UPDATE Entanet Based UK ISPs to Offer Unlimited Broadband Packages

Communications provider Entanet, which supplies internet access and other telecoms services to a number of ISPs and businesses across the United Kingdom, has this afternoon announced the addition of a new unlimited broadband product to its BTWholesale (WBC) based ADSL, ADSL2+ and FTTC platform.

The move means that Entanet’s partners and resellers will, effective from Monday 13th May 2013 next week, be able to “compete against otherwise dominant mainstream retail providers in their efforts to win business” by offering home and business broadband packages with unlimited usage allowances instead of capped products.

As usual it’s difficult to know precisely what these services will look like as different vISPs often offer slightly different variations on the same theme, although most still follow Entanet’s standard pricing. In that respect Entanet says its “suggested selling prices” will range from £19.99 to £41.49 per month (depending on the connection type) with a standard 12 month contract. A further discount off the monthly price will also be available to those offering 24 month contracts.

Paul Heritage-Redpath, Product Manager at Entanet, said:

“Demand for unlimited services, where customers don’t have to worry about the amount of bandwidth they are consuming, has surged in recent months.

We’re not the first to enter the ‘unlimited’ space and by no means the last either. However, with the combination of our competitive pricing, UK-wide adoption of WBC on our own network, and our reputation for quality customer service, we expect to see our partners winning over customers from other ISPs.”

Regular readers of ISPreview.co.uk will note that BT based ISPs have historically struggled to offer unlimited services, which is in stark contrast to the ones promoted by many unbundled (LLU) and cable providers. This has often been due to higher data/capacity charges but the recent launch of “unlimited” via BT Retail and its sibling ISP, PlusNet, appear to be placing new pressures on the competitive landscape and rivals are starting to adapt.

Never the less there are still economic risks with “unlimited” provision and at the time of writing we still don’t know precisely what kind of Fair Usage Policy (FUP) may or may not come attached. We hope to have more details soon. Meanwhile Entanet’s existing allowance packages will also remain available to the channel.

UPDATE 8:31am

Entanet has advised that there will be no FUP on their “unlimited” service, although like other ISPs they do still apply dynamic Traffic Management on a “node by node basis” but only when required.