Housing giant 'forces buyers to use its own broadband': Persimmon boosts profits with its in-house internet service

Housing firm Persimmon is boosting soaring profits by giving buyers no option but to sign up to its broadband service.

Families moving on to new estates built by the developer found the only internet network they can choose is FibreNest – which is owned by Persimmon.

In the past year, the internet provider’s customer numbers have more than doubled from 6,000 to 14,000.

Critics say the move is a ploy to reap ‘ongoing revenue’ from buyers – and MPs said Persimmon had created its own monopoly by forcing residents to use their broadband.

Families moving on to new estates built by the developer found the only internet network they can choose is FibreNest, which is owned by Persimmon, as Bill Esterson, Labour MP for Sefton Central, said: ‘This is predatory behaviour'

Bill Esterson, Labour MP for Sefton Central, said: ‘This is predatory behaviour.’

Persimmon, which made a pre-tax profit of £784million in 2020, says it provides the network to ensure homeowners do not have to wait for another company to connect.

The firm said it would support other providers who wish to use its cables. Ones such as BT-owned Openreach could legally install their own fibre on Persimmon estates. But a spokesman said it was ‘unable to make the business case work’.

Sir John Hayes, Tory MP for South Holland and The Deepings, said: ‘These huge building firms should not be taking advantage of homeowners for the sake of their own financial interests. No residents should be tied to the builder’s own provider and forced to dance to their tune.’

FibreNest charges £14 a month for download speeds of 10 megabits per second and up to £45 for 500Mbps.

Persimmon said it launched FibreNest to ensure households would not face long waits for other firms to install cables once they had moved in, or endure sluggish speeds.

It also promised that customers will never have to pay more for the same speed than they would with the UK’s largest broadband provider, BT.

But Andrew Ferguson, editor of thinkbroadband.com, said: ‘This is a developer who is seeing a broadband service as a way of providing an ongoing revenue once homes on an estate have been sold. Persimmon is following the law, but it is not playing fair.’

Comments

Inside Paedophile Island: Incredible pictures show Jeffrey Epstein cavorting with scantily clad young women where he provided gourmet food and beauty lotions and spent hours watching topless teens in Girls Gone Wild 'for inspiration'

Jeffrey Epstein spent an hour of his day watching explicit episodes of Girls Gone Wild while working out and cavorting with nubile young women at his private Caribbean island, as seen in these photos exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com. The perverted financier, who committed suicide at age 66 in August 2019, would ride his exercise bike as he watched the X-rated footage -featuring bare-breasted college girls - because it was 'inspiration' for him, a source who spent time on the island told DailyMail.com. Epstein, who reportedly demanded sex three times a day, was transfixed by the graphic videos that showed young women flashing their breasts to the camera in bars and nightclubs. New details of his sinister life have further been exposed in never-before-seen photographs of his private island Little St James, which was dubbed 'pedophile' and 'orgy' island by disgusted locals. Epstein appears in the series of images surrounded by nubile young women, including s...

Missouri police resume search for body of mother, 28, believed to have been 'suffocated by her husband who wanted to stop her fleeing to her native China with their daughter' a year ago

A year after a young Chinese mother living in Missouri with her family vanished without a trace, police have resumed the search for her body. Mengqi Ji Elledge, 28, was reported missing by her husband, Joseph Elledge, on October 10, 2019. He was charged in February with first-degree murder in her death and has pleaded not guilty. The couple has a young daughter together. Joseph has been accused of suffocating his wife to death and disposing of her body in order to prevent her from returning to her native China with their child and to avoid a costly divorce. Police in Missouri are renewing their efforts to locate the body of Mengqi Ji Elledge, 28, who went missing last October and is presumed dead. Her husband, Joseph Elledge, was charged in February with first-degree murder in her death Police had searched for Mengqi's remains with divers, sonar and heavy machinery at the Lamine River near Booneville after cadaver dogs hit on a scent there Police had searched for her remains wi...

Kourtney Kardashian cries

Kourtney Kardashian cries Scott really lets Kourtney know how he feels about her post-baby body on the Mar. 10 episode of ‘Kourtney & Kim Take Miami’ episode and he tells her he wishes she weighed 93 pounds! Kourtney Kardashian bursts into tears when her baby daddy Scott Disick tells her that “this is the biggest he’s ever seen her while not pregnant.” The Mar. 10 episode of Kourtney & Kim Take Miami really shows you Scott’s true colors and it ain’t pretty. Kourtney weighs herself in the bathroom and the scale reads 115 lbs. That’s amazing, especially considering she had just given birth to her second child, a little girl named Penelope! But Scott says that he remembers when he first met Kourtney and wishes she weighed 93 lbs. Wow, what a total jerk. Big sis Kim Kardashian is there to hear all of it and she is disgusted! Then later Kourtney and Scott discuss her weight some more and he tells her that he feels like she isn’t really trying to lose the weight. This causes K...

Newsif Blog

Search This Blog