Tesco launches £2.50 a month broadband

Posted on 15 Feb 2012 at 09:15

Supermarket giant Tesco has announced a new broadband service with a headline-grabbing monthly subscription of just £2.50 - but, as you may have guessed, there are a few catches to watch out for.

Tesco's broadband deal sees customers holding a Clubcard granted access to the budget broadband bargain, which costs just £2.50 for the first twelve months before reverting to the standard price of £6.50.

As part of the monthly cost, subscribers get a wireless router included, while there is no set-up charge if a twelve-month contract is taken or a £40 charge for those taking a 30-day rolling contract option. Speeds of up to 20Mb/s will be available, Tesco has claimed, making it one of the cheapest high-speed connections currently available.

Before rushing to your nearest branch, however, there are a couple of things of which you should be aware. Firstly, Tesco has included a so-called Fair Usage Policy, limiting its users downloads to 100GB per month. It's a high figure, but one which gives lie to the company's claims of 'unlimited broadband.'

The next catch is rather more serious: the deal is only available to those willing to switch their voice telephone service away from their current provider and to Tesco's own service. As a result, the £2.50/£6.50 broadband fee will also require a £13.75 per month line rental payable to Tesco rather than BT. It's also possible to add on unlimited calls for an additional £4.50.

Even with the line rental included, and taking the fair usage policy into account, Tesco's offer seems like a good deal. With the broadband market proving increasingly crowded, however, expect others to follow with headline-grabbing discounts of their own.

Author: Gareth Halfacree

Get more reviews, tutorials and in-depth advice, every month with Computer Shopper.
Click here to try 3 issues for £1

< Previous News : General Next >

User comments

What Gareth DIDN'T say

Was that Tesco's price list rises on March 12th.

By egladys on 15 Feb 2012

Contention ratio

I notice no mention of contention ratio anywhere, could it be because it's very high? www.ktscomputersltd.co.uk

By KTSComputersLtd on 15 Feb 2012

Lock-in deals are becoming more common

We were already with TalkTalk, and last year they brought out a scheme whereby you pay a year's line rental up front and then pay for usage each month. The rental is £114 per year, which works out at £9.50 per month. So far, our usage (phone + broadband) has averaged at £9.56 per month, making it an equivalent of £19.06 per month all-in. Download is capped at 40 GB per month, but we use only a fraction of this.

By steelworks2 on 20 Feb 2012

Beware - certainly not what it's cracked up to be!

Saw the offer and liked it, but who'd have thought it could be this bad?

I recently switched to Tesco. Wish I never had. The promised speed didn't appear and the service started slow. The only intervention on their part has made it worse. I'm now experiencing speeds slower than dial-up with no prospect of improvement.

Customer services are generally friendly but USELESS. I call daily; they never call back when they say they will. Has my 14 day old problem actually been reported to an engineer? Sometime the answer is yes, sometimes it's no, and once I was told they're too busy and will get round to me! Two weeks later I still don't know.

Do you remember what dial-up was like? I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

Who was it that said' "If you don't want me to complain about you product on the internet...don't have a crap product!"

After less than a month I want this contract set aside. Sharp intake of breath on the other end of the phone. Guess what...someone will have to call me back...tomorrow...tomorrow came, but of course the call didn't.

Steer clear. You've been warned!

By SE11_bloke on 13 Mar 2012

Leave a comment

You need to Login or Register to comment.