Prompt's TechBlog
Sky joins budget broadband bun-fight
21 July 2006
Posted by Dave Wilby
The budget broadband battlefield welcomed a new force this week in the shape of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
This story was broken first in The Sun, a paper owned by News Corporation, which in turn owns 38 per cent of Sky (it's also on mad.co.uk). Sky says it is planning to 'give away' broadband access to its eight million residential customers. Subscribers to the 'Base' service with 2GB per month capped downloads and speeds up to 2Mbps will have to pay a connection charge of GBP40 then no further fees. Those opting for the 'max' service offering speeds up to 16Mbps and 'unlimited' usage will be charged a further GBP10 monthly subscription. For another GBP14 a month, Sky will happily throw in an 'unlimited' phone call package to existing BT customers.
This deal strongly echoes the 'free broadband' TalkTalk deals marketed to the hilt by Carphone Warehouse earlier this year. Essentially both companies are covering the provision costs of 'free' or at the very least 'relatively cheap' broadband access in return for luring the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers in some other area of service provision. I fully expect to be enticed by similar deals from my bank, utility companies, supermarket, insurance companies and local boozer in forthcoming months.
The thing is, despite currently paying nearly thirty quid a month for broadband access from a company I have no particularly positive feelings towards, I'm still unlikely to change provider.
Why not? My current deal is expensive and not exceptionally reliable, while alternative deals are cheap and are unlikely to be any more or less clunky than my current line. I guess these things are just habitual. Perhaps I inherently avoid change. I'm certainly getting on a bit. All factors I'm sure. Perhaps ISPs are like bank accounts, and if you've been with one company for over a decade you're just not going to change. The capital lettered 'FREE' adverts just fade into a background of white noise marketing.
So, I have three questions for you (assuming you're happy to comment on blogs - I certainly don't want to be an unwanted catalyst for change myself...)
~Are you likely to change ISP in the near future for a free or cheap deal in exchange for your loyalty in other areas of service provision?
~If not, who do you think IS happy to change whenever a new deal like this comes along?
~And finally, when is Carphone Warehouse going to change that anachronistic brand once and for all?
Carphones, I ask you...
This story was broken first in The Sun, a paper owned by News Corporation, which in turn owns 38 per cent of Sky (it's also on mad.co.uk). Sky says it is planning to 'give away' broadband access to its eight million residential customers. Subscribers to the 'Base' service with 2GB per month capped downloads and speeds up to 2Mbps will have to pay a connection charge of GBP40 then no further fees. Those opting for the 'max' service offering speeds up to 16Mbps and 'unlimited' usage will be charged a further GBP10 monthly subscription. For another GBP14 a month, Sky will happily throw in an 'unlimited' phone call package to existing BT customers.
This deal strongly echoes the 'free broadband' TalkTalk deals marketed to the hilt by Carphone Warehouse earlier this year. Essentially both companies are covering the provision costs of 'free' or at the very least 'relatively cheap' broadband access in return for luring the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers in some other area of service provision. I fully expect to be enticed by similar deals from my bank, utility companies, supermarket, insurance companies and local boozer in forthcoming months.
The thing is, despite currently paying nearly thirty quid a month for broadband access from a company I have no particularly positive feelings towards, I'm still unlikely to change provider.
Why not? My current deal is expensive and not exceptionally reliable, while alternative deals are cheap and are unlikely to be any more or less clunky than my current line. I guess these things are just habitual. Perhaps I inherently avoid change. I'm certainly getting on a bit. All factors I'm sure. Perhaps ISPs are like bank accounts, and if you've been with one company for over a decade you're just not going to change. The capital lettered 'FREE' adverts just fade into a background of white noise marketing.
So, I have three questions for you (assuming you're happy to comment on blogs - I certainly don't want to be an unwanted catalyst for change myself...)
~Are you likely to change ISP in the near future for a free or cheap deal in exchange for your loyalty in other areas of service provision?
~If not, who do you think IS happy to change whenever a new deal like this comes along?
~And finally, when is Carphone Warehouse going to change that anachronistic brand once and for all?
Carphones, I ask you...
# posted by Dave Wilby at 2:25 PM 
Comments:
I think Carphone Warehouse probably has some cachet in a market where a lot of the shops have been fly-by-night cash-in startups.
When they say 'free', they usually mean 'free with something else' (eg TV subscriptions, mobile phone subscriptions). If they were providing something else I wanted, then I might switch broadband supplier. But then if they provided something I really wanted, I'd probably already be a customer of theirs anyway. I think this is probably more about retaining their customers than attracting new customers for companies like Sky.
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