Trooli broadband review: Is it any good?

Dan Howdle | March 9th, 2023

Trooli is a recent arrival on the full fibre broadband market, launching in 2018 in Kent. Headed up by a former BT executive, Trooli owns and manages its own fibre network, making it an alternative to the likes of Virgin Media, and ISPs who offer full fibre broadband through the Openreach network.

What makes Trooli stand out from the crowd is its focus on reaching typically underserved rural and semi-rural communities. It’s still a pretty local supplier, with a current focus on Southeast England, but it has ambitious plans to more than double the reach of its network in the next two years. Is it worth holding out for Trooli for your next broadband upgrade?

Key features

Here’s what you can expect to enjoy from becoming a Trooli broadband customer.

Availability

Let's get the elephant in the room addressed first. Since Trooli operates its own network, it is not widely available. In fact, it's only available in a handful of locations in the South, South East and East of England. Namely, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Dorset, East Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, Norfok, West Sussex and Wiltshire. Living in one of those counties does not guarantee availability however, so check your postcode on the Trooli website.

Check availability

Broadband speed

Trooli has three residential plans on offer, each based on the guaranteed download speeds you’ll receive. The lowest tier guarantees 300Mbps download speeds, and although this is Trooli’s entry-level plan, those speeds are over three times as fast as the maximum speeds you can achieve with traditional fibre broadband.

Next up is a mid-tier plan touting 500Mbps guaranteed download speeds. To give you an idea of what that means, you could download a 100GB UHD movie in just over 20 minutes. If that’s not fast enough for you, Trooli’s top-tier plan promises speeds of 900Mbps, but with maximum speeds of 1Gbps. That’s 14 minutes to download that same UHD movie.

Where upload speeds are concerned, the three plans offer speeds of 100Mbps, 200Mbps and 300Mbps, respectively. Even at the lower end, these speeds are miles ahead of what you get with typical fibre broadband. You’ll notice that video calls are smoother, online games play without lag, and files upload at lightning speed, which is great if you work from home or like to back up your photos and videos to the cloud regularly.

All Trooli’s plans are contracted for 18 months, after which they default to a rolling monthly payment. Trooli lists its out-of-contract prices on its website. Customers can alternatively sign up to a new 18-month contract, and discuss new pricing at that time.

If you are new to full fibre, and aren’t sure which one of Trooli’s plans is best suited for you, our guide to choosing a broadband speed can help you decide. We look at which devices and services are most likely to need higher speeds, and what sort of plan you should consider, based on your lifestyle and broadband use at home.

Router and installation

Trooli manages its own network, so you will need to have your service installed by an engineer – regardless of which broadband provider you were with before. Installation happens in two stages:

First, Trooli will feed its fibre cable through existing ducts where current broadband cables lay, and will then install a Trooli box on the exterior wall of your house. This is the external part of your installation, and you don’t need to be at home for this. However, if you are a renter, you should probably get permission from the landlord beforehand. After the external installation, Trooli will send an engineer for the internal installation.

This involves drilling a hole through your external wall to feed a cable through, connecting the external Trooli box to a modem and then your router. Trooli will also tack your cable to skirting boards so that the installation is clean and tidy, leaving the place as they found it. Your engineer will then activate your connection, and run tests to ensure you are getting your promised speeds. Trooli advises that this process could take a few hours.

Currently, installation and activation are free, and your first month of broadband is also complimentary from Trooli, to mitigate any initial issues you face with your new full fibre connection. Some customers may not have existing ducts for Trooli to feed through its cables. These customers may be charged for installation and activation, if additional work is required for the connection.

Router

Trooli supplies customers with a Technicolor 4134 router, which the engineer will install for you. This router sports next generation Wi-Fi 6 technology that supports 1000Mbps and more, so you won’t need to think about upgrading your router for the foreseeable future. The router is dual-band, so low-intensity devices that run in the background won’t interfere with more intensive devices like streaming TVs and games consoles. There’s also a USB port, and four gigabit ethernet ports, in case you want to set up a wired connection with any of your devices.

These routers retail for around £150, making them mid to high-end compared to other devices on the market. Trooli does not support using your own router though, insisting that you stick with the Technicolor router supplied.

Phones and calls

Whilst it’s possible to keep your copper phone line alongside your Trooli fibre connection, Trooli itself does not offer phone services with its broadband. As full fibre emerges, providers are less likely to offer a calls bundle alongside full fibre, since they use totally different tech and cabling.

Trooli recommends exploring wifi calling options, also known as VOIP, which basically uses your internet supply to connect you to phone services, and vice versa. Some of these services allow you to keep your previous landline number, so you can make and receive calls as normal. However, if your Trooli internet supply drops out, your ability to make calls does too. You may decide to just use your mobile for calls. Just bear these differences in mind when considering a switch to full fibre.

Reliability

As a relatively new provider, with a small pool of customers, figures to track Trooli’s reliability aren’t easily accessible. More data will be available in coming years, as Trooli has targets to reach at least one million customers by 2024.

Trustpilot holds Trooli in high regard, with a 4.0 rating from just short of 600 reviews. Top reviews highlight easy installation, quality engineers and reliable service. More critical opinions suggest that customers who do find themselves ineligible for free installation can be stumped with pretty considerable installation charges, and that occasionally customer service can be difficult to reach if your service does drop off.

Over 70% of its public reviews are five stars, suggesting that Trooli is something special, if you live in an area where you can receive its services. Only 16% of customers rate the provider one star which, compared to major providers, is still a gold star. We’d obviously advise caution, but no more than if you were considering any other provider.

Customer service

Trooli’s Help Desk team can be called on 0800 358 7680 or emailed at helpdesk@trooli.com. A more generic customer services department is available at customerservices@trooli.com, and complaints should be directed here too. You can also send queries to the provider at hello@trooli.com. Trooli’s teams are only available from 8:30am to 6:00pm Monday to Friday, and 9:00am to 5:00pm at weekends and on bank holidays.

It seems that Trooli has no out-of-hours support for customers. We hope this comes into play as its customer base grows, as this would definitely mitigate some of those less desirable customer reviews.

Our verdict: Good

Trooli is still a pretty small, local competitor in the full fibre market due to its age, but with a former BT executive at its helm, it's a company that can afford to be ambitious. If you live in a rural or semi-rural area that Trooli supplies or is due to supply soon, the arrival of the provider might be a godsend, especially if your postcode won’t receive full fibre from major networks for a few years. Trooli’s plans are certainly competitively priced, with attractive introductory rates for 18 months.

You may be lucky enough to have a choice of full fibre providers, and can decide for yourself how Trooli’s prices and services stack up against established ISPs in your area, but there are many for whom Trooli will be the only current option for full fibre. Trooli’s offer of a free first month, as well as complimentary free installation, activation and a quality router, makes for an enticing package for those who may be wary of buying in to the full fibre experience with the only supplier available.

Overall, if you’ve never experienced full fibre before, and are ready to take your broadband to the next level, Trooli is a great place to start.

Broadband in my area