unexpected broadband price increases

[#1]

is it just plusnet that increase the price of broadband less than 6 months into an 18 month contract? dont seem to rememer other providers doing that. not exactly encouraging when it comes to renewing a contract

[#2]

@ant325 Most of the big ISPs have a RPI+3.9% yearly increase clause in contracts taken out from some time last year I think it was, and it was detailed in the terms and conditions you should have read. Plusnet are not alone in this nefarious practice.

[#3]

thanks, its disgusting, we'd be penalised if we broken the contract, its ok for them to change it as they go along 

ant

[#4]

No, as I said, it is detailed in the Terms & Conditions.

[#5]

yes i saw, but i still think its cheap and underhanded to advertise a price and then increase it as they see fit

[#6]

yes i read your post. i still think its deceiving and underhanded to advertise a price for 18 months and then increase it. thanks anyway

[#7]

It told you in the T&C's - that you agreed to - that it was going to happen. What is deceiving and underhanded about it if you were told?

[#8]

well that is my opinion and you cant change it

[#9]

I agree.

All companies are entitled to raise prices to cover costs but this does seem to me to be far higher than inflation.

I noted on a TalkTalk advert yesterday that they have also implemented this price rise structure.

The only way round this is to get a discount at contract end so the ~10% annual rise is acceptable.

I blame BT as BB comes down their lines and they are charging all ISP's this ever increasing inflation busting line rental.

[#10]

@Kremmen, I think you're probably looking in the wrong direction at the root cause of these kind of price rises.  ISPs have to employ staff who need paying, and need pay rises to keep them on competitive wages, and will need to recruit new staff at higher rates.  They've got offices and data centres which need gas and electric to keep them going.  Ofcom, the regulator, regularly make changes that cost ISPs to both make the changes needed for them and in some cases pay out on them.

The base costs from Openreach are fairly constant.

[#11 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the input.

My concern is the recent email I got.

My current monthly bill is £29.37. My out of contract price come Jun will be £38.20

I know I will be able to negotiate or I may receive a prior offer but a 30% increase is unacceptable and I find it hard to accept your statement.

[#12]

Even ISPreview which is somewhat critical towards the industry has stated the case rather fairly...

Big UK Broadband ISPs Can Now Confirm Huge 2022 Price Hikes - ISPreview UK

"Annual price hikes are of course nothing new in this and other markets. Often there are legitimate reasons for prices to go up, not least because ISPs are frequently adding all sorts of new services (e.g. FTTP), developing new systems, facing higher charges from suppliers, implementing costly new Ofcom rules and consumers are gobbling significantly more data every year."

New services costs more!

Ofcom new rules and regulations drive non-productive costs year on year!

And we burn more bandwidth each year like unmetered water!

Oh and we all want fat compensation when it goes wrong!

Such being the case why are you surprised that price increases are now part of new contracts within the contract's minimum term?  As it is, with the butterfly behaviour of so many customers, there is little margin to be had within minimum term service contracts.  Most of the cost is in the acquisition of new customers - the "We want it nearly for free with fat cash back payments" merchants.

We have been living on borrowed time forever.  In terms of pure numbers, we pay less now for super fast FTTC unlimited bandwidth than we did for ADSL with very limited bandwidth (measured in mega-bytes) 20 years ago.

21st March 2002 - Plusnet  |  Home & Business Broadband Internet Access & Phone Services UK - PlusNet confirm ADSL Launch at £22.99 (Plus line rental?) for a metered service

11th March 2022 - FTTC Unlimited fibre £22.99 (Line included)

Anyone know of any other industry which has (a) held the price fairly fixed for 20 years and (b) delivered a substantially better product?