Customers of Broadband ISP No One Acquired by Home Telecom UK UPDATE
Internet service provider No One, which typically sells broadband packages via both Openreach and CityFibre’s national networks, have notified residential customers of their decision to “partner up” with Home Telecom, which is a subsidiary of the Telecom Acquisitions (TAL) group where TalkTalk holds a controlling stake.
The letter being sent to customers (credits to hacman for sharing) about this change states that the new deal is intended to support No One’s “growth as a smaller ISP” because they “need more back-office support to help us with billing, credit control, and service“. Customers have been told that their price and package will remain the same, while No One will continue to deliver the broadband service, yet bills and payments will now be handled by Home Telecom.
Suffice to say that this all sounds a bit different from the more direct customers acquisitions that we’ve recently seen from Home Telecom, although it’s probably not a million miles from the approach they’ve taken with Eclipse and Fleur in the recent past.
In addition, No One claims the agreement means they’ll be able to “offer far more services than before, including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more of the now established local AltNet suppliers at your postcode.” This is slightly confusing because they seem to be mixing up retail ISPs with wholesale provision and alternative network operators, which perhaps requires a bit more clarification in order for it to make sense.
Copy of No One’s Customer Letter
Here at No One Internet, through rapid expansion we have decided to partner up with industry leader Home Telecom who are based in Horsham, West Sussex and operate 24/7, to support our growth as a smaller ISP. We have made this decision because as we continue to grow, we need more back-office support to help us with billing, credit control, and service. Home Telecom are extremely well set up to power the back-office side of operations and assist with the ongoing support of our valuable customers.
We have chosen them as they have been established for over 14 years and are renowned for their fantastic customer service, which is rated “Excellent” with 4.5* from an incredible 10,000 reviews on Trustpilot, making them the highest ranking in the industry by number of reviews.
There is nothing for you to do and there will be no interruption to your broadband package or customer service. Your price and package will remain the same, No One Internet will continue to deliver your broadband service with billing and support delivered by Home Telecom. They will take over the billing of your No One Internet account from the 15th March and GoCardless who collect the payment on your usual date, will present ‘Home Telecom’ as the collecting bank.
There is further good news, with our expansion we are able to offer far more services than before, including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more of the now established local AltNet suppliers at your postcode.
You will receive a welcome email from the Home Telecom team introducing themselves very soon.
If you want to know more about Home Telecom please visit their website at www.hometelecom.co.uk
If you have any questions or concerns, please drop us an email at ——-.
Thank you for being a most valuable No One Internet customer.
Kind Regards,
The No One Internet Team
Meanwhile, Home Telecom has setup somewhat of a basic Q&A Page on their website, which largely just reiterates the bullet points from No One’s letter.
UPDATE 8th March 2024 @ 7:32am
The boss of TAL has clarified to ISPreview that the new deal isn’t a merger, and they have instead purchased No One’s “residential assets“, which makes much more sense than the way No One seemed to be expressing it above. The transfer is said to reflect a base of over 2,500 residential customers who all reside on the CityFibre network.
We’re expecting to see a lot more retail-end acquisitions like this cropping up over the next few weeks and months as the strains in the current market continue to bite.
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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> Your current broadband, package, price and support will continue to be delivered by No One Internet, just powered by Home Telecom. (Home Telecom terms and conditions will apply.)
> Any overdue payments to Home Telecom will incur a late payment fee, this can be
found on Home Telecom’s website under Tariffs and Charges
> Interest shall accrue on overdue invoices from the Due Date until payment
(whether before or after judgment) at the annual rate of 2 percent above the
prevailing base lending rate of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Interest shall accrue
even if the Agreement is terminated for whatever reason
What’s this — overdue payment charge introduced but not mentioned? specifically £20
cost of live crises -> stricter against consumers.
Even:
> Agreed Annual Price Adjustment: Your monthly charges will increase with your April
bill each year. Any increase will align with the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate of
inflation at that time. We will always provide you with a minimum of 30 days’ notice
regarding the precise increase each year
We never agreed to this. When we signed up to No One they had a no price increase policy.
Why should anyone choose No One over Cerberus Aquiss etc.?
I quoted the above from the terms of conditions linked from the FAQ page linked in the article. It’s the same document as for their customers. We don’t know what proportion of it applies to No One customers specifically, but at this stage, after us signing it, legally all of it? since they linked it. If No One has outsourced billing, most likely some things will be different with billing. They say no changes to pricing but the terms of use does show quite lot less friendliness in case of overdue payments, and also mentions RPI increase.
I would like to ask No One whether they’re doing this in response to customers delaying payments, and if in this case, introducing overdue charges and annual RPI increases (terms of use mentions this but it might be disabled due to the phrasing: “Your price and package will remain the same”) is the right approach to tackling this issue.
I feel that the government isn’t taking the right steps to protect the customers, there are quite a few providers without overdue charges so the poor customer isn’t given much choice
First Cuckoo, now this lot……what’s going on!!
Openreach charges have gone down not up through Equinox…
@Alex A, Equinox offers are for those who wholesale directly from Openreach, most providers go via TalkTalk or BT Wholesales so up to them if the pass it over
@Random Precision
Precisely! What on Earth is going on?
I remember when looking for alternatives to move away from Cuckoo (after they unilaterally decided to throw away their own customers to Home Telecom with short notice), going through the Reviews on ISPreview and elsewhere and narrowing the choices down to Aquiss, or IDNet. If push really came to shove, contemplated as a backup a 12 month contract with BT for a temporary solution. I remember briefly putting “No One Internet” on a short list. Now to see, that That would have ended up as jumping from the frying pan into the (same) fire!
@Peter Correct, the comment I put was directed to a now deleted one by ‘Phil’ saying it was Openreach charges. Hopefully, the decrease is passed on, at the very least prices aren’t going up!
Alex A, Openreach’s prices are going up. They dropped last year with Equinox but are increasing again from 1st April.
Well Cuckoo was only ever set up to build a company to sell on and to prove the marketing strategies of the digital platform they were also selling worked. It was all PR and social media driven and a case of spend money by the bucket load as tomorrow it will be someone else’s debt. Cuckoo wasn’t even an ISP, they just bought wholesale and rebranded the product as their own, so at least we haven’t lost a real independent service provider.
No One is of course an independent internet provider, having their own kit and peering arrangements, so its a shame to see them go, but No One was already a salvage attempt after Trunk Networks failed. The branding and name wasn’t doing them any favours either, still sounds silly.
@JamesBand I take the reviews on Home Telecom on Trust Pilot and elsewhere with a huge pinch of salt. Loads and loads of negative reviews interspersed with a glowing review tells me all I need to know about Home Telecom.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that CityFibre resume their stalled build here in North Tyneside as it’ll be more choice, although I wouldn’t return to Cuckoo on CF.
Fully agreed!
It’s seems they’ve failed to tell us in the letter that their terms and conditions are changing and give the 30 days notice that Ofcom require and the right to cancel.
Doesn’t seem like an honest approach and its like their intentionally trying to hide rights for financial gain with these excessive charges, like £40 for disconnection? I’d suggest moving away whilst you can and reporting to Ofcom.
It’s like they’ve bought the base but are trying to be sneaky by saying they’re doing the back office. I don’t like it
Ive emailed them about the RPI thing, as I didnt sign up to that, when I get an answer I’ll share, if we are going to be subject to RPI then out of principle im out.
Im in the same boat. Between ordering and go live they dropped the price and contract length for me…so im already paying about 10% more than most. Only a few months left for me, but april is just around the corner if they are sneaking in the first RPI increase.
The whole thing doesn’t pass the sniff test. Will update if i hear anything.
Email reply as follows:-
“Your terms and conditions and the price you are on for the remainder of your contract won’t change. The RPI increases will not affect you. You have signed a contract with No One Internet and not Home Telecom. At the end of your current contract you will have the opportunity to renew and at that time the renewal will be under the Home Telcom T’s and C’s. I have every confidence that OfCom proposal to stop in contract price rises will come into force soon”
Thanks for sharing simonsmith.
I had hoped to stay with noone but will jump ship when my term runs out in a few months.
I think we’ll see a lot more acquisitions in the home broadband market, though I was kinda thinking they’d be the bigger ones.
I too thought I might be affected by cuckoo (I’m actually with giganet via openreach). Nothing heard there yet. No-one was on my shortlist, albeit not making to my ultimate decision/top2.
Hmm…
> No One Internet will continue to deliver your broadband service
Seems inconsistent with
> they have instead purchased No One’s “residential assets“
Darren Elson (Director No One) response about which T&Cs apply:
“The No One Internet T’s & C’s apply. The Home Telecom price rise clause and additional charges do not apply. Once you are out of contract you will be able to sign up again and that new sign up will be under Home Telecom’s T’s & C’s.”
So I will see what my CityFibre/OpenReach FTTP ISP options are when my current No One contract minimum term is up next year.
Of course this could change with 30days notice and would mean looking for a new ISP much sooner.
What I am actually half expecting is all the Home Telecom/Telecom Aquistions brands will become TalkTalk sooner rather than later.
oh for gods sake. Any recommendations for a provider that won’t be bought out?
Try Aquiss (12 month contract) or IDNet (12 month, or 30 day rolling).
Well I am in the same position. Reviewed the names suggested, for the first first time ever I thought I would check out companies house reports. My view now is we could end up in the same position>
Had a back/forth with Darren Elsom also but he didn’t mention renewals being under the HT T&C’s. I think I’ll be looking to move also one contract up in July (I’m on CityFibre connection). Unfortunately most other providees charge a bit more but hey-ho.
Personally from a customer standpoint this is a backwards step for NoOne. I don’t think they will be too of anyone’s list if the residential side is owned by TAL. Pity because they’ve been good up to now!
I wonder what happens to customers like me, who’s No one contract had already expired over a year ago, do we get grandfathered in to home telecoms contract?
I never received any email from No one about it.
Does anyone have ping experiences with No One Internet? I live in Leeds and would like a ping of below 10ms to stuff like Cloudflare if possible.