ISP NOW TV Slashes UK Fab Fibre FTTC Broadband to Just £20
Sky’s sibling ISP and video streaming service, NOW TV (NOW Broadband), has reduced the price of their 11Mbps “Brilliant Broadband” (ADSL), 36Mbps “Fat Fibre” and 63Mbps “Super Fibre” (FTTC / VDSL2) packages to just £15, £20 and £25 per month respectively on a 12 month contract.
The prices were last this low before Easter and NOW TV appears to have returned to them as part of a special summer discount promotion. Under the deal new customers will also receive phone line rental, unlimited usage and an included wireless router (i.e. a re-branded Sky Q Hub that also attracts a £9.99 one-off delivery charge).
Otherwise the packages currently offer free activation and you can optionally take a ‘no contract’ option too, but this attracts an additional one-off setup charge of £50. Free Evening & Weekend UK calls can be added on top for an additional +£4 per month or +£8 for Anytime UK calls.
Generally the 36Mbps package looks to be the cheapest FTTC deal on the market at the moment, although the update we received didn’t mention an expiry date for the new discounts (we assume they’ll last until the autumn or thereabouts before returning to normal).
Brilliant Broadband (11Mbps Average)
PRICE: £15 per month for the first 12 months (£25.99 thereafter)Fab Fibre (36Mbps Average)
PRICE: £20 per month for the first 12 months (£35.99 thereafter)Super Fibre (63Mbps Average)
PRICE: £30 per month for the first 12 months (£43.99 thereafter)
Keith is a computer engineer and website developer from Dorset (England) who also assists, on a part-time basis, in the general upkeep of ISPreview.co.uk's systems and services. He also writes the occasional editorial and special offer article. Find me on Contacts.
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Prices are getting silly now – for those of us that can’t get fibre of any kind, the race to the bottom with regard to prices is just making extending fibre networks even less commercially viable than it was. The fibre prices are now less than I can get ADSL2+ for – and before anyone suggests the £15pm Now offer, they won’t provide any kind of broadband in my area.
“The fibre prices are now less than I can get ADSL2+ for…”
You have not looked very far then.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/isp_list/ISP_List_Fixed_Line_Broadband.php?orderBy=land_line_cheap_total_price
Just for starters lists several ADSL products under £20
Unfortunately most of the cheap ISPs listed don’t provide service in my area, e.g. Sky, TalkTalk. Others such as Post Office charge a premium (£29/pm) rather than the low price advertised in that list. The cheapest are in fact Plusnet (who I am with) and John Lewis (a Plusnet reseller). I can’t check all of those in the list as some of their address checkers can’t cope with my address (Origin’s says they need to send an engineer out to see whether I can have broadband at all).
But, the problem isn’t price – it is the fact that low prices make it uneconomic to invest any money in improving the network. I would pay £££ for a decent broadband, but no company can afford to make it available. Ever lower prices will just make the situation worse for many people that don’t have a decent connection already.
At least 7 providers on that link under £20 you should be able to sign up for.
You should also look through the top 50 providers on this site,
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top50.php
to find even more…
Example being cloudscape and ADSL from just £12.
Its not hard to find ADSL products under £20 at all.
I think you’re missing my point, which is that very low prices make it impossible for any provider to justify investing in expanding infrastructure. Saving a couple of quid a month on ADSL is not as important to me (and many others) as getting a faster connection. When they are charging £20 a month for FTTC, there’s nothing left once you have taken out VAT, the wholesale FTTC cost, backhaul charges, admin overheads, and perhaps a few pence profit. That’s why many of the altnets that are expanding their networks charge way more for their products.
@Clifford, you are right in that Cloudscape offer capped broadband for £12/pm, but that doesn’t appear to include line rental, which is another £12.50/pm. And as I mentioned many of the ISPs in the list do not provide any broadband in my area (i.e. all those that use TalTalk backhaul, and those such as Sky that only sell from LLU enabled exchanges).
“I think you’re missing my point, which is that very low prices make it impossible for any provider to justify investing in expanding infrastructure.”
Small providers are often happy to be just that less than 50,000 customers and a steady income from them selling one of the big players wholesale products. There is no need for them to expand and invest elsewhere. Think of them like your small local shop. Happy to be small and provide a service and no desire to become the next Asda or similar.
“Saving a couple of quid a month on ADSL is not as important to me (and many others) as getting a faster connection. When they are charging £20 a month for FTTC, there’s nothing left once you have taken out VAT, the wholesale FTTC cost, backhaul charges, admin overheads, and perhaps a few pence profit.”
If you want to pay more there is plenty of choice in that area also. Im not sure what you want, the market is diverse enough to cover all needs, small players, large players, various products and pricing. If pricing does not bother you then buy a lease line from someone.
“That’s why many of the altnets that are expanding their networks charge way more for their products.”
Ive no idea what you mean there, if we are talking fibre products then altnets products are often cheaper and faster than the likes of BT and resellers of their FTTP. If you are referring to FTTC i know of no altnets which have even bothered with that.
I and many others don’t have the choice of paying more for a better service – none exist! A leased line is a just bit more than I can afford – BT Business refused to quote for one as they said the cost would be ridiculous. Cheapest I have been quoted is >£300+VAT per month for a 20Mbps link on a long contract. I have spoken to several Wireless ISPs and none have been willing to quote. I do use a rather variable 4G connection load balanced with my ADSL, but that is expensive for what it provides.
“I and many others don’t have the choice of paying more for a better service – none exist! A leased line is a just bit more than I can afford ”
Either money is an issue or it isn’t, please decide.
“BT Business refused to quote for one as they said the cost would be ridiculous. Cheapest I have been quoted is >£300+VAT per month for a 20Mbps link on a long contract. I have spoken to several Wireless ISPs and none have been willing to quote. I do use a rather variable 4G connection load balanced with my ADSL, but that is expensive for what it provides.”
Im sure BT with their 10Mb USO will save you or maybe not.
“Either money is an issue or it isn’t, please decide.”
There is quite a difference between FTTC at £20pm, and an approximately equivalent leased line at £500pm (all be it with better service level), so while paying a reasonable amount of money isn’t a problem, with the cost of a leased line I’d be better off taking early retirement.
“Im sure BT with their 10Mb USO will save you or maybe not.”
Unfortunately a 10Mbs USO line wouldn’t be adequate for my needs (and certainly not by the time it is available). In any case I can get 4G which is sometimes better than that, so I don’t expect the USO to apply in my area.
But as long as you are happy with your broadband I guess nothing else matters.
So what you are basically saying is
1. Cost is now actually a factor
2. You want a fast service cheap
3. You do not actually have significant money for a significant service.
Or pretty much the opposite to what you originally wanted.
You’re quite right, cost is a factor. I don’t want to pay £500pm (plus large installation costs) for something others can get for £20 – it doesn’t make business sense.
However, I (and many others in a similar position) do want a faster service, and would be willing to pay significantly more than average to get FTTC speeds.
I would rather money be used to extend networks (thereby giving me and others the opportunity to pay more than average for FTTC speeds) than to give people with a choice of providers an ever cheaper service.
“I would rather money be used to extend networks (thereby giving me and others the opportunity to pay more than average for FTTC speeds) than to give people with a choice of providers an ever cheaper service.”
You can thank Ofcom for that and their lack of thought when it comes to wholesaling and pricing from the wholesaler and the ISPs as to why none of it is significantly re-invested.
do you know how long this offer is on for?
We didn’t get an expiry date in the notice so it could be a couple of weeks or a couple of months. Hard to say but they normally last a few weeks.
This really is a bargain given most other providers just charge this amount for the line rental per year alone.
Signed up for this and for £240 a year I am getting unlimited Fibre 36mb, unlimited anytime calls and also to mobiles, and also line rental.
You are using Sky’s service so you know it will be decent quality service too.
hope you went through quidco to get £75 cash back too
You are using Sky’s service so you know it may be susceptible to a single fibre cut in places where they haven’t paid for resilient network routing.
See the article on 17th July about the outage in Southampton.
“You are using Sky’s service so you know it may be susceptible to a single fibre cut in places where they haven’t paid for resilient network routing.
See the article on 17th July about the outage in Southampton.”
Oh please if we want to talk about resilience….
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/06/openreach-fault-no-broadband-for-weeks-in-parts-of-lowestoft.html
Sky fixed inside 48 hours, Openreach BT customers screwed for weeks.
RUN ALONG!
^^ LOL… Fatality LOL
Any details regarding Upload speed for these packages?
Believe it’s the standard BT Openreach products – up to; 40D/10U and 80D/20U.
Fortis i signed my dad up to it. I can confirm its 40/10 and 80/20
It isn’t fibre broadband if it comes down a phone line, everyone is conned. They can do it cheap through phone lines and that is protecting the incumbent’s obsolete assets. Only those near the cabinets can get the headline speeds and those on long lines often get less than they did on adsl. It is all part of the superfarce.
I only signed up last week now price as dropped. Mad cuz I don’t get switched on till next week I’m paying £35 .
“I only signed up last week…”
If you only signed up last week you could cancel as you have a 14 day cooling of period…
https://www.nowtv.com/terms (see about 2/3rd’s down the page.
Of course then you would have to resign up and the offer may be gone by then. For the sake of a £5 on a service which is already cheap at £35 quid i would not bother with the hassle.
Got the earlier deal – 40/10 (line doesn’t do any more than that) and anytime calls for £25. That’s a proper bargain.
Would pay more for full fibre, if it was here of course!
I’d get in touch with them either by phone or live chat.
Tell them you recently ordered the service, it’s price has gone down since, and you’d like to pay this amount.
My guess is they will be more than happy to change your pricing.
When I had my BB with them, they were happy to reduce my price when my 12 month offer ended (it was supposed to increase by £12 but they just kept the discount on for me).
Was with Now TV on a combo Fab Fibre broadband + phone for about 18 months (still have TV with them), was paying £29.99.
Router I had was a re-branded Sky SR-102 (not sure they offer Sky Q hubs as part of the package – as mentioned in the post).
Support can be somewhat lacking (if issues occur outside of opening times, raising a support request online can sometimes go unanswered (I’d need to chase them to find out they either didn’t receive my request, or they were yet to respond).
At £10 per month less than I was paying for their 40 Mbps speed, I’d recommend them.
I did review them too, Mark 😉
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/products/906.html