Concerns Grow as Small UK ISP Link Broadband Suddenly Vanishes UPDATE4
Internet provider Link Broadband, which is a smaller ISP that has tended to work with several alternative full fibre networks, appears to be in a spot of trouble after its website vanished a few days ago (now showing a “503 Service Unavailable” message) and some feedback alleges that it may even be at risk of imminent closure.
The first possible indication of a problem may have occurred a few months ago after the odd customer claimed (example) that Link Broadband appeared to have transferred their CityFibre base to rival ISP Rocket Fibre (others tell us this was actually OFNL’s base). But the provider seems to have continued selling packages via other networks.
In addition, Link’s company details recently saw a bunch of Director and address changes, while their latest accounts reported that they had net assets of -£207k at the end of August 2024 (2023: -£143k). But things recently appeared to take a turn after their website vanished a few days ago, seemingly without any service status updates being issued to their social media channels or elsewhere to explain the downtime.
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Since then we’ve received a few second-hand reports that some remaining customers (mostly newer sign-ups) on OFNL lines via Link Broadband may have allegedly been told that the provider will be closing their service on 31st August 2025. If true, that doesn’t give customers long to find an alternative and is less than the minimum of 30 days that would normally be expected.
ISPreview attempted to contact Link Broadband about this yesterday, but we have yet to receive a response. The provider’s phone lines also seem to be either clogged up or are not working. Finally, Ofcom appears to have no prior knowledge of what is happening at the ISP either. For now, we can only hope that all of this stems from a temporary issue.
UPDATE 2:33pm
The Telecom Acquisitions (TAL) group has informed us that they purchased Link’s CityFibre, MS3 and some other full fibre connections some time ago (example), which largely left the ISP with their OFNL base. Freedom Fibre have also confirmed that Link are no longer active with them.
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UPDATE 4:04pm
We’ve had it confirmed via other sources that most of the OFNL based customers (not CityFibre) were indeed transferred to Rocket Fibre earlier in the year, although this apparently left a few newer OFNL based subscribers with the ISP (the ones receiving the latest closure communications).
UPDATE 5:05pm
The following is a copy of the email that some of Link’s customers received this week.
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Dear XXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,
We regret to inform you that Link Broadband will be closing down operations by the end of this month. Our internet services will no longer be available after that time.
To avoid disruption to your connectivity, we strongly advise you to switch to another Internet Service Provider (ISP) at the earliest.
Please note:
– The customer portal is no longer accessible from today.
– Phone support will not be available during this transition.
– All services will be permanently discontinued by month-end.We sincerely thank you for being a valued customer of Link Broadband. It has been our privilege to serve you, and we truly appreciate your trust over the years.
We apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Best regards,
Link Broadband Team
Some of those affected by this complain that the OFNL based ISPs they’ve chosen to switch too won’t be able to connect them in time for the switch-off, thus a period of downtime is expected – likely lasting several days.
UPDATE 5:51pm
Feedback from other providers (e.g. Internetty) indicates that Link Broadband haven’t yet placed a cease with OFNL and thus switches to other OFNL providers should not cause downtime, even if the connection only occurs after the end of August. But affected customers do need to move fast to ensure this stays the case.
OFNL is understood to have told some ISPs that, in the event of ceases being placed by Link Broadband, they will still allow the migrations to go through early to avoid downtime. Some positive news at last.
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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This is true. Received a weird email today stating they are ceasing their operations. “We regret to inform you that Link Broadband will be closing down operations by the end of this month. Our internet services will no longer be available after that time.”
No customer support available anymore.
This is really weird. OFNL says they are not aware of this and said cannot get involved as they only provide infrastructure and asking customers to contact Ofcom.
Now users like me have to take a new minimum term with other providers. Lost the line rental as well.
With someone provided accountability.
Any chance you can forward me a copy of that email Andrew? I’ve only had second hand accounts so far.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/contact.shtml
there’s a lot of change for them at companies house today.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12786507/officers
The registered address is a tanning salon?
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13952310
Director same name, but they’ve basically set 2 profiles up it seems, so I’m assuming its the same person running both now?
Last published accounts showed it had no employees and one director
Little hope of any redress for customers with the only director registered as living in Pakistan. Some customers probably won’t find out about this, until they realise they have no internet connection! Bad show all round.
Stories like this & the earlier story about Earth Broadband hardly provide an incentive for potential customers to try the smaller players, does it?
@Big Dave: Correct, i would imagine some of the smaller players won’t even make to the consolidation phase, which is expected to happen with increasing frequency.
Link appears to be a Reseller not an Alt-Net.
They do not appear to be building any network, so consolidation isn’t applicable.
In cases like this surely OFCOM would have some role to protect customers ? What redress do customers actually have in cases where their internet service provider goes out of buisness?
This is handled by the Office of Telecoms Adjudication. See https://www.offta.org.uk/siteassets/ota/solr-industry-process.pdf?v=384772
Nope. I believe that they only facilitate the establishment of industry process. I don’t believe that they enforce regulation nor do they protect end users.
Depends on exactly how it has failed, The customers could be just creditor to the company with the chances of getting any money back close to zero
Heard that Link Broadband owe OFNL a lot of money, hence shutting their shop. Not sure what the truth is, but customers are at loss because of this fiasco.
If what you’ve heard is correct, brings to memory the article on this site a while back when TalkTalk were believed to owe Openreach money, off course that being of a different scale, considering the firms size.
For me, the interesting question here is, why was there an apparent change of ownership registered with Companies House on 12/08/25?
@The Provisioner – Search Companies House for the directors name as it’s written. You’ll find a number of businesses transferring to this gentleman, at the same address, recently.
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@Mark Please feel free to edit this comment, or reject it completely of course.
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@MattP
I downloaded the relevant .csv file from Companies House.
There are currently 79 active companies, registered to that address, all of whom have very recently transferred into foreign ownership.
Few, if any, of the businesses look to have been previously related, although some of the companies have had their registered addresses previously changed to those of already failed businesses, which are often vacant premises of course, before re-re-locating to the tanning salon’s address.
This has all the hallmarks of some other business (i.e. a third party, NOT Link Broadband themselves) offering a classic absolution for a fee scheme.
Very sharp practice, but not illegal unless intent to evade liability can be proven beyond reasonable doubt of course.
Unless OFNL have good money to throw after bad, that ain’t going to happen.
All this reminds me of the time I first came across this site about 2 and a half years ago in search of proper information – when customers of Air Broadband (i.e. myself) were given just a few hours notice that they were being taken over by Zybre (themselves also since defunkt). This was followed by connection woes, then a few weeks later many of us received a snail mail notice from CityFibre inferring they “might” be pulling the plug from Zybre leaving us with no connection.
Given how a home internet connection is increasingly being taken by government and businesses as effectively a utility (i.e. a requirement to access many services), isn’t it time that there was a more graceful mandatory way of handling an ISP failure, much like an electricity company failure?
Personally, I could’ve temporarily reverted to a mobile data connection in the event of a total ISP loss where I live. The same can’t be said for many who live in mobile not-spots (all networks), despite what the coverage prediction maps claim – i.e. my elderly parents.
It works for energy companies because it’s always the same source, same wires/pipes and the same meter. All that changes is the name on the bill, and there are obvious incentives for the new supplier to make sure they know who they’re billing.
There are a lot more complications to taking over an ISP, even when it takes place on friendly terms, let alone having to sort out the pieces of a bankrupt ISP. It gets worse if the ISP offered any special features like static IPs (especially if the administrator has already carved off the IP address space as an asset to be sold!)
Put another way – BT still hasn’t fully integrated the legacy EE and Plusnet networks into its own. They obviously have the technical ability to do so, and there are financial incentives to simplification, but there’s something preventing it.
@Ivor: What are the “legacy EE” networks that you are referring to?
@ivor The only “Legacy EE” I can think of is Orange, but that ended in Q1 2019, as for Plusnet, I didn’t know there were these “Legacy Plusnet”?
The FTTP landscape is changing rapidly, especially with AltNets, many more will fall to the tough competition and get took up by either other alternatives or “Proprietary” Monsters like BT …
I’m waiting to see if BT roll Plusnet into their fold, time will tell….
@Dave: There are no plans to ditch the Plusnet brand.
Based on information I have, OFNL facilitated that agreement for clients to move from Link Broadband to Rocket Fibre. It’s been handled badly, and now link have handed over the reigns to some aggressive but effective business fixers. Hopefully things get sorted soon though.