Popular UK Retailer John Lewis Enters the Broadband ISP Market

John Lewis, a popular high street retail giant, appears to have quietly slipped its way into the UK’s internet access market by launching their own JohnLewis Broadband (JLBB) service. The new ISP offers both standard and superfast services, although their prices probably won’t worry the competition.

After a brief bit of digging we discovered that the “new and improved” product, which first appeared earlier this month, is actually a replacement for both the Waitrose Broadband and Greenbee Phone & Broadband services. All of which are effectively part of the same group. Its three primary packages are as follows.

JLBB Standard Broadband (£11 Per Month)
* Up to 16Mbps Downloads
* 20GB Monthly Usage Allowance (Top-up 5GB for £5)
* Freephone (0800) Support 24/7
* Included PC Security Package
* Included Wireless Router
* Free Activation
* Free Evening and Weekend calls
* 12 Month Contract

JLBB Unlimited Broadband (£18 Per Month)
* As Above Except..
* Unlimited Monthly Usage (Traffic Management)

JLBB Fibre (FTTC) Broadband (£25 Per Month)
* As Above Except..
* Up to 38Mbps Downloads
* 100GB Monthly Usage (Top-up 5GB for £5)

So far as we can tell the service appears to run off BT’s / PlusNet platform (not LLU unbundled) and also requires customers to pay £13.50 a month for Phone Line Rental; Anytime calls (+£5) and Anytime UK + International calls (+£7) can be added at extra cost. We also note that the PC security package is BullGuard based (Antivirus, Antispyware, Firewall, Spam Filter and Online Backup Protection) and MAC OS users will get a discount on Intego software security.