Trunk Networks Refresh FTTP Broadband Plans and Cuts Prices
UK ISP Trunk Networks (Leetline) has streamlined their line-up of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband packages on Openreach’s (BT) national UK network and also reduced some of their prices. As a result their top 900Mbps (gigabit) tier is now just £66 inc. VAT per month (down from £144).
The provider was one of the first to introduce the new FTTP tiers during June 2020 (here), but this meant they had quite a long list of packages and on top of that there was a desire to get closer to the more aggressive pricing being offered by rivals like BT and Zen Internet. In response Trunk, and sibling gamer centric ISP Leetline, have now trimmed down to fewer “full fibre” tiers and cut their prices.
As usual all of their packages include unlimited usage, a free wireless router and a one-off installation charge of £60 (this drops to £19.99 for slower ADSL2+ and FTTC based plans). Almost all of their packages also come attached to a 12-month contract term, although their top two 500Mbps and 900Mbps FTTP options require you to take out a 24-month term (same as BT).
The full line-up of revised package choices can be found summarised below, but take note that for the FTTC tiers they are using advertised maximum speeds range than average speeds (FTTC often delivers a fair bit slower than the profile’s max speed). Otherwise their FTTP pricing is impressively competitive for a smaller ISP on Openreach’s network.
Trunk Network’s Broadband Packages
ADSL2 (c.10Mbps average)
Price: £29 per monthSuperfast 40Mbps (FTTC)
PRICE: £37 per monthSuperfast 80Mbps (FTTC)
PRICE: £40 per monthSuperfast Fibre 40Mbps (FTTP)
PRICE: £36 per monthSuperfast Fibre 100Mbps (FTTP)
PRICE: £44 per monthHyperfast Fibre 500Mbps (FTTP)
PRICE: £56 per monthHyperfast Fibre 900Mbps (FTTP)
PRICE: £66 per month
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Wow, Hats off to Trunk networks for their product Advertising, clear and avoiding the usual deception tactic of calling vdsl “fibre”
Shame we cant get the big players in the market to follow this example.
Superfast and Superfast Fibre are different products. Superfast Fibre offers similar speeds to Superfast but uses FTTP rather than copper.
Not really true that Liam normally, it depends entirely on who’s advertising it is you’re looking at.
‘Superfast’ has nothing to do with provision of fibre or not and practically all providers call FTTC a fibre service.
That’s why it was refreshing to see their clear use of terms. Something I firmly believe Ofcom and the ASA should be enforcing.
Along with Marks observation that they’re using max speeds for vdsl not averages.
I just noticed the part where it appears to offer ‘unlimited Bandwidth’ maybe not as perfect an example as i first thought 🙂
Interestingly they provide static IPV4 and 6 addressees for both home and business connections, great if you want to run your own internet facing server at home.
That pretty good pricing for a small provider, Zen charge £70 for the 900Mbps package
Holy, that’s fast – 9000Mbps
That’s a typo 🙂
It is probably the after effects of writing the Wildanet article…….what is an extra zero between friends?
I ordered a 900 with zen 🙁
Hats off to Trunk though, really attractive pricing and overall prop here. I am one day over my cooling off period. One concern I would have is that on the trunk website they say they have a 10gb core, I can’t imagine they would need much of an 900mb uptake to saturate that.
From what I see they have 100Gb core.
“The network is the medium that enables us to deliver all of our services. We own and operate our own network which gives us complete end-to-end control over how and where traffic is routed. We use the latest Extreme routers and switches to run our powerful network and we have massive capacity with 100Gb across all of our core and backbone links. This ensures that no matter what your requirements, we can deliver your data at full speed and with low latency.”
I must have completely misread that. Thanks for the correction.
In their T and C’s they state they have traffic management and will deliberately drop TCP packets if the network is busy. I thought that sort of traffic management had long gone?
Can you link to where about this is stated?
Stated here https://www.trunknetworks.com/our-commitment-to-you
“We monitor and manage these very closely, however it is not possible to adjust this capacity instantly to accommodate short increases in traffic demands, such as for streamed sporting events or major breaking news. To allow us to handle these situations to ensure that the impact of any congestion is minimised, we use a traffic shaper to drop the largest packets when we hit our bandwidth capacity.”
It’s just Weighted Fair Queuing rather than First In First Out. They aren’t the only ISP/network operator to do this and I admire their transparency in mentioning it.
WFQ is a far better idea than FIFO.
@CarlT
“It’s just Weighted Fair Queuing rather than First In First Out. They aren’t the only ISP/network operator to do this and I admire their transparency in mentioning it.
WFQ is a far better idea than FIFO.”
Where does it say that, do you have a link?
Phil: if you have a look at how fair queuing works it’s obvious. No need for extra hardware just an interface setting.
It is also what Andrews and Arnold do – https://support.aa.net.uk/Traffic_shaping_options
With that in mind it’s nothing out of the ordinary, perfectly acceptable as long as used during times of congestion only, and far better than using FIFO.
Anyone know if Leetline any good?
Hats off to Trunk for transparency, as others have said.
It’s a pity however nobody ever lists pricing for FTTP 40/10 based services in areas where FTTC is not available, OR give a wholesale discount in these area, but finding retail prices that reflect it seems to be impossible.