Tiscali to unveil 150k ‘broadband’ service

Tiscali UK is to announce a cut-price DSL product tomorrow in a move that will "force competition into the broadband market".

The announcement, leaked to The Register, sees the ISP introducing a 150Kbps "broadband" package for £15.99 a month, subject to a £25 set-up fee.

Tiscali reckons this "broadband" product will pick up 20 per cent of the UK's Net access market and catapult it to being one of the UK's top three ISPs.

It believes the move will "force true competition into the broadband market that will inevitably widen the appeal of broadband".

The price on offer at the moment is just a promo and could well change once it expires at the end of the year. It's not known if there are usage caps or any other strings attached.

Even before the announcement has been formally made, Tiscali's new product has been shot down in flames by rivals.

A spokesman for AOL UK dismissed the notion that the 150Kbps package is a "broadband" service. "People will be disappointed if they think they're getting true broadband," he said.

A spokesman for BT was even more cutting.

"This is just a puffed up product launch," he said.

And on the claim that Tiscali will 'force competition into the broadband market', he scoffed: "This is just laughable." ®