Readers may recall the furore that erupted last year when Entanet revealed its intention to dramatically change the off-peak usage allowances and periods of its broadband packages (here). The resultant pressure from Entanet's vISP partners, such as Aquiss, ADSL24, UKFSN and many more, ultimately forced a delay pending further discussions (here).

Following much debate a compromise was finally reached and Entanet advised all Partners on 2nd February 2009 of the new products and that they would be introduced from 30th March 2009, at which time the existing ADSL (8Mbps) and ADSL2+ (24Mbps) packages would be replaced by their new options for new customers.


The result is that plans for a universal, 7 days a week, off-peak period of 00:00hrs to 08:00hrs, which would have been very restrictive, have been enhanced with a more flexible period that includes weekends into off-peak time (as it used to). Sadly the weekday off-peak periods continue to be reduced, starting at midnight instead of the old 10pm slot.

During the hours of 8pm and midnight the home packages will also benefit from traffic prioritisation over office users (when most home users are online). Similarly those exceeding their allowance will now no longer have to pay a £5 admin fee plus the cost of a top-up. Instead customers will be given a reduce speed grace allowance of 1GB and can then buy an extra top-up (e.g. 10GB for £9.90), which rolls over each month until consumed.

Gone are also the much praised bulk off-peak usage allowances, which use to stretch up to 300GB on a £19.56 per month 8Mbps package. Instead these have been replaced with an “unlimited” policy, which may or may not be more flexible depending on whether it results in even more excessive off-peak downloading and thus slower speeds. The new HOME 8 or 24Mbps packages should look something like this:

Peak Allowance 1GB - £ 13.90 per month
Peak Allowance 3GB - £ 15.90
Peak Allowance 30GB - £ 18.90
Peak Allowance 60GB - £ 28.90
Peak Allowance 90GB - £ 38.90
Peak Allowance 120GB - £ 48.90

Those customers on current packages will move to a comparable package from their next billing date after 30 March 2009, or they should select something specific via their ISP before 25th March.

Entanet points out that its rate adaptive MAX (8Mbps) products have not changed significantly since their launch in 2005. Since this time there have been a number of changes to wholesale broadband pricing (BT rises) and a significant increase in the level of competition within the market which has resulted in a broadband portfolio that, they claim, is now less competitive and more costly to maintain.

Unfortunately customers on these existing packages appear to be bearing the brunt of this imbalance, with an increasingly evident spike in the number of complaints about slow speeds occurring during off-peak hours. Some customers appear to have been hit harder than others, with a few complaining that their previous speeds of several megabits per second are now rarely above 0.5Mbps.

The problem has been exasperated by BTs delayed rollout of newer Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) technology and 21CN, which is commonly associated with the ability to deliver up to 24Mbps ADSL2+ based services. Further delays with migration between BTs older and newer platforms have also added to this. Typically BT has made its newer platform cheaper, which doesn’t help when many areas have yet to see it rolled out.

Entanet will no doubt be hoping that the new packages, combined with an ever improving rollout and migration onto the improved 24Mbps platform, will solve the current problems. In the meantime, short of any further improvements to the older platforms capacity (we’re currently awaiting a reply to this question), existing 8Mbps users will be forced to put up with the current problems. We should know how much of an affect the changes have had by the end of next month.