The UK Broadband market could see another high speed shake up from UK Online. The company has just announced plans to launch an 8 megabit broadband service in the UK.
With a massive download speed of 8mb, the service comes with a somewhat limited upload speed of 400K yet has an impressive content ratio of 33:1. The service is capped at 500GB per month, and will cost only £39.99 per month. Cable rival Telewest offer a 4MB service for £50.00, which comes free of any caps on usage. UK Online will be offering new sign ups a free wireless ethernet router before the 21st February.
Chris Stening, manager of UK Online, said "We want to enable consumers to experience the benefits of Broadband 8000, anywhere in their home, with the freedom that WiFi provides. The 8Mb service is already proving extremely popular, and with this offer, we"re confident that even more customers will be tempted to try the UK"s fastest home Internet connection for themselves."
UK Online are working with European ISP Easynet to "un-bundle" the local loop, previously the bastion of ex-state telco BT. They claim that the service will be "available to over 4.4 million homes across the Britain by early 2005." UK Online claim to be the first company in the UK offering consumers 8mb broadband; how long before the rest start playing catch up?