It's easy changing your broadband provider between Plusnet and Shell Energy. Find out how in our step-by-step guide.
Whether you're changing your broadband provider from Plusnet to Shell Energy, or from Shell Energy to Plusnet, it's a straightforward process. Start by letting us know in which direction you'd like to change your provider:
Are you switching from Plusnet to Shell Energy, or from Shell Energy to Plusnet?
You can follow the instructions below if you're switching from Plusnet to Shell Energy Broadband.
Are you switching from Shell Energy to Plusnet instead? Tap for instructions.
Step 1: Check your Plusnet cancellation fee
To start with, check whether a cancellation fee will apply for ending your Plusnet broadband service.
If you’re already outside the minimum term of your contract with Plusnet, there will be no cancellation fees for ending your Plusnet broadband service. You’ll simply pay for your Plusnet service until the Shell Energy Broadband go-live date which will be given to you here.
If you’re still within the minimum term of your contract with Plusnet (i.e. the initial 12 months, 18 months or 24 months you signed up for), an early exit fee will apply for ending your Plusnet broadband service. This cancellation fee depends on your plan but is typically between £9.63 and £12.15 for each remaining month on your plan. You can get a quote for what this exit fee will be by calling Plusnet customer services on 0800 432 0200. Alternatively, there’s more information on how to calculate it within our guide to cancelling Plusnet.
Step 2: Order your Shell Energy Broadband service
To progress with your broadband switch from Plusnet to Shell Energy, go to Shell Energy’s website to order your new Shell Energy broadband service.
For more information, select the type of broadband service you're planning to switch to on Shell Energy:
At present, Shell Energy offers a range of home broadband plans including the following:
| Service | Average Speed | Contract Length | Upfront Price | Monthly Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Fast Broadband | 11Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £16.99/month |
Superfast Fibre | 35Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £21.99/month |
Superfast Fibre Plus | 63Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £25.99/month |
Ultrafast Fibre | 140Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £39.99/month |
Ultrafast Fibre Plus | 290Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £44.99/month |
See all Shell Energy Broadband Deals →
During the online order process, Shell Energy will give you an expected download speed as well as a minimum guaranteed speed for your service. Both of these will be specific to your address. You'll also be given a go-live date for when your broadband service will transfer from Plusnet to Shell Energy.
If you'd like to keep your current home phone or landline number, remember to provide this phone number when ordering your broadband package from Shell Energy. As long as you do this, Shell Energy will arrange for your phone number to be moved over to their service.
There's no need for you to contact Plusnet to cancel your old home broadband service. This is because the old Plusnet service will be cancelled for you automatically on the go-live date when your broadband service transfers to Shell Energy.
Step 3: Plug in your Technicolor router on the go-live date
In advance of your broadband service switching over, Shell Energy will send you a new Technicolor router through the post.
On the go-live date for your Shell Energy broadband service, you can expect your broadband service to stop working for a couple of minutes. When this happens, it'll be time to plug in your new Technicolor router. There'll be instructions inside the package on how you can set up the new Technicolor router.
Your new Technicolor router will initially be configured with a different Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and password. On all of the devices that were previously connected to your Plusnet router, you'll therefore need to sign in again to the Wi-Fi network using the new details provided by Shell Energy. For instance, you may need to log in again on your laptop, tablet, smartphone, smart TV and other smart home devices.
Alternatively, if it's too much hassle setting up Wi-Fi again on all of your devices, you can log in to Technicolor router administration screen to change the Wi-Fi network details back to what you had before on Plusnet.
If you’re using a Wi-Fi repeater or a mesh networking solution such as BT Whole Home Wi-Fi or Google Nest Wi-Fi, you’ll need to set it up again at this point to work with your new Technicolor router.
Step 4: Return or recycle your old Plusnet router
Once your new Shell Energy broadband service goes live, your old Plusnet broadband service will be cancelled automatically. You’ll receive a final bill from Plusnet following the cancellation, which will reflect your usage of their service up until cancellation.
If possible, it’s best to return or recycle your old Plusnet router if you’re no longer using it, but there’s no obligation to do this if you’d like to keep it for some reason.
If you’re using a Plusnet email address, this will normally be cancelled along with your Plusnet broadband service. To avoid this, contact Plusnet’s customer services team before your broadband service is cancelled and ask them to leave your email account open. There’s a small monthly charge for leaving your email account open (typically in the region of £1 per month). Email addresses provided by Plusnet end with @youraccountname.plus.com.
We'd typically recommend signing up for a free email provider instead (such as Gmail or Outlook.com). These free email services aren’t linked to your broadband provider so you can easily change your broadband service again in the future with a lot less hassle.
Start your switch from Plusnet to Shell Energy →
More Information
Please see the Shell Energy website for more information about switching to their broadband service.
You can follow the instructions below if you're switching from Shell Energy to Plusnet Broadband.
Are you switching from Plusnet to Shell Energy instead? Tap for instructions.
Step 1: Check your Shell Energy cancellation fee
To start with, check whether a cancellation fee will apply for ending your Shell Energy broadband service.
If you’re already outside the minimum term of your contract with Shell Energy, there will be no cancellation fees for ending your Shell Energy broadband service. You’ll simply pay for your Shell Energy service until the Plusnet Broadband go-live date which will be given to you here.
If you’re still within the minimum term of your contract with Shell Energy (i.e. the initial 12 months, 18 months or 24 months you signed up for), an early exit fee will apply for ending your Shell Energy broadband service. This cancellation fee is plan-dependent and is between £6.50 and £18.50 per month. You may also need to pay a £15 cease charge when you end your Shell Energy Broadband service. You can get a quote for what this exit fee will be by calling Shell Energy customer services on 0330 094 5801. Alternatively, there’s more information on how to calculate it within our guide to cancelling Shell Energy.
If you have other services from Shell Energy like electricity and gas, these are separate from your Shell Energy broadband service. You’ll need to contact Shell Energy separately if you’d like to cancel these services at the same time.
Step 2: Order your Plusnet Broadband service
To progress with your broadband switch from Shell Energy to Plusnet, go to Plusnet’s website to order your new Plusnet broadband service.
For more information, select the type of broadband service you're planning to switch to on Plusnet:
At present, Plusnet offers a range of home broadband plans including the following:
| Service | Average Speed | Contract Length | Upfront Price | Monthly Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Unlimited Broadband | 10Mbps download | 12 month contract | £0 | £18.99/month with £70 reward card |
Unlimited Fibre | 36Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £22.99/month with £70 reward card |
Unlimited Fibre Extra | 66Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £24.99/month with £65 reward card |
See all Plusnet Broadband Deals →
During the online order process, Plusnet will give you an expected download speed as well as a minimum guaranteed speed for your service. Both of these will be specific to your address. You'll also be given a go-live date for when your broadband service will transfer from Shell Energy to Plusnet.
If you'd like to keep your current home phone or landline number, remember to provide this phone number when ordering your broadband package from Plusnet. As long as you do this, Plusnet will arrange for your phone number to be moved over to their service.
There's no need for you to contact Shell Energy to cancel your old home broadband service. This is because the old Shell Energy service will be cancelled for you automatically on the go-live date when your broadband service transfers to Plusnet.
Step 3: Plug in your Plusnet router on the go-live date
In advance of your broadband service switching over, Plusnet will send you a new Plusnet router through the post.
On the go-live date for your Plusnet broadband service, you can expect your broadband service to stop working for a couple of minutes. When this happens, it'll be time to plug in your new Plusnet router. There'll be instructions inside the package on how you can set up the new Plusnet router.
Your new Plusnet router will initially be configured with a different Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and password. On all of the devices that were previously connected to your Shell Energy router, you'll therefore need to sign in again to the Wi-Fi network using the new details provided by Plusnet. For instance, you may need to log in again on your laptop, tablet, smartphone, smart TV and other smart home devices.
Alternatively, if it's too much hassle setting up Wi-Fi again on all of your devices, you can log in to Plusnet router administration screen to change the Wi-Fi network details back to what you had before on Shell Energy.
If you’re using a Wi-Fi repeater or a mesh networking solution such as BT Whole Home Wi-Fi or Google Nest Wi-Fi, you’ll need to set it up again at this point to work with your new Plusnet router.
Step 4: Return or recycle your old Shell Energy router
Once your new Plusnet broadband service goes live, your old Shell Energy broadband service will be cancelled automatically. You’ll receive a final bill from Shell Energy following the cancellation, which will reflect your usage of their service up until cancellation.
After the cancellation of your Shell Energy Broadband service, you’ll need to return your old router to Shell. If you don’t return your router at the end of your contract, an additional charge of £35 will be added to your final bill.
Start your switch from Shell Energy to Plusnet →
More Information
Please see the Plusnet website for more information about switching to their broadband service.
Alternatively, for further information, read our in-depth guides to switching broadband provider or cancelling your home broadband service in the UK.
Geoff said:
Having come to the end of my 2 year contract with BT, being a Vodafone mobile customer and having been offered a very good deal to transfer the full fibre broadband and landline to them, I went ahaead and placed an order with Vodafone. They sent a new router and told me to swap it for the old BT one on 14th December 2020, so that I would be connected on that day. I checked the day before to ensure that the connection would be going ahead. On 14th December alas the connection did not take place. I phoned Vodafone every day in the next 4 days being repeatedly assured that the connection would soon happen. Meanwhile the landline went dead. On 18th December I looked at the Vodafone customer forum page and was shocked to see that others had suffered the same problem even waiting up to 10 days without progress to connection. Having received an email from BT informing me that the broadband service would not end until 22nd December, I contacted them and asked to keep the broadband and landline with them and set up a new contract. They assured me that the broadband would not be disconnected and so I swapped the router back to the BT one again and the internet connection was restored. What a relief. NO!! On 22nd December the broadband WAS disconnected. BT apologised and assured me it would be reconnected on 24th. It wasn’t. Then they said it would happen on 31st. It didn’t. It still hasn’t been reconnected. No landline since 14th December. No broadband since 22nd December. Countless hours waiting on the phone almost daily in lengthy queues. A complete disaster.
Mark replied:
Ofcom state that service providers must follow the rules which state that any “loss of service” must not exceed one working day “if technically possible”. Providers will have to compensate you if problems continue beyond this.
Geoff Roberts replied:
Thank you for your response. Despite being assured verbally and by email by BT that we would be able to keep our old telephone number, when we did eventually get the landline connected again we were given a new number. The old phones didn’t work and we were told that we would need adapters or new digital phones. First the sent the wrong adapter. Then the wrong phone, then only one adapter instead of the four promised. Then the router needed changing because we had been given halo. Daily lengthy phone calls were needed to get things sorted out. We were told that we would receive compensation after two weeks. Instead we were billed an extra £50 for equipment that was supposed to be free. This has now been credited but we have only been given a paltry £10 compensation.
Xen Gladstone said:
We live in a house with a complicated and very fragile mesh system. I have been sent the new router which is a technicolour router and have therefore no idea which of the providers I am potentially switching to as it isn’t listed on your website or in any of the accompanying documents.
With the country on the verge of another lockdown and the risk of no internet over Christmas if installation goes wrong, I am very reluctant to do anything at the moment, as the risk massively outweighs the return right now. Is it possible to speak to a techncian to get some proper guidance? Your video is all well and good for a normal sized residence but with the number of boards and wires we have this is not that straightforward. Also as a large house with multiple users and devices I would very much like to ensure transition is seemless in terms of passwords etc., all staying current and don’t know how to log into the router to do this.