ISP Direct Save Telecom Launch Cheap Broadband for UK Rural Areas

Budget conscious home phone and internet provider Direct Save Telecom has this week launched what it claims to be the lowest costing “out of area broadband in the UK“, which is priced from £9.95 per month and targeted at the last 15% of the population who live in predominantly rural areas.

The new package, which is tedious to find on their website, also appears to come with a 20GB usage allowance, free set-up, free wireless router (costs £8.95 to deliver) and free evening and weekend calls. Unfortunately customers still have to take out a lengthy 24 month contract, although a 28 day rolling contract option is available but only if you pay £14.95 per month. This does not include the cost of line rental, which if you need it is an extra £12.85 a month (i.e. total cost from £22.80).

Stavros Tsolakis, Direct Save’s CEO, said:

“We do not have much influence on when services to rural areas can be upgraded, but what we can do is have an influence on what is happening now by ensuring that rural areas are not hammered with ridiculously high prices.

All our customers are important to us irrespective of where they live, and we want to try and give them the best possible telecoms deal available. This is one of the driving factors when setting our prices for rural areas, we are the lowest costing ‘out of area’ broadband provider in the UK.

There has been talk of upgrading rural areas with the latest broadband technology for some time now, but it is incredibly slow paced which must be infuriating for the rural residential and business consumer. We have reduced our prices as much as we can to try and assist them now, and we will continue to do so until the broadband playing field is levelled.”

One of DST’s closest competitors in this area, PlusNet, charges £12.99 a month (excluding special offers) to serve the same region, although those who pay 12 months in advance can get the line rental for the equivalent of £9.49 a month. That sort of balances it out.