frequently asked questions

earth is a uk home wi-fi provider, part of the tal group and run alongside home telecom. earth started in 2022 and joined the group in 2025, and its service now runs on home telecom’s network and support operation. it is based in horsham, west sussex.

the name is fairly new, the operation behind it is not. earth started in 2022 and joined the tal group in 2025, which put a support team, a network reach and a buying power built over decades behind a young brand.

we would rather say that plainly than dress it up. when you ring earth you get home telecom’s uk support desk, and when your line has a fault it is fixed by people who have been doing it a lot longer than earth has existed.

earth has its own trustpilot profile with more than two thousand reviews on it, and that is the rating you will see on this site. we could show you home telecom’s instead, which is higher, but it was not earned by us.

all of the major uk networks, not just one. that matters more than it sounds. most providers resell a single network, so if that network’s coverage at your address is poor, that is what you get. earth checks every major network available at your property and puts you on the best one for your address.

it means the answer to "what speed can i get" is genuinely specific to your home rather than to your postcode area.

earth is a trading name of home telecom limited, which is part of the telecom acquisitions group. so when you join earth your contract is with home telecom limited: registered in england and wales, company number 07412021, vat number GB 121 901 651, registered office unit 8 piries place, horsham, west sussex, rh12 1eh.

that is the company that supplies your service, issues your bill and is on the hook if anything goes wrong, which is why you will see its name in our footer and on your paperwork.

earth is available to around 98% of uk homes. because earth works with all the major networks rather than one, availability is wider than most single network providers can offer. put your postcode in and we will tell you in a few seconds rather than making you guess.

three things, and they are the only three we will claim. we check every major network at your address rather than selling you the one we happen to resell. support is uk based and a human answers 24 hours a day. and every new home gets a living plant, posted out once you are settled.

we are not the cheapest and we do not pretend to be. see "is earth cheaper than the big providers?" below.

put your full postcode into the checker on any page. earth will tell you which plans your line can take, the speed you can realistically expect at your address, and the exact price including setup, before you commit to anything.

ring us on 01403 214069. address databases are imperfect, particularly for flats, new builds and converted properties, and we can usually find you manually in a couple of minutes. it does not mean earth is unavailable.

often yes, but it depends on whether fibre has been installed and registered as live at the development. ring us with the address and we will check what is actually there rather than what the database thinks is there. because earth works with all the major networks, there is more than one answer to look for.

then we will tell you straight, and we will not try to sell you something slower to make the conversation worthwhile. networks are still building, so it is worth asking us to note your address and let you know when that changes.

on average five to seven days, and up to two weeks. you pick your switch on date when you order, so you know it before you commit, and we will tell you if anything threatens that date before it becomes your problem.

if you need it sooner, earth holds back priority dates on the installation calendar. they cost £20, and you can see exactly which dates are free before you pay, so you are choosing a date rather than buying a promise. depending on your address that will be either an engineer visit or a remote activation, and the calendar tells you which.

usually not, and we will tell you which applies to you before you order rather than after.

if you are already on the same type of connection with another provider, the changeover happens outside your home, at the cabinet or the exchange. nobody comes in, nothing is drilled, and you do not need to book a day off.

if your address is getting a type of connection it has not had before, an engineer may need to come inside to install it. we only know for certain once your address check comes back.

you find out when you pick your date. the installation calendar tells you whether that slot is a remote activation or an engineer visit, and if it’s a visit it gives you the time window someone over 18 needs to be in for. you pick the slot yourself, so you’re choosing a date already knowing what it involves.

if you need to move that date or cancel it, do it more than two working days ahead and it costs nothing. inside two working days there’s a £150 fee, because the slot is already booked out, and the same £150 applies if nobody’s in when the engineer arrives. so if the day stops working for you, tell us early and it costs you nothing.

either way, someone may need to be in to take delivery of the router, which arrives a few days before your switch on date. your plant comes separately and later, about a fortnight after your order is confirmed.

three, though which of them you can pick from depends on what your address can take. put your postcode in and we’ll show you what your line can do.

up to 330Mbps is quiet home, up to 550Mbps is growing, and anything above 550Mbps is busy home. all three include a wi-fi 6 router, 24 hour uk support and something to grow: seeds on quiet home, a living plant on the other two.

there is more on all three on the wi-fi plans page. what changes between them is the plant. quiet home comes with seeds, growing comes with a small plant, busy home comes with a big one. prices depend on your address too, because they depend on which network serves your property.

start with your postcode, because what you can choose from depends on what your address can take. some addresses can have all three. some can have two. if your line only supports the slower speeds there may be just the one, and there is no way for either of us to know until we check.

once you can see what is available, if you are stuck between two, take the bigger one. that is not us selling up, it is the honest answer: the cost difference is small and the cost of being caught short is not. a big download, a work video call that matters, a film on the night everyone is home. headroom is cheap and running out is annoying.

as a rough guide, quiet home suits one or two people doing one thing at a time. growing suits a family with several things going at once and someone working from home. busy home suits a house where everyone is doing something demanding at the same time.

an estimate for your address, and a specific one. anything you see before you put your postcode in is a general figure. once you have, each package shows its headline download speed, and alongside it the estimated download and upload speed for your address, worked out from the network that serves your property.

what we will not do is promise you a fixed number. too much of it sits outside our hands: where the router ends up in your house, a fault on the line, what else is going on around it. telling you that you will definitely get 100Mbps would be a promise we cannot stand behind, so you get an honest estimate instead and we tell you what it covers.

that estimate is the speed arriving at your router. it is not the speed you will get on a phone in the back bedroom, because that depends on your walls, your floors, where the router sits and what else is running in the house. that part is physics rather than your connection, and where the router sits makes more difference than people expect. where to put your router goes through it properly.

once you are connected you do not have to take our word for any of it. the app runs a proper speed test, so you can see the real number yourself, whenever you like. and if it ever comes in under what we estimated, there is a proper way to check it and a route to get it looked at: see "my wi-fi is slow" further down.

that is wi-fi, not your connection. the speed arriving at your router is what you are paying for. every wall and every metre between the router and your phone weakens the signal, so a room two walls away will always read lower.

move the router up high, out in the open, and away from the tv. it fixes more problems than anything else. if one room still will not behave, ring us and we will send an extender.

no. no earth plan has a data cap or a data limit, on any speed and on any contract length. stream, download, work from home and game as much as you want. nothing gets cut off, nothing gets charged extra, and there is no allowance to keep an eye on.

there is no traffic management either, on any of the networks earth uses. we do not throttle heavy users, we do not slow particular kinds of traffic, and there is no quiet policy that starts up on a sunday evening. unlimited here means unlimited.

yes, on every plan. earth includes a wi-fi 6 router as standard, configured before we send it, and it arrives a few days before your switch on date. the activation fee covers setting you up, and there is no monthly rental on top.

the router is loaned to you for as long as you are with earth rather than sold to you, so it stays our equipment and we ask for it back when you leave. nothing to buy, nothing to rent, just something to send back at the end. "how do i cancel?" has the details.

wi-fi 6 is the current router standard and it handles a lot of things at once rather than one after another. the basics explains the rest of the jargon. in a house where five or six phones, two tellies and a console are all connected, that is the difference between everything working and everything stuttering.

older phones and laptops still work perfectly on a wi-fi 6 router. it is included on all three earth plans, not held back for the expensive one.

you can, but it costs you the best part of what you are paying for.

earth keeps an eye on its own routers, checking in with them several times a day. that means we can often spot a problem at your address before you ring us, we can tell what is actually happening on the line rather than guessing, and you can open the app and see for yourself whether there is a fault.

put your own router in and none of that works. we lose the visibility, you lose the app diagnostics, and a fault that would have been a quick fix becomes a long conversation. we will still help, but we will be working blind.

your exact price shows when you enter your postcode, because it depends on which network serves your address and which plan you choose. setup is a one off activation fee plus router delivery, both shown in pounds before you buy.

that is everything you pay to get going and everything you pay each month. there are some charges for particular situations, and they are all listed below and in our charges tariff so you can see them before you need them.

the ones worth knowing: a priority installation date costs £20. moving or cancelling an engineer visit inside two working days, or nobody being in when the engineer arrives, costs £150. stopping your service altogether rather than switching to another provider costs £50 to disconnect the line. leaving inside your term costs £10 including vat for each month you have left, with one month knocked off. a router that does not come back costs £50. returning it is free, and we send the instructions. if the fibre has already been installed when you cancel, that is £120.

two, twelve, eighteen or twenty four months. which of those you can pick from depends on your address and which network serves it, so you might see all four and you might see only the longer two. put your postcode in and we will show you what is actually open to you rather than a list you cannot have.

the longer terms cost less per month, and eighteen and twenty four also carry the £100 contribution towards your old provider’s exit fee. but if you are renting, or you are not sure how long you will be at the address, the two month option is there and we will not make you hunt for it.

yes, once a year. while you are in your contract, earth tells you the exact amount in pounds and pence before you buy, not a percentage you have to work out yourself, and the dates and the figures are on your order before you commit.

some promotions are held at a fixed price with no annual increase. if yours is one of them, that will be clear at checkout.

so no percentages while you are in your term, and no surprise in your april bill. once your contract ends and you move to a rolling monthly price, increases follow rpi instead, and we will tell you before one lands. there is more in "what happens at the end of my contract?" below.

on the headline monthly figure, usually not, and we would rather tell you that here than have you find out on a comparison site.

compare like for like and it turns around. our price includes a wi-fi 6 router, uk support answered by a human 24 hours a day, daily monitoring of your connection, and a choice of every major network at your address rather than whichever one we happen to resell. add those to a cheaper provider as extras, where they offer them at all, and earth comes out ahead.

so yes, we cost a little more at the start. that is deliberate. we would rather be the best connection you have had than the cheapest line on a comparison table.

nothing stops and there is nothing you have to do. your wi-fi keeps running exactly as it was.

before your term ends we will get in touch with the best deals we can put in front of you, including moving up a plan if the house has got busier since you joined. if none of them suit, that is fine and we will not chase you. you simply roll onto a monthly basis at the same price you were already paying, with no new commitment and no increase for coming out of contract. you can leave whenever you like from then on.

once you are on that rolling price, it can change once a year in line with rpi, and we will always tell you before it does.

you can move up at any time, from the day you ask. moving down waits until your current term ends. ring us either way and we will tell you exactly what it means for your price and your term before anything changes.

monthly, by direct debit. your bill, your payments and your plan all sit in the app, and the app is the quickest way to reach us about anything to do with your service or your billing.

no. earth handles the whole switch through one touch switch, the industry scheme that puts the job on the new provider rather than on you. you tell us who you’re with when you order, and we contact them, agree the date and close the old service down. there’s no cancellation call and nothing for you to chase. our switching page walks through the whole thing.

no. earth schedules your new connection to take over as your old one ends, so there’s no gap where you’re offline. if anything ever threatens the date, we’ll tell you before it becomes your problem rather than after.

possibly, and earth will tell you honestly. check your provider’s early exit fee first. if that fee is bigger than what you’d save by moving now, the sensible thing is to order from us and set your switch date for the week your contract ends. we’d rather you switch happily than quickly, and we’ll say so if waiting is the better answer for you.

earth contributes up to £100 towards the early exit fee your current provider charges you, on an 18 or 24 month plan. show us the bill or the charge when you order and we will credit it against your account with us.

on a two or twelve month plan there is no contribution, and it is worth knowing that before you pick your term rather than after.

if your exit fee is bigger than £100, or you are on one of the shorter plans, there is a second option and we will tell you honestly which one leaves you better off: order now and set your switch date for the week your current contract ends, so you do not pay an exit fee at all.

that depends on your old provider, not on us. some ask for their equipment back and charge if it doesn’t arrive, so check the instructions they send when they confirm the switch. your earth router arrives a few days before switch on and is yours to use for as long as you’re with us. it stays our equipment rather than becoming yours, so we’ll ask for it back if you ever leave.

ring us on 01403 214069 and an advisor will check what is possible at your address. that goes for keeping the number you already have, and for putting a new line in.

on full fibre we can often connect digital voice, but it depends on your circumstances and on what else is connected to your line. the copper switch-off, in plain english covers the background. a care alarm, a burglar alarm or a lift line can all be affected by the move to digital, and what happens to your fall alarm when the landline goes explains why, so tell us about anything like that when you ring and we will work out what you need before anything changes.

yes. every earth plan includes a living plant, posted out to you, at no charge now or later and nothing added to your bill. there’s no box to tick at checkout and nothing to claim. if you join earth, a plant is coming. the small print is four short lines: one per order, we choose it, none is sent if you cancel in your first 14 days, and after that it is yours to keep.

it depends which plan your address puts you on. quiet home comes with a british wildflower seed bomb. growing comes with a houseplant and pot. busy home comes with a premium plant and pot.

you tell us what the light is like where it’ll live, one question with four answers, and we choose something that will actually thrive there. there is more about it on the your free plant page. you don’t pick the exact plant, and that’s deliberate: it’s how we keep the gift free on every plan, and we’re better at choosing plants than most people expect.

about a fortnight after your order is confirmed, which lines up with the end of your 14 day cooling off period.

we wait for a straightforward reason: a living thing posted to a house that has changed its mind is a living thing wasted. it comes with a care card written for people who have killed plants before.

yes, and that covers everything we send. the houseplants and the wildflower seed bombs both come from an established uk supplier, and every variety they send us is chosen as safe around pets and children. it is not an afterthought on the smaller gift.

all return details are posted with the plant on delivery.

no, and we won’t claim it is. the name is about how we do business, not about the environment. wi-fi doesn’t save the planet and pretending otherwise would be the exact kind of thing we set earth up to avoid.

what you get when you join now is the plant, and that’s real. we also plant mangroves in madagascar every month for customers who joined while that scheme was open, and it’s closed to new sign ups. we’d rather tell you that here than let you assume it’s still on the table. there’s more in "does earth plant trees?" just below.

beyond that we’ll help you live a little greener if you want to, with guides on growing things and using less energy at home.

proof rather than pledge, that’s the whole of it.

for customers who joined while the scheme was running, yes. earth works with earthly and eden reforestation to plant mangroves at maroalika in madagascar, and it keeps going every month for as long as you’re with us. if you signed up while we were planting, we’re still planting yours.

we’re not offering it to new customers, and we’d rather say so here than have you join expecting it.

mangroves are why we chose that one in the first place. they store a lot of carbon, they shelter coastlines from storms, they bring fish back to water that had emptied out, and the planting is paid work for people who live there. if you’re on the scheme, you get certificates and updates from the sites.

and if anything changes, including if we stop it, we’ll tell you directly and tell you what we’re doing instead. we won’t let it quietly wind down and hope nobody asks.

24 hours a day, seven days a week, answered by a person rather than a recorded menu, and it’s a uk team. no premium rate numbers and no menu maze. 01403 214069, or through the app.

yes. it’s the home telecom app, because earth is part of home telecom, so that’s the right one to download even though the name is different. the earth app page has the download links for both stores. it runs a proper speed test, tells you whether your line is up, shows a known problem in your area, and holds your bill, your payments and your plan.

if your router came from us it should already be linked to your account, so it connects on its own when you log in. if it hasn’t connected, or you’re using a router from a previous provider, you can add it yourself.

download the my home telecom app and register, and once your account setup is done you’ll land on the add your router screen. enter your router’s serial number, which is on the back of the router, and make sure it’s the serial number rather than any other code on the label. then tap "add router now" and we’ll run a few checks in the background.

if we can’t find it that way, which happens more often with routers we didn’t supply, the app asks you to pick your router brand and then shows you step by step how to log into it through a web browser. if your brand isn’t listed, ring us and we’ll help.

the last screen takes a few minutes, usually around five, to confirm everything. if it works the app refreshes and shows your router. if it doesn’t, it’ll prompt you to check the steps and try again.

when your earth router arrives, set that one up instead. it’s the one we monitor, and it’s what the app is built around.

it depends which kind of line you are on. on full fibre your router plugs into the fibre box, the ont, that sits on a wall inside your home. on an older copper line it plugs into your master socket, using the microfilter that came in the box. we tell you which one you have before your go live date.

the guide below covers both, with pictures of the cabling for the zyxel and technicolor routers we supply. it also shows how to check the lights on the ont, and how to use the test socket behind the master socket faceplate to rule out your own extension wiring.

ont and master sockets turn up in the usual places: a utility cupboard, under the stairs, the living room, a home office. if you cannot find yours, ask your landlord, letting agent or building manager. if that draws a blank, tell us and we will sort it out, including arranging an installation if one is needed.

if everything is connected the way the guide shows and it has gone midnight on your go live date, reply to our email with a photo of your router and how it is plugged into the ont or master socket, and we will get you live.

start with a wired test, because it’s the only way to tell your line apart from your wi-fi. plug a laptop straight into the router with an ethernet cable, there’s a spare one in the box for exactly this, turn everything else in the house off, and run a speed test.

that number is your actual connection. if it’s where it should be, your line is fine and the problem is between the router and wherever you were sitting. move the router: up high, out in the open, away from the tv and the microwave. it sounds too simple and it fixes more than anything else. if one room still won’t behave, ring us and we’ll send an extender.

if the wired number comes in lower than we estimated, raise it with us and our technical team will pick it up. the quickest way is through the app, because it sends your test results along with the case and nobody has to describe anything twice.

and if the numbers all look fine but it still doesn’t feel right, ring us anyway. we’d rather look than leave you wondering.

open the app if you can get online another way, and it’ll tell you whether there’s a known problem in your area. if there’s nothing showing, check the router has power and restart it, leaving it off for a full thirty seconds.

if that doesn’t fix it, ring 01403 214069. earth answers 24 hours a day and we can check your line from our end, so you don’t need the app to get this sorted.

if a fault is going to take a while to clear, we will send you a mobile dongle to keep you online while we sort it. it is free, and it comes with a return bag and a prepaid label, so sending it back once your line is working costs you nothing either.

usually yes. ring us as soon as you know, on 01403 214069. earth will check what’s available at the new address, line up the dates so you’re not without wi-fi in between, and tell you exactly where you stand on your contract before you commit to anything.

the earlier you tell us, the more room we have to get it right.

if you’re moving to another provider, you don’t cancel with us at all, and you don’t need to ring. your new provider tells us through one touch switch, we close your account down and write to confirm it. there’s no notice period to serve and you’re not billed past your switch date. because we bill a month ahead, anything you’ve already paid for beyond that date comes back to you as a credit.

there’s no disconnection fee for switching either. your line is handed over to your new provider rather than switched off, so there’s nothing to disconnect.

if you’re stopping altogether rather than moving to someone else, ring us on 01403 214069 and give us 30 days notice. your line does get switched off in that case rather than handed on, so there’s a £50 disconnection fee.

either way, if you’re still inside your term there’s an early termination charge. it’s £10 including vat for each month you have left, and we knock one month off. so six months to run costs £50, and twelve months costs £110. it goes on your final bill, and there are no percentages and nothing to work out from your monthly price.

if you want your exact figure before you decide anything, ring us and we’ll work it out with you, along with what else is possible, including moving to a different plan if that suits you better.

we’ll also ask for the router back. everything earth sends you is loaned rather than sold, including anything we lent you while sorting out a fault, so it all comes back to us. you have 14 days from cancelling to return it, and there’s a £50 charge for anything that doesn’t arrive. returning it costs you nothing, and we’ll send you instructions for posting it back free of charge.

you have 14 days from the day you order to change your mind, whatever your installation date turns out to be. cancel in that window and there’s nothing to pay, because you haven’t had the service yet.

the one thing to watch is the appointment. change or cancel your installation more than two working days before it’s due and it costs you nothing. inside two working days the slot and the engineer are already committed, and there’s a £150 fee, so if you’re having second thoughts it’s worth ringing sooner rather than sleeping on it.

if the fibre has already been installed at your property when you cancel, there’s a £120 charge. the work is done by then and it can’t be undone, so that one covers the installation itself rather than the service.

ring 01403 214069 and we’ll stop it. if your service has already gone live you’ll also pay for what you’ve used, and if the router has arrived we’ll ask for it back within 14 days, with a £50 charge if it doesn’t come back.

ring 01403 214069 or email earthbroadband@hometelecom.co.uk and we’ll try to sort it there and then. if we can’t, ask for it to be escalated and we’ll tell you where it sits and who has it.

if we haven’t resolved it after eight weeks, or we’ve told you we can’t take it further, you can take it to cisas free of charge. cisas is the independent adjudication scheme we’re a member of, it’s approved by ofcom, and its decision binds us, not you.

our complaints code of practice sets the whole thing out in full: every stage, the timescales we work to, how to escalate and what happens if you’re still not satisfied at the end of it.

earth can introduce you to british gas for your gas and electricity when you order your wi-fi, and we chose them for their green energy credentials. it’s optional and it makes no difference to your wi-fi price or your plan. the energy page has the detail.

british gas, not earth. earth introduces you and british gas takes it from there, so they supply the energy, they bill you separately, and they handle anything to do with your energy account. earth is paid a commission for the introduction, which we’d rather tell you than have you find out. if something goes wrong with your energy, british gas is who you ring, and we’ll point you to the right number if you’re not sure.