Home  |  About Us  |  Press Room  |  2000  |  Demon cuts the cost of internet access

Press release

New options provide significant savings for home and business Net users

Demon, the Internet brand of Thus, today launches a new range of options to cut the cost of Internet access.

The new services are Demon Premier Connect and Demon Premier Connect Plus, both of which can be used in conjunction with BT's SurfTime discounts. These options provide Demon customers with an extended choice of access packages, from pay-as-you-go to a flat-rate monthly fee.

All Demon customers can switch to Premier Connect for instant savings, or upgrade to Premier Connect Plus for very low daytime access costs. Furthermore, by combining with BT SurfTime, customers can select a flat-rate price package.

The new Demon Premier Connect service offers customers access in the evenings and at weekends at the same rates, with daytime access costing 2p per minute. By combining this with BT SurfTime, customers can receive unlimited access for a fixed rate, with no dial up charges during evenings and weekends.

Customers using Demon Premier Connect Plus will get daytime access for 1p per minute, with evenings for just 0.6p per minute, and 0.5p per minute at weekends. By combining this with a fixed extra payment to BT, through its SurfTime scheme, customers will receive unlimited access, without incurring additional dial-up access charges. This means customers can surf the net without having to worry about increasing their phone bill.

This latest offering follows the launch of Thus's service and price packages for wholesale ADSL, under the banner Demon Express. The services cover a spectrum of options to suit customers needs, ranging from download speeds of 512kbits/s to 2Mbits/s with contention ratios of 20:1 or 50:1.

"The Internet market is now more competitive than ever, with customers demanding lower costs without losing quality of service,"

said Cynthia Gordon, Thus marketing director.

"Our users are the heaviest in the market. It has been essential that we have made the upgrades in systems and capacity to deal with this. We are delighted with these new access options which, when combined with SurfTime, effectively offers unmetered access while still assuring Demon's high standard of service,"

she added.

The new options are also available to any customers who sign up for Demon Internet access.

DEMON PREMIER CONNECT

The £11.75 (inc VAT, £10 ex VAT) charge for Demon's standard service remains unchanged. However, the cost of dialling in is reduced to 2p per minute during the day, with 0.6p in the evenings and 0.5p at weekends.

DEMON PREMIER CONNECT PLUS

For a monthly £19.99 (inc VAT, £17.01 ex VAT), customers will be able to access Demon services for 1p per minute during the day, 0.6p per minute in the evenings and 0.5p per minute at weekends.

These new access tariffs are available to users of BT telephone lines, but may also become available through other telephone providers in the future.