Wandadoo Caps Broadband (29 Apr 2004)

No unlimited use broadband on rebranded Freeserve

Amongst the rebranding publicity of rebranding Freeserve as Wanadoo, the ISP clearly hopes to deflect attention from it major changes to it's broadband offerings, and in particular that unlimited use broadband will no longer be available.

The details are:

Broadband 512k @ £17.99 per month, 2GB per month use

Broadband 512k+@ £24.99 per month, 15GB per month limit

Broadband 1Mb@ £34.99 per month, 30Gb per month limit.

The limits being applied are for the combined downstream and upstream transfers. At least the caps are based on monthly use, allowing for an averaging over the period. AntiCap is concerned the limits being applied are inadequate, being disproprtionate to the service speeds, and do not realistically enable users to grow with the potential of broadband.

Wanadoos' web site does include guidance on how much use the limits represent. For example they say that 30GB a month equates to 500 email photos a week (closer analysis shows that is for a 500KB file size, not especially big with todays 4 megapixel plus cameras). The figures used are more realistic than ntl's notorious guidance, but AntiCap remains concerned that they dont show a fully balanced picture.

Wanadoo suggest that the limits will be enforced from later in 2004. If the limit is reached the service would be restricted until the end of the monthly period stoppng everything except web browsing and email (How they going to do that then?). Curiously they say higher use upgrades may be possible but there is no indication of pricing .

The launch of the capped light user service was widely predicted. At least the threshold is slightly better than BT's offering. In practice AntiCap wonders how useable these light services might be. Certainly the claim by Wanadoo that it is "Ideal for surfing, emails, photos, music and gaming" does not stand much scrutiny when they also say you could do only around 1.5 hours online gaming a week.

The 512k+ service's cap is only half that of the ntl capped service, which incidentally will become 50% faster for similar money. What we fail to understand is why, with the cost of provision of IT services inevitably falling, or at least they should be falling, how come services are getting every more restrictive on users?

As for the 1Mb service, AntiCap just does not see why anyone would want it. Uncapped, same speed ADSL services are available from other ISPs for similar money, whilst Telewest will be faster for the same money. Even ntl are hinting, according to posts on cableforum.co.uk, that their caps limits may be reviewed soon in the light of their recently announced speed increases.

The broadband industry moves on, but it looks like Wanadoo are behind the times. It's interesting that Freeserve in the past had not sought broadband penetration. Perhaps now we see why. They simply do not wish to compete.