O2 Broadband Products and Pricing

Correct at 19th 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.

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

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

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

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