Our overall rating: 44 out of 50
Owned by two ex-BT directors, Rebel's message is very clear – stop being exploited by big broadband. Rebel positions itself as a breath of fresh air that provides transparency, great tech and flexibility. It offers rolling 30-day contracts at the same monthly price (you will have to pay a £60 set-up fee) as its 12-month contracts, clear pricing that won't suddenly increase mid-year and really powerful routers and Wi-Fi boosters.
Unlike most of the new, small providers springing up, Rebel operates on the well-established Openreach network. This means it's much more likely your household will be able to access it.
The positives
The negatives
In our full review we take a look at the pros and cons of each area in more detail: speed, full fibre review, cost, setup and customer service.
Very fast – that’s if your household is in the 40% that can access it’s full fibre packages which include an ultrafast gigabit plan. If not, you should be able to at least get its basic fibre package with speeds of 73Mbps. We list everything below, so check your postcode first to see what is currently available to you
Find out what Wi-Fi is available with our postcode checker.
Speed is often the biggest consideration when choosing a broadband package. If you have multiple people using the internet at one time, then a higher speed and bandwidth will be essential. Equally, if it’s a small household using the internet for everyday usage, paying for business-grade bandwidth will probably end up being a waste.
You should decide what speed is right for you, based on your broadband habits at home. Here’s a handy guide to help show what bandwidth usage your different applications need.
There is one option (the first, Rebel Fibre) available to households not yet on the Openreach full fibre network. And three full fibre plans to choose from to those that are.
Rebel Fibre
This package has an average download speed of 73Mbps and upload speeds of 18.4Mbps at peak times. Great for 5-10 devices in a family home.
Rebel 115
Rebel’s entry-level full fibre package has an average download speed of 115Mbps. This is a good plan that will cover most household’s streaming and video call needs.
Rebel 330
With an average download speed of 330Mbps and upload speeds of 50Mbps, this plan can easily handle 10+ devices all requiring an internet connection at the same time, including any avid gamers.
Rebel 1000
Rebel's fastest service, this full fibre package offers users an impressive average download speed of 1000Mbps and upload speed of 115Mbps. Whatever you’re doing at home, this is more than enough to keep even the busiest of working-from-home households happy.
What exactly is full fibre?
It’s the fastest available internet in the UK.
Around two-thirds of homes in the UK can now access ultrafast Rebel broadband via fibre-optic technology called ‘G.fast’ or ‘Fibre To The Premises’ (FTTP). This is via the Openreach network.
Full fibre is the next generation of broadband. It removes the need to rely on copper phone lines and instead connects fibre cables straight to your home. This means there’s no slowdown on the data between the street cabinet and your property and the speed and strength are much more powerful than any previous fibre broadband technology as a result. Common internet issues like buffering and outages become almost non-existent.
This technology will future-proof homes and businesses across the UK because, once it’s installed, properties won’t need to install new cables for their broadband for decades.
Find out whether your postcode has Rebel full fibre availability
Rebel uses the well-established and reliable Openreach network for all its packages. Openreach is the physical network (the wires under the street and the boxes on the street) and the biggest telecommunications network in the UK.
Because it’s with Openreach it means you have a 96% chance of being in reach of at least a partial fibre connection, which gives you access to the first tariff (Rebel Fibre 73Mbps) in the options above.
Rebel isn’t currently signed up to Ofcom’s voluntary code practice on better broadband speeds. But customers scores on Trustpilot for connectivity are generally above average.
Starting from £35 a month for its 73.14Mbps and 115Mbps package, Rebel certainly isn’t the cheapest. That is, unless you want a no-contract monthly arrangement and then it begins to feel like a bit of a better deal. The faster plan you choose, the better value for money it works out at.
There is a one-off set-up fee of £60 if you choose a rolling contract, but even with this Rebel is one of the best ways of getting flexible ultrafast broadband.
Apart from avoiding the £60 set-up fee, what’s the incentive to join up to a 12-month contract when you can get the freedom to leave at any time for the same price? Well, currently there is also an £80 Amazon gift voucher too for anyone taking out a contract to take into consideration, but these can come and go. There’s no huge incentive to not go for the monthly rolling option.
Average price guide
For all of Rebel’s deals you can choose between 12-months fixed with no set-up fees or monthly flexible with a £60 set-up fee. Both work out to the same monthly price.
Rebel doesn’t have TV or mobile packages you can bundle with its broadband, it just focuses on full fibre broadband.
It does have a home phone service option. As the UK prepares for the removal of traditional analogue telephones in 2025, like many other providers Rebel has built its own internet based phone that works in a similar way to traditional analogue landlines. This Voice over IP lets you keep your existing home telephone and phone number and costs £10 a month. You’ll get unlimited UK domestic phone calls with this.
Rebel is currently offering an £80 Amazon voucher to customers signing up to any of its 12-month broadband plans.
No, it doesn’t. It stands against the practice of mid-price hikes. On Rebel’s homepage you’ll find this promise:
“New and existing customers pay the same. No teaser rates or above-inflation price increases.”
If you already have full fibre broadband with another Openreach provider (BT, Sky, NOW, TalkTalk, Plusnet and Vodafone) switching to Rebel is easy. You won’t need any type of installation and Rebel will just send you a router that you can plug in on your go-live date.
If you don’t already have full fibre, or are with another provider like Virgin Media, the chances are you’ll need an engineer to install your broadband line between your property and the street cabinet or pole nearby. Rebel don’t charge for this appointment and when the work is done the engineer will finish by testing your line and helping you set up your router to make sure everything is working properly.
All packages come with the Heights Wi-Fi 6 HT-178AX Router. This is a high-end bit of equipment sporting next generation Wi-Fi 6 technology. It is dual-band and has a USB port and four gigabit ethernet ports for direct wired connections to devices and two telephone VoIP ports.
There's an add-on option to have Plume SuperPods, these will cover all corners that are hard to reach of your home and eliminate any dead spots. They're about as good as it gets when it comes to mesh Wi-Fi. You can get these as a standalone service too and add them to an other existing broadband connection other than Rebel.
Rebel has got a great customer service reputation. It offers a 24/7 service and all of its advisors are UK-based.
Trustpilot gives Rebel a strong 4.5 for its customer support score with 87% scoring the provider 5-stars. There’s lots of positive feedback that commends them for their responsiveness, flexibility and helpfulness. Have a look at Rebel’s latest reviews.
Rebel’s customer service team is available via: 0333 222 5101. It’s a 24/7 service and the phone is even answered by a human first rather than a chatbot.
Email: support@rebelinternet.uk
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