Giganet’s UK Broadband ISP Customers Start Migrating to Cuckoo
Investment group Fern Trading (Octopus Investments) has today begun the next phase of customer migrations on their alternative UK full fibre broadband ISP networks, which are shifting to a central retail provider under Cuckoo. Customers of Jurassic Fibre and Swish Fibre have already been through this process, and today it’s the turn of Giganet.
Cuckoo originally started life around four years ago as an independent ISP, which changed in 2022 after they were acquired by Fern-backed Giganet (here). But last year’s decision by parent Fern Trading to consolidate almost all of their full fibre operators into a single wholesale network – AllPoints Fibre – changed all that (here and here).
Giganet, which was born out of M12 Solutions some years earlier, was arguably the best known and most reputable of Fern’s network and ISP brands. Suffice to say that the migration may come as more of a surprise to their customers. We should also point out that Giganet, unlike Swish and Jurassic, also has a good-sized base of Openreach and CityFibre customers (FTTP).
Advertisement
A Cuckoo spokesperson told ISPreview:
“As part of our ongoing Group consolidation, Giganet customer contracts have now been transferred to Cuckoo Fibre Limited and follows earlier transfers of Swish Fibre and Jurassic Fibre customer contracts to Cuckoo fibre in January this year.
As with the Swish and Jurassic transfers, the broadband services, monthly charges and contract details provided to Giganet customers will stay the same.
Starting in June 2024, Giganet customers will notice a name change on their financial statements to Cuckoo Fibre Limited.
Additionally, all Giganet branding will now feature the phrase “Powered by Cuckoo” to reflect Cuckoo’s ownership of the Giganet brand.
Customers do not need to do anything as part of the update but should they have any further questions, the Giganet customer care team are on hand to support on 0330 333 3006 or email via service@giganet.uk.”
Customers began to be informed about the change this morning, and more notices are expected to go out over the next few days.
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.
« Three UK Seeks to Harness 3.9GHz for Faster 5G Wireless Broadband
Latest UK ISP News
- FTTP (6054)
- BT (3649)
- Politics (2730)
- Business (2444)
- Openreach (2412)
- Building Digital UK (2336)
- Mobile Broadband (2157)
- FTTC (2086)
- Statistics (1914)
- 4G (1827)
- Virgin Media (1776)
- Ofcom Regulation (1591)
- Fibre Optic (1471)
- Wireless Internet (1464)
- 5G (1417)
Didn’t Cuckoo dump all of their Openreach-based Customers onto another ISP (TAL?) in February this year?
Wow, those lucky former Giganet Customers don’t know what is about to happened to them.
But perhaps we can guess what will happen to the ones who are currently being provided with an Openreach-based broadband circuit.
I’m an Openreach Giganet customer that got the email this morning about the transfer to Cuckoo. Don’t know why my account was missed in the previous “migration” round… (First I heard of that migration was on this site a few weeks back!)
I wonder what this means to the 12 months free internet offer Giganet have been offering in their upcoming fiber rollout areas? As my location is not live yet I can’t start the 12 months free contract, and I’d hate for availability to arrive and for the offer to no longer be available. Would be the second time Cuckoo screwed me after selling my openreach FTTC account to home networks a few weeks ago.
Well their vans are still branded as “Giganet” as I saw one yesterday in Totton, where they are still building.
Just had the email informing me I am being transferred
“We’re getting in touch to let you know that your contract with Giganet will be transferred to Cuckoo Fibre Limited from 1st June 2024.”
Hmm, so lots of notice then – 7 business days. Presumably CityFibre are still providing the actual connection.
Giganet enjoyed a reaosnable reputation, and has a marketable trading name. “Cuckoo Fibre” sounds amateur. Yes, its subjective perception but isnt all marketing!
The cuckoo name is quite bizarre – and the half-branding thing they’re doing is just as insane and bizarre. It’s such a complete mess of brands and systems. They are actually Cuckoo though… so I suppose it makes sense.
For customers and partners, knowing which site, portal, service, billing system to use is quite the challenge…
Considering I have been with Giganet for about 15 months now and they still have not got online billing or accounts working for Cityfibre customers this explains a good bit. Will see how it goes but so far its always felt like amateur hour compared to the big boys.
I also just got an email this morning and also appreciate the “notice” of ~7 days..
One thing which I am concerned about – Giganet has a service status page which is amazingly detailed – almost like some proper techies got involved and wanted their customers to have information (shock-horror). Cuckoo does not have any sort of status page – while AllPoints has 1 really simple status page showing less than the minimum required really.
It’s a massive “f-you” to their customers that no information is given on such a simple thing: show us the status, and show us the status over the last period of time so we can judge how well you perform.
“Additionally, all Giganet branding will now feature the phrase “Powered by Cuckoo” to reflect Cuckoo’s ownership of the Giganet brand.”
So a complete lie then, since Cuckoo was acquired *BY GIGANET* in 2022. Cuckoo doesn’t own anything. Fern Trading is the company that owns them all, and previously consolidated everything under the Giganet brand. This seems like an extremely convoluted (and ironic) way of saying they’re rebranding to Cuckoo
The main benefit to Giganet was the lack of ridiculous 24 month contracts, which seems to be the only option now looking at all the providers.
Giganet via openreach here. email received
Does seem an odd rebrand but I’ve didn’t expect any immediate impact. Overall very pleased with the Giganet service
I never got migrated out last time. I presume it came down to what backhaul Giganet had in my local area?
One thing Giganet didnt offer in my area was side side 500/70 on openreach. Wonder if that will change. That being said their 500/70 is probably underpriced
Hmm. First I heard about this was my bank statement. No warning, no notification. Nothing. Just a random change of name. Oh, and when I log into my Giganet account I am offered a new 18-month contract to replace the wonderful rolling one-month contract.
They’ve kept quiet on the second huge redundancy they’re currently going through making even more people jobless after all their hard work