A few years ago the mobile phone industry experienced a boom with the introduction of "pay as you go" style packages which saw subscribers simply paying for their time they used - no more, no less. Over the past year, broadband ISPs have adopted the same method with varying degrees of uptake. Now Aylesbury based ISP Nildram, have added a twist.

Based on the ISPs unlimited 'dslSurf500 Classic' package, Nildram have introduced two flavours in a "Pay as you Go" theme. The first comes styled on time, where 50 hours of connection time is included per month. 'dslSurf500 PAYG time' costs £19.49 per month (plus £58.75 setup fee) and additional hours can be purchased at £1.50 per 50 block - but Nildram have seen fit to stop charging after users have clocked up 200 hours - meaning should one month you find yourself online more than you estimated your total monthly cost will be capped at £25.34 (3 x 50 hour blocks @ £1.95, plus basic £19.94 rental). In this scenario, users will be paying £2.35 more than the ISPs unlimited 'dslSurf500 Classic'. All prices include VAT.

The second "PAYG" account, unsurprisingly, basis itself on the amount of data that you download. 'dslSurf500 PAYG data' includes 1Gb of download for the month, but like the 'dslSurf500 PAYG time' package, additional allocation can be purchased. Again costing £19.49 per month (£58.75 setup fee), users can purchase extra 1Gb blocks, also at £1.95 each. Nildram cap the cost charged once users have purchased 3 additional blocks. This results in an identical maximum monthly cost of £25.34 as the 'time' PAYG option. Again, all prices include VAT.

Clearly potential subscribers will be tempted by inevitable fact that they do not download the same amount of data each and every month, nor do they spend the same amount of time online each and every month. In order to realise the savings, subscribers would need to spend less than 100 hours per month (just over 3 hours per day) online, or download less than 2Gb per month (around 65Mb per day)

Of concern however, is the time based option. With many users opting for more advanced hardware solutions replacing the basic functionality of ADSL Modems, its clear that the onus will be on the subscriber to ensure that their hardware does not maintain a permanent connection using up their allocated and or purchased hours.

More information and purchasing details can be found on the Nildram website here.