Plusnet - Yorkshire-based Broadband Provider

PlusNet History

PlusNet has had a long and winding history which dates right back to the earliest days of proper consumer dial-up internet in the UK. Founded in 1997 by a group of soon to be successful internet entrepreneurs in the Steel City of Sheffield, PlusNet started out as Force 9, a small dial-up provider offering a subscription based service that aimed to be cheaper than their rivals at Demon. Within a few months they had over 5000 subscribers in Yorkshire and the surrounding regions, with their growth supported by Yorkshire Cable, who eventually became Telewest (now are part of the Virgin Media Group).

Those late 90s days were a brave and exciting time for internet providers, and it wasn't until 2000 that the PlusNet brand was introduced to replace the earlier Force 9 brand. By this time PlusNet's owners had been bought out by an American competitor, but thankfully PlusNet was left alone and continued to be developed by the Sheffield based team who had started the ball rolling. Their 2000 relaunch coincided neatly with another big broadband revolution in the UK; the introduction of the first fully unrestricted dial-up internet connection. This gave users 24/7 access to the internet without incurring any call charges, all for a one off monthly payment.

Another first for PlusNet was scored in 2000 with the introduction of a broadband connection to compliment their existing dial-up services. They were savvy enough to compete directly with BT and launched their 512Kbps broadband service on the same day that BT launched its own. This wouldn't be the first time that the established giant and the young contender would clash.

By 2002 the broadband revolution had become more user friendly, and with speed reaching around 2Mbps PlusNet introduced their first broadband package that didn't need an engineer visit to set it up. By 2004 things were going well and so PlusNet became a PLC when it was floated on the Alternative Investment Market.

With the added cash injection they started doing a little investing of their own, acquiring Metronet and several pay-as-you-go broadband subsidiaries in 2005. This extended the portfolio of their services and added to the growing PlusNet family. 2005 also saw a deal struck between PlusNet and one of their local football teams, Sheffield Wednesday, for shirt sponsorship, a deal which has been renewed every year to this day.

By late 2006 BT were caught by the glowing performance of PlusNet and in early 2007 a deal was made and BT bought out all the shares of PlusNet, amalgamating it into a huge family of telecommunications companies and services.

The marketing strategy that has powered the growth of PlusNet over the years is its referral scheme. Users who introduce a friend to PlusNet get paid a monthly bonus for as long as their friend continues to subscribe to the service. This means that growth is largely based on word of mouth and powered by financial incentive, and means that PlusNet have had to provide consistently good broadband internet for their business to grow.

For those looking to the future, PlusNet are going to be a key player in BT's planned 21CN (21st Century Network) which will be rolling out around the UK over the coming years. This will offer users much higher bandwidth and faster downloads and make streaming high definition video (and much more) a reality for everyone.