Cuckoo

A UK broadband provider, founded in 2020 and part of the Fern group of full fibre networks, with a brand built around friendly service and an egg-themed design.

About Cuckoo

Cuckoo is a UK broadband provider that sells fibre broadband to homes. Unlike many others in this list, it is mainly a retail provider: it sells broadband packages, while the cables are mostly built by other companies. A 2024 report says it became the main retail brand for the Fern group of full fibre builders, and its website at that time showed packages using Openreach full fibre. In 2023 it became the first broadband provider to use the Kraken software platform from Octopus Energy to run its customer service.

Cuckoo launched in July 2020 as a start-up in an industry it described as outdated, and the founders it mentions are called Alex, who raised the money, and Dan, who built the website. Its mission, set out in a design article, is to be "the UK's largest and most loved broadband company", and chief executive Paul Hellings has said its goal is "fast, fair, feel-good broadband for all". Its brand traits are being trailblazing, spirited and genuine, and it calls its customers its "flock". Giganet, a Fern company, acquired Cuckoo in 2022.

The articles we read do not name a Cuckoo headquarters or office city, only that it operates across the UK and has a careers site hosted in the UK. Its managing director is Sarah Howells, who joined as chief customer officer and has nearly 30 years of customer service experience in telecoms, including at NTL, Vodafone New Zealand and 2degrees Mobile. Her role covers sales, customer service, user experience, digital, brand, marketing and product. A trade report later says AllPoints Fibre Networks is the wholesale builder and Cuckoo the retail provider in the group.

On culture, the company reorganised its product work into three squads and kept its 2022 brand refresh in-house, including a new design system called Yolk and a typeface called Garnett. Staff named in the article include a product designer, a front-end developer, a senior designer and a lead copywriter, and the chief experience officer, Tommy Toner, designed the original brand. Leadership describes it as customer obsessed. These are the company's own descriptions, and we did not find any independent view of what it is like to work there.

The roles seen on its careers site include customer care specialists, data analysts and a wholesale commercial manager, so the work includes talking to customers, analysing data, and managing commercial partnerships, as well as design, content and software. If you enjoy design, writing, data or customer service rather than outdoor engineering, a broadband retail business is a good example of where those skills are used in telecoms. Check Cuckoo's website for how the company is organised today.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Fibre broadband packages sold to UK households.', 'title': 'Home fibre broadband'}
• {'desc': 'Uses the Kraken platform to run accounts and support.', 'title': 'Customer service technology'}
• {'desc': 'In-house design, content and product teams.', 'title': 'Brand and product design'}

Key facts

• Launched in July 2020; Giganet acquired it in 2022; now the retail brand of the Fern group
• First broadband provider to use Octopus Energy's Kraken platform (2023)
• Mission: "the UK's largest and most loved broadband company"
• Managing director Sarah Howells; chief executive Paul Hellings

Website: www.cuckoo.co