Giganet takes Cuckoo under wing to further full-fibre ambitions

As the UK gigabit broadband market continues to grow rapidly, leading internet service provider (ISP) Giganet has announced the acquisition of fellow independent provider Cuckoo.

East London-based Cuckoo began life two years ago with a stated aim of providing “the fastest, fairest, feelgood broadband” and with a mission to disrupt what the firm claimed was the UK’s “broken” telecoms sector. “This is broadband we want you to actually feel good about,” said the company. “And if that sounds strange, it’s only because such a low bar has been set for such a long time.”

In the two years since its launch, Cuckoo has been voted the top provider in the UK for customer service by MoneySavingExpert in February 2022, scoring 9.7/10 for customer service in a national poll of more than 20,000 respondents.

Part of the Fern fibre family, which also includes Jurassic, Swish, Allpoints Fibre and Vorboss, Giganet has enjoyed a strong 2022 and in May inked a deal to make its full-fibre service offering available across CityFibre’s entire eight million-home nationwide roll-out. The network currently passes more than 1.5 million homes and Giganet will bring its broadband services to market in new locations throughout 2022. The two firms expect services to be available to all homes across the entire CityFibre footprint within the next 12 months.

With the addition of Cuckoo, Giganet says its reach will now extend to nine million homes across the UK and adds that it will now work with Cuckoo to disrupt the UK broadband market by prioritising service and customer experience as the roll-out of full-fibre accelerates.

Cuckoo and Giganet have both been advocates against “loyalty taxes” and price hikes, pledging to charge loyal customers the same as new customers, and opting not to increase charges mid-contract, with prices currently frozen until 2023. Cuckoo will become the lead consumer brand for Giganet’s core residential customers, with Giganet itself continuing to be the brand serving its growing enterprise base.

Commenting on the acquisition, Cuckoo CEO Alexander Fitzgerald said: “This is great news for customers. Cuckoo’s expertise lies in building brilliant customer experiences thanks to our supremely talented team of developers, designers, marketers and customer service experts. Giganet are experts in building and running networks. Together, we will deliver faster, cheaper and better broadband for millions – and we’re only just getting started.”

Giganet CEO Jarlath Finnegan added: “Today’s acquisition marks a meeting of minds at a time when consumers deserve more from a utility as critical as the internet. Our vision to be the best ISP in the UK aligns perfectly with Cuckoo’s goal to be the fastest and fairest, and of course the most trusted, bringing to the market a fresh challenger that puts customers first.”

Meanwhile, CityFibre has announced that it has now laid 675km of full-fibre internet cables beneath the streets of Derby as part of its £50m plan to future-proof the city’s digital connectivity – a network build that started in March 2020. Its build partner, McCann, is working in various locations across the city, with network construction taking place in the Alvaston, Boulton, Chellaston, Littleover and Normanton areas.  The roll-out has been completed across large sections of Derby, including Allestree, Mackworth, Mickleover, Darley, Abbey, Alvaston and Boulton.

As per its May deal, Giganet is one of the ISPs named by CityFibre for the Derby network and is joined by Vodafone, TalkTalk, Zen Internet, Air Broadband, Gigabit Networks, IDNet, Marston’s and Yayzi, with others set to join the network soon.