O2 Broadband Products and Pricing

[Saturday]

Correct at 21st November 2008

O2 entered the broadband market in September 2007 following their acquisition of BE in June 2006 for £50m. BE itself was only formed in October 2004, going live in July 2005. In that short time it had built a network covering 150 exchanges and earning itself the reputation as "Britain's fastest ADSL2+ provider".

Since then, following substantial further investment from O2, the network has grown to over 1200 LLU enabled exchanges and 267,000+ customers, adding 67,000 customers in the last quarter. O2 Broadband won awards in 2008, again for speed but also for customer service.

Products:

O2BB offers products on its own network (LLU) but also, where LLU capacity is full or not available, a single product utilising BT's network (ADSL Max).

O2 LLU products:

Standard - "up to" 8meg downstream and 1.3meg upstream
Premium - "up to" 16meg downstream and 1.3meg upstream
Ultimate - "up to" 24meg downstream and 1.6meg upstream

O2 non LLU product:

Access - "up to" 8meg downstream and 448kbps upstream

Note: as with all ADSL products, the actual speed achieved is dependent on line length and quality.


Pricing:

O2 offers two pricing bands dependent on whether the customer also has an O2 mobile.

O2 mobile customer prices:

Standard - £7.50 per month
Premium - £10
Ultimate - £15
Access - £17.50

Standard prices:

Standard - £12.50 per month
Premium - £15
Ultimate - £20
Access - £22.50

Note: both contract and PAYG customers are eligible for the discount. In the case of PAYG, a top up of £10 or more must be made every 3 months.

For both LLU and non LLU there are no connection charges. All products are described as "unlimited" but a fair usage policy applies. O2 claim never to have enforced this policy.

The minimum contract length is 12 months and there is a no quibble, money back guarantee for the first 30 days.

Customer service is available 24 hours a day, is UK based and a free 0800 number.


What else do you get?

• a free wireless router "on loan"
• a 3 licence copy of McAfee security software
• customers can send 100 web texts a month to mobiles
• a webmail service
• up to 10 email addresses are available per customer
• a free "O2 email to mobile" service
• a static IP is available on LLU products for an additional £5 per month.

EDIT: the specification and price of the Ultimate product changed on the 18th December. See here.

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[Mike8]

O2 have sent out a sms text regarding passing on the benefits
of the reduction in VAT, not sure in practice what will happen
to the broadband bill which doesnt show the vat breakdown.
http://www.o2.co.uk/VAT
for details


Admin: Added a working link for now, Mike8: that doesnt work the link is
"http://www.o2.co.uk/VAT" and works for me (this is a cut and past from the url.

[Saturday]

Thanks for the info - I haven't had the SMS yet.

The link you gave seems to be broken

[Steeley_96]

I haven't received the text message either.

[NewsreadeR]

Originally Posted by Mike8

O2 have sent out a sms text regarding passing on the benefits
of the reduction in VAT, not sure in practice what will happen
to the broadband bill which doesnt show the vat breakdown.
http://www.o2.co.uk/VAT
for details


Admin: Added a working link for now, Mike8: that doesnt work the link is
"http://www.o2.co.uk/VAT" and works for me (this is a cut and past from the url.

Looks like the forum software we use is adding a ? to the URL The link you have provided in the edit works fine for me Mike.

[Saturday]

Just had the SMS from O2 telling me that I'd benefit from the new 15% VAT rate. That's taken them a while to get it out to me