Full Fibre UK ISP Fibrus Launch Cheap Social Broadband Tariff UPDATE2
Infracapital-backed internet provider Fibrus, which is rolling out a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across Northern Ireland and parts of North England (Cumbria), has today become the latest UK ISP to introduce a cheaper social tariff for those on state benefits (“Full Fibre Essential“).
The new Full Fibre Essential package costs just £14.99 per month on a 12-month term, with free activation and is available to those receiving Income-based Employment Support Allowance, Income-based Jobseekers Allowance, Income Support, Pension Credit or Universal Credit.
Additionally, customers won’t pay any more than they agreed at the start of the contract, and they won’t pay a fee to leave the tariff before the end of their contract.
Fibrus CEO, Dominic Kearns, said:
“We’ve made a conscious decision to offer Full Fibre broadband at a discounted rate with our new social tariff, to help meet the needs of different households.
Fibrus aims to enhance the lives of communities in rural areas who have long experienced limited connectivity options. Access to dependable, high-speed broadband is now as essential as electricity and heating for modern homes. We believe broadband should be accessible to everyone.”
Priced at £14.99 per month, we hope that the tariff will make Full Fibre broadband more accessible to those eligible for income support under the Department for Work and Pensions.”
On the one hand it’s good to see another social tariff option enter the market, but Fibrus’ announcement makes no mention at all of the package speeds, and it’s a similar story on Fibrus’s website – even their FAQs page doesn’t mention what speeds it offers. We’re currently trying to get to the bottom of this, since such details are fairly important.
Otherwise, Fibrus’ network has so far covered around 300,000 premises across the UK with their new full fibre network and is currently home to 70,000 customers. You can also see our Quick Guide to UK Social Tariffs for other options.
UPDATE 8th Feb 2024 @ 10:49am
Fibrus has informed us that their social tariff is a 50Mbps product, although we’re still waiting to be told whether that’s a symmetric speed.
UPDATE 8th Feb 2024 @ 2:20pm
The upload speed is confirmed to be 20Mbps.
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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“ Fibrus aims to enhance the lives of communities in rural areas”
Offering a package at the same rate as current offers or previous offers have previously been in order to grab some good news after the recent abysmal storm responses drawing some heat.
Maybe they should focus on enhancing the lives of those they are making redundant in the news recently across Fibrus and Viberoptix when they can’t provide a decent service as it is.
Are you available in skegness if so when would I be able to have this broadband
“Fibrus’ announcement makes no mention at all of the package speeds, and it’s a similar story on Fibrus’s website”
Seems to be a secret !
Pension Credit is an odd one. It tops up your income to about £100 per year less than the full state pension but unlocks multiple hundreds of pounds even thousands worth of other benefits and social tariffs.Surely the government can design a fairer system.
what do you mean by fairer?
pension credit is targeted at people without significant assets or a fat private pension, so it makes sense that it gives them more cash and gives them access to additional help.
Therefore it also makes sense for ISPs to limit their social tariff plans – subsidised by customers paying full price – to those who actually need the help. Plenty of pensioners are wealthy enough to pay their own bills…
The full State Pension is £203.85 per week. If you get Pension Credit your income will be £201.05 per week. (Assuming a single person in both cases.) However, Pension Credit, which you will not get with a full State Pension (even with no other assets and no private pension), unlocks social tariffs and other benefits worth hundreds at least. You only need these extra benefits and social tariffs to be worth £150 per year to be worse off with the full State Pension than being on Pension Credit.They are easily worth that and more.
@Ivor I believe the other person commenting is referring to people who work and contribute to later receive a full pension.
You have people who have not done this yet they are getting the same if not more making it look like they are rewarded.
You mention about private pensions, no assets etc the fault is that person it is for each person to make life choices and money management.
I have no issue with social tariffs but it does highlight how greedy these companies are when you have many of the very small ones which have no issue offering very cheap packages yet the big boys constantly ripping people of with yearly price increases etc.
A lot of the benefit system is unfair/unbalanced you have people who are too sick to work yet they do not get many perks people who are claiming other types of benefits (It is a known fact if you have health issues your cost of living will be far higher)
This company is a joke … so many people in my area unhappy after signing up and still waiting weeks to be connected and how customer support is terrible.