Persimmon Homes ISP Fibrenest Raises UK Prices and Boosts Uploads UPDATE
Broadband ISP FibreNest, which is the Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) operator for Persimmon Homes‘ new build UK housing sites, has ended their long-running price freeze by announcing price rises and a change to adopt annual increases. But it’s not all bad news, as they’re also boosting upload speeds for existing customers.
In case anybody has forgotten, FibreNest did a good job of keeping their prices frozen through the pandemic and, unlike the major operators, they also kept this going through the worst parts of the cost-of-living crisis. But the reality is that such things can’t last forever and customers are now being informed to expect a price increase from 1st November 2023 (credits to Damien).
At the time of writing we don’t yet have all of the details (a request has been made), but those on the provider’s top 500Mbps tier (currently paying £45 per month) have been told to expect their monthly rental to increase by £2. The provider has also made some changes to their Terms and Conditions, which will allow for an annual increase in their bills from April 2025, albeit in this case capped at a maximum of £2 per month.
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The good news is that any customers choosing to leave the ISP before 28th October 2023 will be able to do so without incurring any early termination charges, although the catch here is that FibreNest is often the only full fibre network present on some of their developments (i.e. in a fair few areas the only alternative might be a slower copper-based broadband service).
FibreNest’s Price Notification Statement
“Over the last three years, we have worked extremely hard to keep our prices frozen, despite the rising costs of inflation and a significant increase in our customers’ demand for data … [but] like many businesses, we have faced substantial increases in the costs of running our network and supporting our customers.
We have worked hard to ensure this price increase is below the Consumer Price Index and significantly lower than the rises already implemented by many of the biggest internet providers earlier this year.
However, it’s not all bad news, because the same announcement notes that the ISP is increasing some of their average upload speeds. For example, those on their 500Mbps download tier will see their uploads (currently 50Mbps) being boosted up to 80Mbps.
“We will also be investing in our customer services over the next 12 months by introducing new ways to manage your account online and providing more options for you to contact us,” added the announcement.
UPDATE 9:17am
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FibreNest has confirmed that the same £2 increase applies across all of their packages.
A Spokesperson for FibreNest told ISPreview:
“Following a price freeze for over three years despite rising inflation, we have announced a £2 a month increase to customers’ bills from November. This below inflation rise is also significantly lower than the biggest internet providers’ increases of up to £12 per month. In contrast, FibreNest is also committing to no further price increases before April 2025.
We recognise the challenges some customers face and have frozen for a fourth year our financially vulnerable customers’ bills and voluntarily introduced a new social tariff to support those in particular need. Our colleagues are ready to discuss any concerns customers may have and help them choose the best service package for their needs.”
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Feel sorry for the people who ended up being locked out of any other network options due to Persimmon’s greed – £47 for 500 down and 80 up is expensive, and the lower tiers are even worse value compared to the wider market.
To be fair their 500:80 isn’t that bad considering it’s 500:50 on VM for roughly £65.
Yeah I’m sure most Persimmon tenants would prefer the option of having ~ 700 CPs to choose from, even if it means being stuck on ADSL2+. Be careful what you wish for…
Openreach will run FTTP on any development of any real size. They’ll even let you install the internal wiring and ONT. Persimmon could do that instead of pretending to be an ISP.
You know, like the other big box builders seem capable of doing…
@ Copper, true, but Virgin will negotiate – i’m on 1 gig with phone for £39.
Sorry, meant @AQX
If the roads are adopted they cannot stop ISP’s running fibre in. If their are covenants in pace or leases they may be able to stop fibre being put into the building by other providers
To be absolutely clear – there are plenty of people happy on fibrenest. I’m on the 500/50 for £45 (soon to be 500/80 for £47). I’m happy with the service. CG-Nat was annoying but static IP sorted out most of my use-cases and the service itself is bang on. Competition is good, but as others have said… be careful what you wish for!
I’ve been with fibrenest for 2 years now and not really had any problems, when I did have a reduced download speed (500>200mbps) for a while they fixed it and credited my account. Support has been fairly good.
I’m happy with fibrenest, I’m hoping other networks pick up on the fibrenest wholesale side in hopes overall it might mean they reduce their prices but as others have said, as is it’s cheaper than the competition in other areas.
I think some people complain just because it’s the only one and not what they are used too without realising it’s a decent isp.
I’m interested to see when their 1gbps multi gbps, symmetrical packages are released for retail as on their wholesale page it says that they are bringing out in 2022 with no update since
Seems unlikely that wholesale will be particularly popular given FibreNest’s (relatively) tiny footprint.
AQX what are you on about virgin’s 1gig package is significantly less than this as it is 46 pounds a month which is in line with openreach. Virgin ain’t going to charge around 20 pounds more than everyone else as they would have a lot of customers leaving.
The statement about only other option might be slower copper based – actually in the vast majority of cases that isn’t an option either.
It’s Fibrenest, or hope for a credible mobile option which also often won’t exist.
It is in effect a total monopoly.
It’s not a Monopoly unfortunately as they have opened up to wholesale – just unfortunate no one has joined due to their tiny footprint
They have opened up to wholesale if any other communications provider wants it
https://fibrenest.com/wholesale
@Name do you know their AS number?
@Peter ASN 204731
https://bgpview.io/asn/204731
Only peering with Level 3 and Cogent. Seems strange, you’d expect then then peer at LINX with the major UK ISP, CDNs and hyperscalers (Azure etc.) to reduce their bills from the tier 3 providers.
Cogent and Lumen (previously Level 3) are Tier 1 ISPs 🙂
@those who comment on wholesale.
Yeah, they ‘technically’ offer wholesale.
If you’d seen the terms/costs, you’d know why nobody took them up. It’s a ‘technically exists’ offering like many of the ‘wholesale’ arrangements.
Mark do you know what happened to Thier 10G backhaul upgrade program?
I believe most developments are still on 1G?
“At FibreNest we are always looking to innovate, and in 2022 will be launching a range of symmetrical, next-generation packages, including multi-gigabit speeds”
Have people tried 5g internet? Zero that Persimmon can do about it as there are no cables to the property. Who offers the best 5g depends on the location
I’d rather be served by Openreach, Virgin or an altnet than be stuck with one provider at the whim of the housing developer.
Moved in a new Persimmon home 2 weeks ago and while have been told that FiberNest is the only ISP by the agent…in the house was a OFLN modem and after a quick search found out i can choose from 16 providers, Virgin is listed but they serve certain areas & another Isp is merging with another provider.To be honest anything over 300/50 is £45+ soo expensive.Have signed up with Merula and the guy on the phone was great & had internet 30 min after ordering,was lucky that had my own router.