O2 Wholesale Claims UK Businesses at Risk from Capped Data Allowances

Broadband ISP supplier O2 Wholesale UK (BE Wholesale) has warned that an “average business” of 50 employees can eat 61GB (GigaBytes) of internet data a month (i.e. email 26GB, browsing 22GB, video 1.7GB and video conferencing 7.9GB), which is allegedly more expensive for rival providers to cater for than their own “unlimited” option.

It goes without saying that O2 Wholesale’s aim is to encourage more ISPs to adopt its “fixed rate unlimited usage offerings” in order to keep pace with demand and retain customers. It warns that ISPs which don’t swap could face excessive charges for exceeding their suppliers usage limits, which they believe might force some into throttling their customer connections or raising prices.

Dan Cunliffe, Head of Partners and Strategy at O2Wholesale, said (Comms Dealer):

“Our estimates show that an average small business of 50 employees can use over 60GB per month in data in just email, video downloads, online browsing, and video conferencing. With wholesale industry fixed usage packages offering between 21-32 GB of data at an equivalent price to our fixed rate unlimited usage offerings, we believe the case for what once might have been perceived as a premium product is now compelling.

Offering business customers an unlimited usage service avoids the nasty surprises of throttling or hiked costs when they exceed imposed usage limits.”

It should be said that all broadband capacity costs money and no model, least of all an “unlimited” one that typically encourages higher levels of use, is ever going to be completely immune to potential price rises, performance / support problems or the possible implementation of more aggressive Traffic Management measures.

Rival suppliers would perhaps argue that capped allowances help them to keep tighter control of their network, while often avoiding unexpected cost over-runs or the need for Traffic Management because customers pay for what they use. Meanwhile data usage demand continues to climb.