UK Broadband Internet Service Provider News

UK broadband Internet service provider news and the latest broadband company press releases. Access the latest new broadband deals and broadband service updates, including broadband news from BT, AOL, Tiscali, Eclipse, Orange, Utility Warehouse, TalkTalk, Virgin & Telewest.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

PlusNet celebrates a decade of Internet service

PlusNet, today celebrates its 10th anniversary in the evolving Internet business. PlusNet, one of the UK’s first ISPs, has enjoyed a reputation for working closely with its customers in order to provide compelling and innovative Internet services. It has used the 10th anniversary to launch two new initiatives to create value for its customers.

The tenth-anniversary celebratory offers to customers include:

1. A new free set-up offer. Customers have all set-up charges for free if they stay for 12 months. Customers are still only obliged to sign up for a one-month contract but if they leave within the first 12 months they pay the standard costs for modem and activation.

2. The biggest ever reward for customers recommending PlusNet. Customers who recommend PlusNet to their friends and family in February or March will be entered in a draw for a VW Golf R32 sports car worth £30,000.

Finally PlusNet is also refunding ten years of subscription worth over £2,000 to its first customer from 1997, who is now a broadband customer.

Lee Strafford, PlusNet’s CEO, said: “We owe our success to the transparent relationship we have with our customers and the talent and work ethic of my co-workers. PlusNet grew out of a discerning and enthusiastic community using our discussion forums and self-service tools. In 10 years we’ve grown entirely through customer referral – with next to no advertising. We’ll keep doing what we’re good at - listening to our customers and building the future of broadband with them.”

PlusNet launched on 1st February 1997 under the brand Force9. The company has grown from just seven staff to employ of over 200 people and last year generated revenue of over £45m. PlusNet recently laid out its plans for 2007 including a range of services and improvements. New services will include BT Vision, BT Fusion and a Home Hub. The company was bought by BT in January 2007 and will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary.

PlusNet broadband deals

Labels: plusnet-broadband

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Top five ADSL broadband providers

Orange has re-entered the top five ADSL broadband providers in the UK,
joining BT broadband, Pipex broadband, Demon broadband and Virgin.net broadband at the top of the table in terms of technical broadband performance.

The fourth quarter Internet Performance Indicator (IPI) Report from Epitiro – the UK’s leading Customer Experience Management (CEM) provider for Internet access services – identifies BT as the best performing broadband provider. BT have held the top position for the last three quarters.

Epitiro’s customer experience monitoring and competitor benchmarking service, monitored the services from the ten largest competing consumer ADSL broadband providers, collecting 622,147 real-time data samples from eleven locations around the UK. This means that from 1st October to 31st December 2006, each broadband service was tested over 60,000 times on average.

“Our testing has shown that in terms of technical performance, BT and Pipex are still maintaining their position in the top five,” said Gavin Johns, Managing Director of Epitiro.

Overall Ranking - Q4 2006
1 - BT broadband
2 - Pipex broadband
3 - Orange broadband
4 - Demon broadband
5 - Virgin broadband

Increasing Speed Through 2006

Epitiro’s research has found that the industry average connection and HTTP download (web browsing) speeds have increased steadily through 2006, with the average consumer ADSL connection speed for the fourth quarter at 5.73 Mbps per second.

“ISPs are increasing their speeds, which is good news for bandwidth-hungry users,” said Epitiro’s Gavin Johns. “Speeds have increased from 3.82 Mbps per second in the third quarter due to new ADSL Max entrants into the ten largest broadband providers. However it’s unlikely that many ADSL Max services will perform at their full capacity of 8Mbps. The speed of broadband service reduces the further the customer’s connection is from their local telephone exchange.”

Individual Category Rankings

Epitiro’s Consumer ADSL IPI Report measures ten performance metrics, averaging performance in each to compile the top five rankings. Plusnet achieved the highest connection speed for the second quarter running. BT offered the fastest HTTP download speed, which normally reflects the speed of general web browsing. BT also provided the fastest FTP downloads from users’ personal webspace. Pipex
provided the fastest FTP upload speed. As well as upload and download connection speeds, ISP-I measures connection reliability and time to connect to ensure the full customer experience is captured.

“A broadband connection isn’t just about speed,” explained Gavin Johns. “The
connection has to be available when you need it and, with the growth of VoIP, Internet gaming and videoconferencing, it has to be able to deal with lots of different online activities.”

Virgin’s services had the lowest packet loss rate. All ISPs experience some packet loss, but a high rate of loss can lead to problems streaming video and audio. Interestingly, the percentage of packet loss - whilst remaining low - more than doubled in the past quarter. Virgin also had the lowest percentage of connection failures in Q4, suggesting that their consumer ADSL customers had the highest degree of uptime of the sample group. Orange broadband provided the fastest ping time, generally desirable to users that require frequent data updates from the Internet back to their computer, such as online gamers.

Labels: bt-broadband, general-broadband-news, orange-broadband, pipex-broadband, plusnet-broadband, virgin-broadband, virgin-media-broadband

Thursday, November 16, 2006

BT makes recommended cash offer for PlusNet plc

BT today announced it has made a recommended cash offer for PlusNet, offering 210p per share, valuing the company at approximately £67m.

The offer for PlusNet fits perfectly with BT’s strategy of providing its customers with the most that broadband can deliver. Broadband is increasingly becoming more than just fast internet access and PlusNet has a strong reputation for both customer service and innovation.

Operating since 1997, PlusNet was listed on the Alternative Investment Market in 2004. It has grown rapidly during the last few years and now has close to 200,000 broadband customers as well as an additional narrowband customer base. If the offer is accepted, PlusNet will retain its brand and distinct identity. It will continue to operate from its base in Sheffield and Lee Strafford will remain its CEO. For the 12 months to 30 June 2006 the company had revenues of £41m, EBITDA of £7.5m and net income of £3.9m.

BT Retail chief executive, Ian Livingston said: “This offer makes great sense for BT. We already provide the UK’s most popular and best-performing ADSL broadband service and this acquisition will ensure that even more people can enjoy our market-leading services. PlusNet’s customers and employees will benefit from the combination of PlusNet’s excellent platform and access to BT’s resources and technology development.”

Lee Strafford, CEO of PlusNet said: “I am pleased to announce BT’s offer this morning. Whilst the PlusNet Directors continue to believe that PlusNet is a high quality business, our sector is consolidating and there are considerable benefits to PlusNet in becoming part of BT. BT recognises the importance of retaining PlusNet’s identity and culture and I believe this will give rise to exciting opportunities for PlusNet, our customers and our employees.”

The directors of the company, having unanimously recommended the offer, have provided irrevocable undertakings to accept BT’s offer.

BT broadband

Labels: bt-broadband, plusnet-broadband

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Try PlusNet quality broadband FREE for 30 days

With more and more ISPs fighting for your custom by cutting prices and even offering so called 'free' broadband, it’s easy to think all broadband is the same. [brand] is urging broadband users to try 'quality' broadband free for a month, before making a commitment.

If you switch your broadband to PlusNet today you'll get a free 30 day trial. PlusNet are so confident you’ll like the experience, it's free to leave at any point during the trial. After the free 30 day trial period you can opt for a monthly contract if you don’t want to commit for longer.

PlusNet understand the challenges in providing a quality connection at a low cost. The traditional way to provide broadband is to share limited capacity among many customers (known as contention).The problem is, as the number of customers increases and they transfer more and more data, the ISP will face capacity constraints.

Some ISPs do continue to add capacity beyond a financially sustainable level and then have to backtrack or risk going out of business. Most ISPs are keeping their capacity the same to save money, but as their available capacity fills up at busy times, data just can’t get through and the experience is poor.

The PlusNet answer is different - Intelligent Data Prioritisation. This means time sensitive data such as gaming and web browsing is never affected, even at the busiest times. The result is a consistent quality broadband experience at a low price.

If you are happy with your ISP now, it may only be a question of time before they start to suffer under the strain of increased customers and the associated increase in data usage. The PlusNet solution is already up and running and guarantees quality for all its customers (just under 200,000).

Neil Armstrong, PlusNet's Product Development Director, said: "With more than 10 million broadband homes in the UK it is time for customers to ask themselves, 'am I paying too much for under performing broadband?'. We believe customers demand and deserve quality broadband at all times, as well as a great value price."

"We have been compared recently to Talk Talk and Orange and their 'free' offers – but PlusNet is different. We are an experienced ISP that utilises technology, automation and customer self service to keep our prices low - not marketing gimmicks."

Armstrong continued: "Our customers recognise the value and service PlusNet provides, that's why they continue to recommend us. Some get their broadband for free because they’ve recommended us to their friends and family."

Labels: plusnet-broadband

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

PlusNet launches low cost national broadband and calls packages

With a one month contract and no gimmicks for £20.99.

PlusNet, the UK’s best value Internet service provider, has today announced the launch of new competitively priced broadband and voice products, that combine up to 8Mbps broadband speeds, landline rental and inclusive calls for a no-gimmicks price of £20.99 per month.

Unlike other competing broadband and calls packages, PlusNet’s new package will be available nationwide to more than 99 per cent of the UK population, they are not reliant on limited Local Loop Unbundled (LLU)-enabled exchanges. This service will also be offered on a one-month contract whereas standard contract terms for similar products currently lock in consumers for at least 12 months.

The service, to be offered from 4th July 2006, will allow PlusNet customers to bundle their landline rental and a calls package as well as the company’s PlusTalk Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, with their broadband connection. Package prices will range from £11 per month in addition to their existing broadband subscription. PlusNet will also launch Broadband Basic, a new entry-level broadband service priced at £9.99 per month, on 31st May 2006. Monthly subscriptions for the combined voice and broadband bundle will start at just £20.99 per month.

Customers can pre-register for the new bundled voice and broadband products with immediate effect, or sign up to the existing broadband services and add voice and line rental from 4th July. There will be a simple pick and mix approach where customers can choose one of three broadband packages and then add either PlusTalk Anytime for £11 per month or PlusTalk Anytime+ for £15 per month. To complement these call plans PlusNet will be offering market-leading call rates, saving customers on average 17% compared to rivals.

Neil Armstrong, PlusNet Marketing Director said “It’s quickly becoming standard for broadband and telephone service to be bundled together, but a major barrier to take up has been poor nationwide coverage and off-putting long term contracts. The UK consumer can now get access to a great service with the comfort of a one month term.”

Armstrong continued “With more than 10 million broadband homes in the UK it is time for customers to ask themselves, ‘am I paying too much for broadband, landline rental and calls?’. We believe customers demand and deserve a choice of quality packages as well as a great value price. Our customers recognise the value and service PlusNet provides, that’s why they continue to recommend us.”

Further PlusNet broadband information:
http://plusnet.broadband-123.co.uk

Labels: plusnet-broadband

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UK broadband service news

PlusNet celebrates a decade of Internet service

Top five ADSL broadband providers

BT makes recommended cash offer for PlusNet plc

Try PlusNet quality broadband FREE for 30 days

PlusNet launches low cost national broadband and calls packages