Posted: 03rd Jul, 2004 By: MarkJ
In a move that has the potential to both erode and grow the UK's booming broadband market, BT has revealed that it's running a trial of pay-per-minute metered broadband ADSL:
Instead of users paying a flat fee for their broadband access, BT is giving punters the chance to pay 5p a minute for the time they spend online. BT Wholesale is recruiting 50 people from within the company to take part in an eight-week trial due to begin within the next month or so.
As part of the market test, the UK's dominant fixed line telco wants to establish whether it's commercially viable to offer a broadband service paid for by the minute. At the moment, many ISPs offer flat-fee broadband access. Others offer a flat-fee/PAYG hybrid, which enables punters to acquire additional time online if they need it.
But according to internal documents seen by The Register: "BT is very aware that not all people want to pay a monthly fee for Broadband access and many only want to pay for the time they are using the service. As part of BT Group's commitment to Broadband Britain, BT Wholesale are looking to trial a Pay as You Go Broadband offering which will enable customers to have up to 10 times faster internet service and only pay for the time they are online."5p per minute is quite expensive, yet the still evident use of 'free' local call rate (0845) dialup services does present a potential target market for such a product (would still need to be cheaper than 5p). More @
The Register.