Wanadoo, formerly Freeserve, has today become the first major ISP in the UK to offer an 'up to 8Mbit/s' broadband connection as standard. For just £14.99 per month (for the first six months), consumers also get access to Wanadoo's Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, Wireless & Talk. However, NTL offers a 10Mbit/s service and firms such as Bulldog, Easynet and Be are starting to let people go online at 24Mbit/s.

You can receive a secondary phone line on a dedicated Wanadoo Broadband connection plus free evening and weekend calls to any UK landline and free calls at any time, day or night, to other Wanadoo Wireless & Talk users. The price will raise to £17.99 (per month) after the 6-month offer.

To use Wanadoo Wireless & Talk you just need to plug a normal (touch tone) phone into the Wanadoo Livebox, which comes free with the service, and away you go. As well as for early adopters, the service is also neat for families who may want to make or receive more than one call at once. You do not even have to switch on your PC to make calls, let alone download complicated software or wear special headphones.

Initially the package will only be available to the small number of customers in areas where Wanadoo has taken over BT lines. Eventually Wanadoo said the 8Mbit/s service could be available to half of its customers. The announcement is widely seen as a response to BT's plan to roll out an 8Mbit/s service nationally in 2006.

Eric Abensur, Wanadoo UK chief executive said: 'Wanadoo is the first major ISP to offer this super-fast speed which allows families the opportunity to use the Internet in ways and at speeds they've never experienced before. With Wanadoo, families get more, better, faster products at better value prices, so you really can do it all at once.'

Wanadoo, a brand from France Telecom, is one of Europe's leading broadband provider. Wanadoo has, at 30 June 2005, more than 9.7 million total customers in Europe (around 6.4 million on broadband) and is the number one ISP in France, according to the company.

BIOS, Oct 17, 05 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Broadband