One.Tel flogs broadband in a box

One.Tel is to start flogging broadband in the high street after striking up a deal with electrical retailer Comet.

From tomorrow anyone interested in signing up to One.Tel's ADSL service can walk into a Comet store and buy its "broadband in a box" for £84.99. Before people decide to buy the kits, though, they can check with an in-store online system to make sure their phone line can support ADSL.

Once they've got the go-ahead it's merely a question of taking the box home, firing it up and getting going. Well, actually, not quite.

The box includes everything punters need to sign up to One.Tel's broadband service, including a T-Shirt, Mouse and Mouse Mat from music content partner MTV.

Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a broadband modem or microfilters. Nope, these are sent to users in the post some two weeks after they register with One.Tel.

A spokesman for the Centrica-owned teclo/ISP told us it was doing it this way to stop people buying this gear at reduced prices and then signing up for another ISP.

One.Tel has almost 5,000 broadband users. It's broadband service starts from £27.99 a month.

Freeserve launched a similar broadband in a box scheme in April and are available at a number of high street stores such as Dixons, PC World, Currys and The Link.

The kits come complete with software, ADSL filters and a modem and cost £84.99 (the usual price is £149.99).

Mind you, we're not sure Freeserve's box comes with a T-shirt. ®

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