One of the largest business broadband ISPs in Australia, Exetel, has this month launched itself into the United Kingdom’s already crowded communications market and they’ve towed their “No B.S policy” along for the ride.
The provider, which claims to be the “5th largest Australian ISP as well as being the largest privately owned“, has been busy building its UK base for the past year. Exetel now seeks to dethrone the likes of BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk and others by providing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) with the “solutions they need … but at a much more reasonable price than what was available.”
Exetel Statement
“Our motto has always been No B.S. Here in the UK, we aim to keep the idea of simple and straightforward solutions parallel to our competitiveness, flexibility, and responsiveness. We’ve seen how long it can take some suppliers to get back to their customers and how hard it is to get clear and accurate information on a solution while navigating hidden costs and T&C’s. That’s where our No B.S policy kicks in and we like to ‘Get Things Done’.”
Exetel has also partnered with London-focused wholesale network provider Virtual1 for their data solutions in the United Kingdom, which should provide them with an array of options for suppliers such as Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, Colt, Level3, Vodafone and SSE.
Interestingly they are one of the few business ISPs that seem to be up-front with their pricing (most others prefer to hide such details behind a “Request Quote” form) and as such we’re able to view several example packages for their Fibre Leased Lines, FTTC and EFM services.
Example Business Internet Connectivity Packages
Fibre Leased Lines (speeds up to 10Gbps)
* 100Mbps Symmetric
* Free Installation (takes approximately 45-90 working days)
* 36 Month Contract
* Unlimited Usage
* Includes Fully Managed RouterPRICE: £392.00 +vat Monthly
Fibre-to-the-Cabinet
* 20Mbps Symmetric
* £500 Installation (takes approximately 35 working days)
* 36 Month Contract
* Unlimited Usage
* Includes Fully Managed RouterPRICE: £179.00 +vat Monthly
Ethernet in the First Mile
* 10Mbps Symmetric
* Free Installation (takes approximately 30 working days)
* 36 Month Contract
* Unlimited Usage
* Includes Fully Managed RouterPRICE: £238.00 +vat Monthly
It’s important not to confuse these example prices with domestic connections because an uncontended (we assume) managed business line will always be significantly better quality than your home connection, although Exetel’s website fails to reference whether or not a Service Level Agreement (SLA) applies. The £500 installation fee for FTTC also seems to be a bit odd unless they’re doing something special (very possible), but again they don’t say.
One other small problem is that Exetel have muddled the description of FTTC so that it’s the wrong way around: “Copper is used from the nearest exchange to a “cabinet” in the street where fibre is then used to connect to the building“; unless this is a special form of FTTC that we’ve not heard about before, although the clue is usually in the name.
Otherwise we wish the best of luck to Exetel, even if the UK is already home to an aggressively competitive market. Like most providers they’ll also be largely dependent upon existing infrastructure and its many limitations.
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