Analysys Mason, a global adviser on telecoms, IT and media, has urged UK ISPs to follow O2's (Be Broadband) example by combining land-line broadband services with newer Mobile Broadband products.

O2 UK’s new tariff gives subscribers one year of free 8Mbps land-line broadband when they sign up for the standard Mobile Broadband service. The mobile package costs £20 per month and has a data usage limit of 3GB per month.

Not only does Analysys Mason believe that the deal will help to boost uptake of O2's services, but it also hopes that the land-line product could help to offload some of the usage being placed upon mobile infrastructure:


While we agree that it would make for a popular product, we're not so sure about the prospect of it helping to alleviate mobile data demand. Both services have rather independent roles in terms of location based usage already.

We can't see how consumers would shift their mobile data usage onto land-lines, in truth it's probably the other way around. After all, Mobile Broadband is a new product and why does anybody buy it except to use the service when away from home or work.