O2 reveals its broadband offering

MUCH AS expected, O2 UK has announced its broadband offering based around its Be Internet acquisition. Prices are ten quid less if you're already an O2 contract customer.

Rather than quote the 24 Mbit/s supposed top speed Be used to proclaim, O2 talks about speeds of up to 20 Mbit/s.
But beware. Each package offers unlimited use for downloading. Well, actually it doesn't because there is a limit – you have to read the small print and find out what its fair usage policy involves.
More usefully all the broadband boxes which O2 will provide will be wireless routers. Plus there's the promise of free UK based customer services.

That's probably worth its weight in gold. The service officially goes live on October 15th. Other nice touches are 100 free texts a month from your PC to mobile phones.

Another very interesting feature is that the actual line speed will be checked up to one month later to ensure the package selected by the customer is appropriate.

So if you went for the 20 Mbit/s service and can only actually achieve 8 Mbit/s, then you only pay for the package appropriate for the speed the line can support. How reasonable is that?

Interestingly, while the INQ had calculated that O2 would kick this service off once it reached 66.6 per cent of the UK population, actually it's started with just a 50 per cent reach.
Rather than offering something for free which few can actually get to work without making massively expensive support calls, O2 is seeking to hang onto its 17.5 million customers with a decent broadband offering. µ

L'INQ
O2 broadband