ISP iDNET’s 1.2Gbps and 1.6Gbps UK Openreach Broadband Plans Go Live
Customers of home and business UK broadband ISP iDNET have informed ISPreview that the provider’s new Openreach based 1.2Gbps and 1.6Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband packages have recently gone live. Both packages are a little bit limited by a max upload speed of 120Mbps.
The launch of faster tiers via iDNET on Openreach’s national full fibre network has long been expected (here and here), although it’s taken a little bit longer than some people expected for ISPs in general to introduce these – mostly due to delays on the supplier / wholesale side.
The new packages typically come with a choice of three different contract terms – a 30-day (monthly) term without an included router or free installation, a 12-month term with free installation and a 24-month term with both free installation and a free (included) WiFi 6 router. On top of that, customers will also get static IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, a pledge of “no mid contract price rises” and UK-based support.
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In terms of the monthly price on a 24-month contract term, new customers can expect to pay £60 inc. VAT per month for 1.2Gbps or £72 for their top 1.6Gbps tier. Credits to Harmeet for spotting. iDNET also offers a “Gamer” variant of both tiers that pumps those prices up to £72 and £78 per month, respectively. The latter adds a superior ROG Rapture router with better WiFi coverage and LACP Lan Aggregation. But whether or not you really NEED the extra kit for good online multiplayer is very debatable (just a regular router on FTTP is already excellent).
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Not bad but still expensive side! https://i.ibb.co/K01ykVf/Screenshot.png
Hope Plusnet will be next ISP to have Openreach 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps
A shame that they’ve dropped their peering in Sweden / France / Germany / the Netherlands. One of their USPs was how well peered their network is. They no longer stand out IMO.
I don’t think those of us with copper 17Mbps upload speeds would find 120Mbps “limiting”! Dig my street, take my money!
Have you ever thought of 5g from Three? On amazon you can buy a 500GB per month sim for £99 which lasts 2 years. Works out at around a fiver a month + buy a 5g router from ebay or amazon. You usually get 200+ meg speed DL and around 40 UP.
I only see the more expensive Gamer versions of the 1.2/1.6Gbps packages when I check my postcode.
Same here, I don’t care about a router. I have my own.
Me too.
Odd.
Odd, as I ordered this morning, absolutely fine.
I’ve tried it again with another address, and it still seems to work.
Care to share a postcode?
Not mine but shows the same issue:
FY41EL
@Carlos, this FY41EL postcode isn’t an example of the problem @Simon was describing. This postcode only offers 900mb max on any product type, where as @Simon was suggesting his postcode was offering multi-gig speeds on gaming plans only, which is odd, and not a problem i saw.
Zen offer Openreach FTTP connections utilising either BTWholesale or Zen Wholesale backhaul services. Zen have made multi-gig 1.2/1.8Gb services available, but BTWholesale have not yet released anything.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/06/zen-internet-uk-launch-1-2gbps-and-1-8gbps-broadband-at-wholesale.html
The postcode you provided is for an exchange likely not covered by ZEN, and therefore only BTWholesale is available, limiting speeds to 900mb.
**IDNet** offer Openreach FTTP connections utilising…*
And now all of the faster 1.2/1.6 packages have gone for my postcode – I still see them available for other FTTP postcodes.
As Simon stated the post codes DID display faster speeds, including the postcode I posted.
They now do not, as with my postcode.
In my area Vodafone are offering 900 Mbps for £36 compared to EE and BT charging £47 a month I would be very interested to know how much they are going to charge for 1.2 and 1.8Gbps
£66 if you’re a mobile customer, £3/£4 more if not.
Rolling out area by area.
Details here: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/07/new-2-2gbps-broadband-package-goes-live-from-vodafone-uk.html
Different networks, so different costs.
You cannot compare prives with Openreach and CityFibre.
@carlos, read the article I linked, it announced both cityfibre and openreach products and prices for both.
120mb upload is stupid on f2p. This needs to be same up and down.
It’ll never happen with Openreach because EAD exists.
Never say never — while commercially they might want to reserve symmetric speeds for leased lines, it’s entirely possible that Openreach will be compelled to offer a 1Gb symmetric speed tier as part of a BDUK lot or similar.
Openreach will never sold any symmetric speed, not for the future, they always protected businesses end. But if they do change in the future, probably not until after 2030’s.
I understand it’s part of the openreach bid for a BDUK lot C contract, so more likely than not it’s a product that will exist, probably in future XGS-PON areas only.
@Phil you were saying? 🙂 https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/08/openreach-reveal-uk-plan-to-launch-symmetric-1gbps-fttp-broadband.html
Gotta hand it to “-“, for being well informed. Feels prophetic.