BT has announced that its legacy dial-up product will cease to exist from September onwards and existing customers will be moved to BT Broadband where possible.
Those living in areas where broadband is simply not available will be moved to Plusnet’s cheaper dial-up service instead.
A BT spokesperson told us that the majority of customers will be moved to the basic BT Broadband package which costs £10/month. BT dial-up currently costs £17.25/month, making the broadband option not only faster but cheaper too.
The spokesperson added: “BT can confirm it is closing its dial up service in September. Our estimate is that only one thousand of the current customers will be unable to access broadband following the change, but they will continue to have dial up access via Plusnet should they choose to, once again for a cheaper price. No-one is being left without the option of an alternative service.”
The Feeding of the 1,000
Plusnet’s dial-up service costs £14.99/month, making it £2.26/month cheaper than the BT offering meaning those 1,000 homes will be able to save £27.12 a year compared to the old BT price.
Alternatives to dial-up for those in remote regions include wireless broadband, if there’s a wireless ISP operating nearby or satellite broadband which is available virtually everywhere.
Of course, once the BDUK (Broadband Delivery for the UK) contracts actually start to deliver better speeds across the country, those 1,000 if they’re located in the so-called ‘last 10 per cent’ of a region, will eventually get broadband over a fixed-line connection from BT.
In the meantime, smaller local ISPs could bring broadband to the sticks. This would require local councils to reveal the locations of the last 10 per cent, so companies can start planning, something culture secretary Maria Miller wants them to do.
Image: nrejimersdal/Flickr
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