Plusnet have probably become the first of the major ISP to announce their 8Mb ADSL service intentions, and doing so at a price as low as £14.99. At the same time, the ISP have also announced a new service, Broadband Plus, doing away with payment based on the speed of the service, instead concentrating on how much data is downloaded.
First off, the headline grabbing 8Mb service. Earlier this month, BT dished out the details on a trial which sees ADSL users lines increased to 8Mb. Plusnet, a BT partner, will from the same date offer a free upgrade to the maximum speed the line can handle, obviously, up to 8Mbps. BT will also be handing over control of the end users speed to the Plusnet (see a story we ran in January about this), which facilitates a quicker turnaround time in the end users broadband speed. This change will surely stimulate similar products from other ISPs as well.
Plusnet's 'Pay as you go' service (formally known as 'lite') will see both 4 and 8Mbit services made available at £14.99, with one GigaByte of data charged at £1.50. With a price this low, service restrictions are to be expected. They surface in the realm of Peer to Peer ports being blocked etc, for some, no, or a minor point for the ultra-low price point.
Next up, the Plusnet's 'Premiere' product. As BT's Usage Based Charging (unsurprisingly 'accronymed' to UBC) becomes more popular, more ISPs are moving away from a service where the price is based on speed (ref BTYahoo). Instead, as the name suggests, UBC sees pricing determined by the amount of data the ADSL line 'consumes'. Plusnet's Primiere offering will offer exactly this.
In conjunction with the speed upgrade already mentioned, the product change sees five different levels of pricing from £21.99 through to £59.99, in which the included bandwidth also increases in 25GB(ish!) steps from 30 right through to 150GB. Two nice little touches are that only the downstream traffic is counted towards the allowance, and any downloading done 'offpeak' between midnight and 8am will be excluded will be as free as a the proverbial bird.
The table below nicely summarises this.
Product Price | 8am thru Midnightallowance | Maximum allowance
£21.99 | 30GB | 230GB
£29.99 | 50GB | 250GB
£39.99 | 75GB | 275GB
£49.99 | 100GB | 300GB
£59.99 | 125GB | 325GB
Prices inclusive of VAT. Maximum allowance based on a 2Mbps service
Sitting in nicely between the all singing all dancing Premiere, and the restricted but cheap PAYG, comes Broadband Plus, offering unrestricted offpeak usage (read P2P), but restricted at other times. No pricing from Plusnet was available at this time.
Plusnet have certainly shaken up the broadband market with this announcement. Only last week BTYahoo Broadband announced similar plans for free speed upgrades moving away from a service wholly based on speed alone.
Many users may find the choosing a product from either Plusnet or BTYahoo Broadband a no brainer, however, we'd elect to wait a while after the products have launched for a number of reasons. Currently the only 8Mb ADSL provider in the UK is UKOnline, an ISP that caused a whirlwind in the broadband market a few months ago when they detailed their intentions to provide 8Mb services. The reality seems somewhat different however, with many posts on various forums seeing users unable to hit this magical 8Mbit speed.
Finally, the underlying changes by BTWholesale are undoubtedly likely to spawn similar products from other ISPs. That said, its unlikely the UK is going to see anything significantly bettering 8Mb for under £15 in the distant future.
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8mbit for R160............................................................................ WTF can one say?
First off, the headline grabbing 8Mb service. Earlier this month, BT dished out the details on a trial which sees ADSL users lines increased to 8Mb. Plusnet, a BT partner, will from the same date offer a free upgrade to the maximum speed the line can handle, obviously, up to 8Mbps. BT will also be handing over control of the end users speed to the Plusnet (see a story we ran in January about this), which facilitates a quicker turnaround time in the end users broadband speed. This change will surely stimulate similar products from other ISPs as well.
Plusnet's 'Pay as you go' service (formally known as 'lite') will see both 4 and 8Mbit services made available at £14.99, with one GigaByte of data charged at £1.50. With a price this low, service restrictions are to be expected. They surface in the realm of Peer to Peer ports being blocked etc, for some, no, or a minor point for the ultra-low price point.
Next up, the Plusnet's 'Premiere' product. As BT's Usage Based Charging (unsurprisingly 'accronymed' to UBC) becomes more popular, more ISPs are moving away from a service where the price is based on speed (ref BTYahoo). Instead, as the name suggests, UBC sees pricing determined by the amount of data the ADSL line 'consumes'. Plusnet's Primiere offering will offer exactly this.
In conjunction with the speed upgrade already mentioned, the product change sees five different levels of pricing from £21.99 through to £59.99, in which the included bandwidth also increases in 25GB(ish!) steps from 30 right through to 150GB. Two nice little touches are that only the downstream traffic is counted towards the allowance, and any downloading done 'offpeak' between midnight and 8am will be excluded will be as free as a the proverbial bird.
The table below nicely summarises this.
Product Price | 8am thru Midnightallowance | Maximum allowance
£21.99 | 30GB | 230GB
£29.99 | 50GB | 250GB
£39.99 | 75GB | 275GB
£49.99 | 100GB | 300GB
£59.99 | 125GB | 325GB
Prices inclusive of VAT. Maximum allowance based on a 2Mbps service
Sitting in nicely between the all singing all dancing Premiere, and the restricted but cheap PAYG, comes Broadband Plus, offering unrestricted offpeak usage (read P2P), but restricted at other times. No pricing from Plusnet was available at this time.
Plusnet have certainly shaken up the broadband market with this announcement. Only last week BTYahoo Broadband announced similar plans for free speed upgrades moving away from a service wholly based on speed alone.
Many users may find the choosing a product from either Plusnet or BTYahoo Broadband a no brainer, however, we'd elect to wait a while after the products have launched for a number of reasons. Currently the only 8Mb ADSL provider in the UK is UKOnline, an ISP that caused a whirlwind in the broadband market a few months ago when they detailed their intentions to provide 8Mb services. The reality seems somewhat different however, with many posts on various forums seeing users unable to hit this magical 8Mbit speed.
Finally, the underlying changes by BTWholesale are undoubtedly likely to spawn similar products from other ISPs. That said, its unlikely the UK is going to see anything significantly bettering 8Mb for under £15 in the distant future.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
8mbit for R160............................................................................ WTF can one say?
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