meantime I am going to be dependent on Tesco mobile and that’s another can of worms.
I’ve been checking every day, but I can now see 10 ISPs have access to our property in NR8, up from only TalkTalk since Air went nearly a month ago.
Whilst this is great news, they will still have to be persuaded to do a line takeover, which will need City Fibre’s co-operation.
I imagine that CF might be pushed to help when they realise that Zybre have essentially stopped responding to anyone, so it’s impossible to cancel the connection through the normal route.
I’ve given up and unplugged my Fibre and gone to crappy Virgin..that’s how bad it is! anyway was going to reuse my Air Broadband Archer router so I factory reset it as was going to put the original firmware on from tp-link..however the reset has put it back to when Airbroadband flashed it, and I don’t know the password as I had changed it. Admin/Admin does not work as that’s the TP-link default not after AirBroadband got their hands on it…Anyone out there know if we all had individual ones or a Airbroadband common one? if so what it it please?
I signed for Giganet and after 7 days was up online
I cancelled Airbroadband direct debit, and have not heard from them anymore, and I’m using my own router with both
regarding you ISP locked router , I’m sure there is some information on manufacturers community site how to flash it, e.g via TFTP
I believe we had individual ones, I’ve done exactly that and am using their TP-Link with BT 500/75 FTTP lol.
Also has the added perk of not forcefully producing a BTWiFi hotspot.
I recall having an A4 piece of paper inside the box for the TPLink from Air that contained the details.
Good luck!
Oh, I also wanted to flash mine, I have an EX230V, please let me know if you’re able to flash it without it bricking/locking up as I’m keen to do the same.
Thanks!
You could play dumb and email ZYBRE quoting router issues so you reset it and now can’t get into it, on the off-chace they have that stuff on record and actually care to respond to you.
> don’t know the password as I had changed it
I did the same thing to my AirBB-supplied Archer device (TP-Link C80 v1) — reset it to factory. I was eventually able to log into it with the unique credentials that were supplied on a credit-card sized slip of paper when my AirBB was set up. I did then upgrade it to the latest vanilla TP-Link firmware, but the AirBB branding remained on the device afterwards. The ISP-specific stuff may be stored on a separate EEPROM rather than in the device’s flash.
I migrated to Giganet, but I was never actually able to connect to Giganet using the leftover AirBB Archer device, which was disappointing. I did run tcpdump to try to figure out what was going on during the PPPoE negotiation for the AirBB-tainted router (vs. a successful connection using ppp running on my Linux desktop). I found that the AirBB Archer router was sending a “Host-Uniq” field as part of the negotiation, which I think Giganet was rejecting. There wasn’t any way in the PPPoE admin panel to switch off this field.
I would be very interested to know if anyone else had any luck connecting to Giganet using their existing AirBB TP-Link Archer C80 v1, or indeed with a non-AirBB-branded C80 v1.
I just used the nasty Amazon box that Giganet sent me in the end.
I never used my AirBB router (just got it originally in case it was needed for a support ticket)… but did try to reset it to use it for another purpose after their demise last month. Couldn’t get into it at all.
As for PPPoE, after an OFNL mess-up this week I’m failing to get a connection from my Draytek (despite this working for the last month with my new provider), and have been looking at the PPPoE traffic. Both this and a second router I’ve tried (Ubiquiti) seem to be sending the Host-Uniq field – I get the impression this is always provided. I’ve also seen comments some providers look for a specific Host-Uniq value, so its possible Giganet have locked it to the value given by their default router?
> its possible Giganet have locked it to the value given by their default router?
I don’t think so. I was able to connect to Giganet using PPPoE software on my desktop Linux machine (i.e. without using a separate router at all). tcpdump indicated that Linux wasn’t sending the Host-Uniq field at all, and I was still able to connect.
It’s possible that Giganet either rejects *any* Host-Uniq field, or rejects those that don’t match some specific pattern, but I had no trouble connecting without one.
I could check to see what the Amazon router is sending.
I was using AirBB on the OFNL network for around two and a half years. I received the letter stated in the main article from OFNL around 1st March and immediately chose a new supplier; alas the AirBB connection actually cut off on the 6th March, 3 days before the 9th stated on OFNLs letter. Luckily after lots of calls to the new provider and OFNL directly, the migration completed on the 8th, so only 2-3 days of downtime.
However… unfortunately that’s not been the end of it. On Monday this week (3rd April) my connection stopped working again. After a number of calls, it seems that ONFL had an “admin error” and tried to re-enable the AirBB connection over the new supplier’s connection, breaking it. They say they fixed it yesterday morning (5th), but it’s still not working and it seems my provider is struggling to get ONFL to recognise the problem. Have tried two routers, sent packet captures showing the PPPoE initiation is not being responded to, but just …. frustratingly…. waiting. Nearly a week of trying to work from home without it, and a bank holiday weekend coming up when none of these smaller providers will be open…. grrrrr. And do OFNL provide any compensation, I bet that’s a no. Anyone else suffered the same fate?
Ehy I am sorry to hear about your issues with OFNL. I am on their network too and based on my experience they’re pretty good: try give them a call maybe?
Regarding AirBB on OFNL: I received an invoice related to April from them and can’t get hold of customer service to void it. Did you get the same?
Obviously with us having cancelled their contract by beginning of March and OFNL having disconnected AirBB those invoices are complete rubbish, however I would feel more comfortable if I heard from AirBB or Zybre about them being void.
Is anyone aware of what is going on with Air/Zybre customers in Chester? Only TalkTalk listed as a provider but I was told Zen were due onto the network.
I can’t speak for Chester – I’m in Norwich – but until early last week only TalkTalk were listed here too. They then added ten additional ISPs, although not Zen. However, I’ve spoken with City Fibre and know that they’re working with Zen to allow them to offer the service here. It might be worth you asking both Zen and CF whether they’re working on building out to your area.
Hi Carlos
I am in Chester too (Upton) I still have connection so I am waiting it out.
Talk Talk are th eonly ones available at the moment but hopefully that changes soon!
I’ve had an email from airbroad saying they are going to take my next months payment by DD. They will be lucky it’s cancelled. My service with AirBB says it’s ceased.
I await to see what happens next.
I too have had an invoice for May through. I’ve had zero contact from them regarding April’s missed payment, or the fact the DD has been cancelled (which I did after the initial CityFibre letter). You’d have thought they’d be keen to try and get money out of us, but no, nothing.
Wasn’t there an email from Zybre saying that our Air direct debits had been successfully / seamlessly transferred over? Getting an invoice from Xero for Air doesn’t appear to be either of those things. Absolute farce. Progressing a case with Communication Ombudsman who are well aware of these fraudsters now.
I too have had an invoice from Air Broadband today. Getting rather worried about it as I was only 6 weeks into a 12 month contract, and I moved to Giga after loosing my connection and getting no answer from Zybre or Air
I mailed Air back after also receiving the same invoice last week – I had this auto respond… there was a temporary problem while delivering your message to finance@airbroadband.co.uk. Gmail will retry for 50 more hours. You’ll be notified if the delivery fails permanently…..And it was permanent…I’m hoping ofcom sort them out once and for all and we can all get on with our lives – I’m now with Zen and its super.
Derek, I suspect this is due to the insolvancy notice another commenter mentioned further up. I suspect their Domain Name has been taken over as a result and DNS records have been all deleted, as you can also see their website is also now down. If I run any DNS lookups against airbroadband.co.uk nothing comes back anymore, hence why the e-mails are now bouncing.
Interestingly, Zybre have taken down their page announcing the proposed agreement with TalkTalk/Home Telecom to take over their customers.
Could mean that the announcement is imminent, or that talks have fallen through!
I’ve managed to move to IDNet – excellent switchover and nice to be free of worry (other than wondering whether anyone will ever come after me for any money or their router back).
Nice spot Paul, I checked this page earlier and it was still up so this has gone down today for sure.
I’m also with BT now on their 500/75Mbps Package, £30.99 a month is a pretty decent deal too considering most CityFibre providers want £30 to begin with and that doesn’t even include a public IPv4 I’m making use of.
It is lovely to have reliable internet once again! I also wonder if they shall come after me for money, I keep checking my Direct Debits to ensure they don’t get another penny out of me.
Looks like the Zybre website is currently down. Fingers crossed they’ve disappeared!
Let’s hope so. It would be better if Zybre was wound up. I don’t want anything to do with a company that openly threatens its customers.
Hoping so, as looks like their website has gone the way of Air Broadband’s. They’ve either:
– Not paid their web hosting bill (possible, considering the amount of DD’s cancelled)
– Having Technical Issues (ironic, but not surprising!)
– Gone bust (note: accounts are still overdue from Feb on companies house)
– Being / have been bought out by another company (Home Telecom? / TalkTalk?)
The Home Telecom announcement page was also removed from the site as Paul pointed out (well spotted, Paul), so can’t be a coincidence. Perhaps the deal fell through, and Zybre have decided to close doors and slink off? Guess we better keep an eye on companies house and see if there’s any wind-up petitions in the near future.
Website back online this morning – I guess it was either number 1 or 2!
That’s a shame, I was hoping only a pile of ash would remain of ZYBRE.
Sadly The ZYBRE website is back…
Well well well. It’s now the last working day of April, and the deal between Zybre and TalkTalk was due to be done early to mid April. I certainly haven’t heard or seen anything to suggest it was, so I wonder what the next step is?
Keep on checking the direct debits is all I’m doing to make sure they don’t get another penny.
Ombudsman is trying to figure out who to register my complaint with (Air Broadband or ZYBRE), what a palava!
@Nathan I don’t have a lot of faith in the ombudsman to be honest. They keep giving me the run around too. Log against Air, then Zybre, then close my cases as duplicates without even reading the details. Very disappointed.
@John
I was told by Ombudsman initially that Air Broadband wasn’t a member and that they couldn’t open a case as a result.
Responded saying Air Broadband is now ZYBRE, opened my case, said it’s not 8 weeks yet and to get in touch them when it was, case closed.
Got in touch, case is yet to be re-opened and they’re figuring out “who to log the complaint against”, told them Air Broadband is no longer in existence as we were all transferred to ZYBRE with minimal notice.
Now waiting to hear from them again, next steps if nothing happens is to contact Ofcom and not give ZYBRE a penny, at this point I’ll be washing my hands hoping I’ll be able to challenge any payment demand that could possibly come my way knowing that no reasonable judge would enforce in ZYBRE’s favour.
I’m still without my Static IP address for over 28 days so surely that’s also grounds for contract termination.
Wits end, I’m live with BT even though I supposedly have a free CityFibre line now due to a cancelled Vodafone order cock-up and an engineer plugging me into a new port and providing me with a new ONT.
I’m just happy I’ve got a stable service with the Devil BT, and CityFibre have been useless, I contacted them recently about a separate issue as my dads address is council and listed by them as needing landlords permission, however his neighbour has a CityFibre install, I called and they offered someone to call me back, knowing this never happens already I told the lady not to worry and if it’s not fixable I’ll be going elsewhere.
Won’t be recommending CityFibre to anyone ever, even though some of their providers may have the best intentions.
@Nathan I think we’re in the same boat. No public IP, no inbound services and stuck behind CGNAT. (Well, lots are in the same boat but you know what I mean :)). It was a shame the website came back to life but their email ‘hello@‘ looks to be offline. I had an NDR from Microsoft 365. So much for that being the address to send your complaints and billing enquiries to.
As far as I’m aware the only ZYBRE address that gets a response is support@
They tend to only reply when they feel like it though or to scare you with termination charges, or if you’re like me they’ll tell you they’re giving you your public IP back, they gave me the internal IP of my router on their network, still CG-Nat.
Told them this is absolutely useless to me and I need a public IPv4 address… Nada.
They are truly crooks.
Does anyone know what the default admin password was that Air Broadband used at all? They once sent me a TP-Link Archer C80 with their own firmware installed but never provided an admin password and I actually have a use for it now but need to change some settings in order to use it.
Mine came with a label floating around in the box showing the SSID, WiFi password and router admin password.
My router was supplied with a 20 random character string admin password. I don’t know if that holds if a factory reset is done (it would be daft if it did), but I don’t know what it resets to as I’ve never done it – you’d like to hope it would reset to “admin”, “password” or the unit’s serial number, but maybe that’s too logical!
I have the TP-Link EX230v AX1800 VOIP Router from Air Broadband and it’s a nice bit of kit, emailed TP-Link to ask if they can provide the stock firmware for it as it’s not available online and I don’t want to be running a dodgy Air Broadband firmware that seemingly is never ever gonna get any security updates.
I’ll post back here for others if I have any luck.
Just to add, the credentials for mine were also in the box on an A4 piece of paper with an Air Broadband logo in the corner.
I’ve not factory reset it as I fear that’ll wipe the password I’ve got / lock me out of it.
Thanks for the replies – unfortunately, mine didn’t come with any A4 paper, only the standard TP-Link manual with no sticker or anything that states the admin password.
I tried resetting but this did nothing in terms of resetting the password unfortunately.
I seem to be stuck with a brick too, it’s functional but I can’t obtain any firmware updates for it to get the stock Air Broadband garbage off of it, waiting for TP-Link to say whether it’ll continue to get updates or if they have to come from the ISP in which case I’m in posession of E-Waste.
ICYMI
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13380642/filing-history
Just received an email saying I will be migrated to Octaplus
This seems to be the e-mail people on CityFibre’s network have been recieving today:
“We understand that you may have experienced some frustration with our service and as a result our customer experience over the past few months, we would like to offer our sincerest apologies for this. In order to address and resolve these issues, ZYBRE has reached an agreement with Octaplus Networks, and CityFibre will support migrating of our existing broadband subscribers.
What does this mean for you?
You can rest assured that your internet broadband speed will remain the same, and there will be no change to your existing contract terms. Octaplus Networks will ensure a high degree of service to support all customers joining their platform.
What about my payments?
It is important that your payments with ZYBRE, EdenOak (Digital Home) or Air Broadband are up-to-date, so please ensure any outstanding payments are made, once paid you should cancel any direct debit you may have with ZYBRE, EdenOak (Digital Home), or Air Broadband. You can make payments via our payment hotline on 02393003713.
What are the next steps?
Your existing broadband service will be migrated to Octaplus Networks starting from Friday 12th May 2023 onwards, between 00:01hrs and 08:00hrs, and you will be provided with free internet access until 31st May 2023, giving time to set up new direct debits with Octaplus Networks.
Do I need to do anything else?
The day before migration, please ensure the CityFibre network termination box and the WiFi Router are connected to a power source and remain switched on. On the day of migration, wait until 08:30AM to test your internet connection. If it’s not working, simply switch off the power to both the CityFibre termination box and router, wait for 1 minute and then restore the power.
If you are still unable to connect to the internet, please contact the Customer Service team at Octaplus Networks by phone on 03333355385 or email switchover@octaplus.co.uk and they will assist.
Octaplus Networks will send an email to confirm your migration has been completed successfully.
What if I don’t want to migrate to Octaplus Networks?
Octaplus Networks is an Internet Service Provider and Network Operator based in the UK, established in 2022 to offer a better standard of broadband nationwide.
They are committed to offering the best possible support, at industry-leading prices, giving outstanding value for money.
If you choose not to migrate to Octaplus Networks, your service will still be migrated, and you will be offered free internet until 31st May 2023, giving you ample time to do your research and migrate to another CityFibre ISP, with no penalty.
If you have any further questions or would simply like to talk to someone about the migration, please contact the Customer Service team at Octaplus Networks by phone on 03333355385 or email switchover@octaplus.co.uk and they will be happy to help.
FAQ Page: http://www.octaplus.co.uk/zybreoctaplus
Thank you for your custom and understanding.
Yours faithfully,
Jonathan Robinson
CEO, ZYBRE”
I’ve had this one today
I didn’t as I’m on OFNL, which seems so far to have been a permanent removal unlike you guys on CityFibre were. I just saw this on Facebook.
Considering they’ve been kicked off every network provider they could have been a part of (to my knowledge), and the strike-off notice… I reckon it’s curtains for Zybre now, as I’m only aware of CityFibre customers being under them still.
and in classic Zybre style – the address they’ve mentioned in their email for Octaplus is currently invalid =/
It is quite hilarious and typical… from what I can figure out, I think the actual link is https://octaplus.co.uk/zybreswitch/ seems to be if CityFibre customers want to continue with Octaplus past the 31st May grace period.
This situation is a complete farce! I’ve received emails from both Air and Zybre asking for payment in the same period, with neither able to tell me which one I should be paying! Any advice for taking my complaint formal? Thanks. (Norwich customer.)
Pay neither. Both Air and Zybre appear to have just left their billing systems running (probably deliberately). Xero (a third party who invoice for Air) have no interest in looking into their billing system sending spurious invoices for non existent companies. I’ve contacted their support, they were useless and recommended adding their emails to my junk list. Never had an invoice from Zybre, or a customer reference or anything.
Rather disappointingly, I’ve contacted the Ombudsman three times and they’ve also been useless. Closing cases without reading the descriptions, promising call backs and never happening, very disappointed. Others online have reported positive outcomes with the Ombudsman so maybe see what happens, but keep in mind Air don’t exist and Zybre ignore all contact.
I’m now with Octaplus and I’m much happier. Good customer service too and a cheaper price. Brilliant.