ISP Uno Pilot UK 160Mbps and 330Mbps Gfast Broadband Service

Internet provider uno (uno Comms Ltd) has today become the next UK ISP after BT to pilot a new range of “ultrafast broadband” packages based off the fledgling hybrid fibre G.fast network, which can offer download speeds of up to 160Mbps (30Mbps up) and 330Mbps (50Mbps up).

At present Openreach are only just starting to deploy the new G.fast technology, which should reach over 1 million UK homes and businesses within the next few months before extending to a total of 10 million premises by the end of 2020. The deployment is still technically in the pilot phase and as such uno’s packages have similarly been classed as a pilot (they could change in the future).

The packages all come attached to a 12 month contract term, as well as 1000GB of monthly data usage with unmetered off-peak use between 8pm – 8am (a 24/7 unmetered package is being considered), static IP address, plus 250MB of shared email and webspace (inc. hosting for one real domain name). The prices exclude VAT (20%) and line rental, although you can add phone line rental from £9.99 per month.

Gfast 160/30 Pilot
Price: £34.95 +vat per month

Gfast 330/50 Pilot
Price: £39.99 +vat per month

We should point out that the service also attracts a one-off activation fee of £97.00 +vat, which includes an engineer installation and Openreach’s own G.fast modem (Huawei MT992). In other words, you’ll probably still need a separate third-party router to help handle your wireless network etc.

As a quick comparison, if we include line rental and VAT into the price of the 330Mbps tier then that pushes the monthly rental to £59.99, which is the same as BT’s ULTRAFAST 2 (up to 314Mbps). The BT service of course benefits from some premium extras (BT Wi-Fi hotspots, unlimited UK weekend calls and included Smart Hub X router, gift cards etc.) and cheaper setup at £59.99. On the other hand uno is much more highly rated.

One drawback to uno’s service is that you can’t order it online without a copper line based phone number (the checker only uses phone numbers), which means hard luck for those who don’t yet have a line installed (e.g. house movers).

G.fast is in its infancy and we expect many more ISPs to launch packages over the next few months.