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Post Office broadband aimed at silver surfers

The Post Office has announced it will launch its new broadband and phone service on Monday 29 October.

The Post Office says it will target the broadband bundle at previously excluded audiences, which they have dubbed the ‘NETSKI’ generation, and composes 50-65 year olds with a high disposable income.  Its research revealed that by 2010, half of all net additions to the broadband market will compose of ‘silver surfers’.

The broadband and phone line rental service on offer is essentially a white label service that was launched by BT earlier this year.  This allows resellers to offer its own brand of broadband and phone bundles, while the service is fully managed and maintained by BT Wholesale.

The Post Office hopes to differentiate itself by allowing payments to be made at any of the 14,000 Post Offices in the UK.  It also hopes to capitalize on defectors from other broadband providers such as Carphone Warehouse.

The launch will be backed with a £9 million marketing campaign on TV, online media and of course in-branch advertising.  The TV campaign will be promoted by boy band, Westlife.

Packages on offer start from £15.95 per month for 8Mb broadband only, with broadband and phoneline bundles from £21.95 upwards.  They cost slightly more than bundles from Carphone Warehouse, which start at £16.39 for a basic 2Mb connection and phone line rental.  But these carry an 18 month contract and The Post Office offers a 12 month contract.  The alternative payment method through its branches will appeal to regular post office customers and is its key differentiator.

However, the bundle of phone and broadband services is also due to become more common once it becomes available through normal BT Wholesale (used by several ISPs) in addition to BT’s white label service.