Post Office Ltd, the well-known British postage company, began offering broadband service to customers in 2009 built atop TalkTalk's network. The broadband service was pretty successful, with over half a million customers by 2019. However, in 2021, the company decided to exit the telecoms market and sell its broadband services to Shell Energy, transferring all its customers to the new provider.
Shell is a relatively new player in the broadband market, which it got into by acquiring First Utility in 2018.
Consistently among the cheapest providers of ADSL broadband in the UK, Post Office runs its broadband service using TalkTalk’s wholesale network, which in turn uses Openreach’s nationwide broadband infrastructure – check out our broadband jargon guide for more information.
Post Office Broadband has a range of broadband plans and also offers home phone services, but it doesn’t offer any TV bundles. And if you’re struggling to work out what broadband speed you need, our guide can help you find the right package for you.
Post Office Broadband doesn’t offer TV services or any mobile plans.
You can call Post Office Broadband’s customer support team on 0345 600 3210 or write to them (this is the Post Office, after all) at Post Office Telecoms Services, PO Box 14125, Selkirk TD7 9AF. You can also email the provider using a form on its website.
Post Office Broadband will send you a welcome pack, which will give you an estimated start date for your service, within five working days of receiving your order. If you already have a working BT/Openreach phone line at your property then your services should be switched over within 10 working days of placing your order.
If you don’t already have a working phone line or if you’re moving from Virgin Media, it will take a bit longer.
If you’re currently with another provider that uses the Openreach network (that’s every provider listed on this page other than Virgin Media and Hyperoptic), then no – Post Office Broadband will do that for you.
If you are switching from Virgin or Hyperoptic, then you’ll need to let your old provider know that you’re leaving. Post Office Broadband advises that you wait until your Post Office service is up and running before informing Virgin, to avoid being offline for any length of time, but by doing this you may end up paying two companies for broadband in the same month.
There's more information in our guide to switching broadband providers.
In most cases, yes you’ll be able to keep your existing phone number. Post Office Broadband will let you know if this is possible when you place your order and will also tell you how long the process of ‘number porting’ is likely to take.
In some cases, it's also possible to keep your email address when you switch – there's more information in our guide to keeping your email address when changing broadband provider.
Yes, Post Office Broadband deals include line rental, as well as free calls to other Post Office Home Phone numbers at any time.