Plusnet moves to 'unlimited' broadband to match rivals

Plusnet has from today become the latest UK ISP to offer customers unlimited broadband on its most popular tariffs, finally matching the provision already on offer from arch rivals Talk Talk and Sky.

What existing ADSL customers will pay depends on whether they are willing to agree to a new contract; sign up for 12 months and the monthly tariff for the company’s Plusnet Unlimited service will drop from £11.49 to £9.99 per month.

Sign up without a contract and the same tariff will rise to £12.49, albeit that the old download restrictions have been removed. The fibre services already come with an 18-month contract and so no price concession is offered.

The only asterisk to note is that the unlimited bit only activates from the next billing date, so a Christmas of crazed streaming is a non-starter unless that cycle commences soon.

Meanwhile, new customers are being lured with half-price tariffs across the board for introductory periods of six or twelve months depending on tariff.

According to Plusnet’s FAQ, ‘unlimited’ means what it says. Heavy users will not be penalised although most of those would probably have been downloading between midnight and 8am, which has been unlimited for some time.

The unlimited tariffs will be welcomed by any customer who has ever inadvertently overshot their allotted download limit – Plusnet had been penalising anyone doing this at a cost equivalent to a hefty £1 per Gigabyte in £5 blocks.

They might also help improve the uptake of fibre services which have never made much sense with relatively low download limits in place.

“Customers’ internet habits have changed considerably over the last 12 months,” conceded Plusnet CEO, Jamie Ford.

BT-owned Plusnet has had some 'issues' with the network run by its parent recently, suffering a couple of significant outages in recent weeks including one last week that disconnected large numbers of users across Scotland, Northern Ireland and Northern England.