Posted: 23rd Jun, 2011 By: MarkJ
MacAce.net, a specialist
Apple Mac friendly broadband ISP for the UK market, has today become the latest internet provider to launch its own range of "
Fibre Broadband" packages (
LightSpeed), which makes use of BT's 'up to' 40Mbps
Fibre-to-the-Cabinet ( FTTC ) technology.
Gary Hall, CEO of MacAce, said:
"This marks the next generation of broadband services for our customers. Whilst it may not seem like much of a hike from 24Mbps broadband based on ADSL2+ technology, we all know that 24Mbps is truly and 'up-to' product whose speeds are dictated by the quality and length of your copper line. With ADSL2+ real-world speeds average between 2Mbps and about 12Mbps, peaking at about 17Mbps.
With LightSpeed fibre broadband, customers get much nearer the advertised rate. This is because there's only a few hundred meters (at most) of the slower copper cabling. A significant advantage for business is the 10Mbps upload option, allowing companies to upload large video files, graphics and emails over 15 times quicker than currently possible."
The ISP naturally offers a selection of
LightSpeed packages from £29.99 per month, which includes download speeds of up to 40Mbps (2Mbps uploads), a 30GB usage allowance (unlimited off-peak, 12-8am), UK support and 5 email/webmail accounts (virus and spam protected). On top of that there's also a 12 month contract, £89 install fee and new connections incur a charge of £47.
Like most ISPs MacAce still can't match BT or PlusNet for price and their setup charges appear to be higher than most, although some of this is likely to change once BT's discount comes to an end next month.
MacAce has also been shortlisted for two ISP gongs at this year's Internet Service Providers Association ( ISPA ) awards (
Best Consumer Customer Service ISP and
Best Business Customer Service ISP), which are due to be announce on the 7th July. They were also nominated for the
Managed Service award.