While UK Online Broadband is relatively new in the broadband market, it offers many of the same broadband options as its more established, larger competitors. UK Online Broadband options range from 1MB to 22MB, depending on the customer’s location and what the broadband is being utilised for. Like many of its competitors UK Online offers unlimited downloads, within its fair usage policies. However, unlike many of its larger competitors, UK Online customers have to pay for their modems and wireless routers.
Nevertheless, for private customers who don’t expect to exceed 1MB in download per month, UK online provides a satisfactory service. Many UK online competitors not only offer free modems and routers, but also don’t charge a connection fee. Furthermore, for those looking for something slightly more extensive or slightly faster than a simple broadband package, they may not be satisfied with UK Online’s offerings. UK Online is attempting to level BT’s dominance of the UK’s broadband market. The company is owned by Sky Broadband and its services are mainly focused on home office clients and small business customers. One of UK Online’s strong selling points is its low contention ratio, which is only 33 to 1.
Alternatively, BT’s contention ratio is much higher, at 50 to 1. This translates into less traffic for UK Online users, since UK Online has fewer people sharing the same connection at any given time. This in turn means that UK Online broadband clients will have faster download times and will face fewer difficulties with their connection.