UK ISP Tiscali is set to join Metronet and NTL (trial) by introducing its own form of pay-as-you-go (payg) broadband ADSL in the spring. However the product itself looks far too similar to BTs restrictive 'Basic' (1Gb cap) service:

The 512k services cost £19.99 a month (the same as BT's recently announced BT Broadband Basic) and give punters those choice of either 50 hours online a month or 1Gb monthly limit.

Punters who exceed this limit will then pay just 2p per minute on the 50-hour package and 2p per Mb for the 1Gb package. Just in case consumers get carried away, Tiscali is capping monthly bills at £50.

It is also launching a 1Mbps broadband product for £29.99 a month, which it says undercuts similar speed services from AOL by £5 a month, BT Retail by £8 a month and BT Yahoo! by £11 a month.

We're sorry, just what was the advantage of broadband over dialup? It doesn't appear to be cost anymore and speed isn't much use if you can't use it with the content you want because it'd get too expensive. 2p per minute? Max of £50 per month (doesn’t make sense)? - RIDICULOUS!

It would appear as if some providers have made the move to a more metered style of service by jumping off a cliff instead of taking things slower and trying to find a better rout. Makes NTL seem very flexible.

On the bright side Tiscali is now one of the UKs largest providers of broadband, with 200,000 users and roughly 2,000 new subscribers each day. More @ The Register.