Business ISP Timico has officially priced and detailed its new range of Fibre-to-the-Cabinet ( FTTC ) broadband services for HomeWorkers and businesses. The new fibre optic based technology, which is currently being rolled out by BT around the UK, offers download speeds of 'up to' 40Mbps and uploads of 2-10Mbps.

However Timico's prices represent some of the highest we've seen for FTTC to date, charging a monthly rental of £39.00 +vat (plus a £75 connection fee) for a package with a meagre 10GB usage allowance. Its minimum "Best Efforts" download speed pledge is also set at 8Mbps rather than the 10-12Mbps touted by some other early adopters.


To be fair Timico are a business ISP and as a result their service will be focused on quality rather than affordability, which is certainly the case here. Never the less their HomeWorker packages are perhaps too costly for even the target audience, especially when compared to a couple of rivals.

By contrast Eclipse Internet offers a business focused package that includes a FREE modem, FREE installation, 12Mbps guaranteed throughput and 50GB usage during peak hours (unlimited usage 11pm - 9am) for £39.95 per month (12-month contract). BT also does something similar with "unlimited" usage for £45 per month, though a Fair Usage Policy does apply. Not to forgot the products from AAISP and Fast.co.uk .

So far the first ISPs to go live with products based off BT's new FTTC technology certainly appear to be varied, with price and package details managing to avoid being too similar. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, the big players like TalkTalk and Sky Broadband choose to do for the wider consumer market. So far only BT and Fast.co.uk really have FTTC packages focused more towards the residential market.