Demon issues ADSL ultimatum to trialists

Demon's ADSL trialists are up in arms after being told yesterday that they had three days to sign up to the full broadband service - at more than £1200 for the year - or face being disconnected.

Broadband users are so hacked off by the way they have been treated at the hands of Demon some have even threatened legal action against the ISP.

In a bid to clarify the situation, Demon's Malcolm S Muir issued a statement in which he confirmed that the ISP must tell BT by this Friday who is to continue using the ADSL product.

The trial ends on 29 June.

However, these customers will be charged more than £100 a month for the Demon Express Plus Ethernet service and will be tied-in for a 12-month contract. No date has been given when the cheaper (half-price) USB service will available, although it's believed it won't be until August at the earliest.

The trialists claim this is in breach of Demon's original terms and conditions.

"These facts have only just become clear to us and we notified you as soon as practical," said Muir in the email to trialists.

Which is odd, since Freeserve notified its trialists on 14 June - a full week before Demon - about the end date and the options available.

So did BT forget to tell Demon about the end date of the trial? Did it tell Freeserve first to give it a head start? Or did Demon delay telling its own punters... for whatever reason?

What's more, Freeserve has said that those users who do sign up to a 12 month contract for the cheaper USB ADSL product will only pay the cheaper price (about £50 a month) even though they are using the more expensive Ethernet product.

Most of the trials featured BT's Ethernet product rather than the USB option.

According to e-zine ADSLuk the threat of a serious legal challenge is slim.

Demon was asked to comment but failed to do so by press time. ®