back to article BT hikes prices for third time in 18 months

BT is once again hiking prices, with punters facing an extra £30 on their annual broadband bill in the new year. It seems standard (ADSL) and fibre (FTTC/P) broadband prices will now go up: you'll pay an extra £2 a month for BT Broadband copper and £2.50 per month more for Infinity from January next year. The price increase …

  1. Dan 55 Silver badge

    BT Sport

    The gift that keeps on taking.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: BT Sport

      Thank to the EU, we now have choice in which provider we use to watch the football.

      Unfortunately that choice is only whether to shell out twice as much money as we used to or not.

      1. Andy 97

        Re: BT Sport

        If you live in the UK you have two choices.

        And after all that extra cash they don't even have the rights for all of the matches.

    2. Pen-y-gors

      Re: BT Sport

      Meh! Not interested in Sport, on BT, Sky or BBC. What does piss me off is having to pay inflated phone/broadband price to subsidise BTs really, really bad deals for the rights to sport.

      For real sport, stick to Grand Sumo highlights on NHK world website - next Basho starts on Sunday!

      1. Dabooka

        Re: BT Sport

        @Pen-y-gors

        I think that was kind of his point. Bear in mind that a significant percentage of the 'millions of subscribers' they claim to have get it for nowt as sweeteners to other offers, it's the rank and file service users having to brunt the cost of their deal with the PL and UEFA

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: BT Sport

          I think that was kind of his point. Bear in mind that a significant percentage of the 'millions of subscribers' they claim to have get it for nowt as sweeteners to other offers, it's the rank and file service users having to brunt the cost of their deal with the PL and UEFA

          If you've got a motorised satellite dish then you can often find sport (not limited to football) on foreign satellites for free. I've never paid Sky or BTSport or VirginMedia or anyone else* for watching sport on my TV. I've got friends who pay a fortune each year to have every sports channel available. When I mention that I can often watch the same thing as them but for just the cost of the electricity I get scowls. F1 is available on German TV for free but not in HD. I can live with that when Channel 4 aren't showing the race live. If there's something on I do want to watch I will see if anyone outside the UK is showing it and watch it there. If not my local has a Sky subscription and if desperate I'll go there. In London you can avoid BT by using either Virgin or Relish (wireless broadband), I use the latter.

          Some teams have a live video stream that you can subscribe to outside the UK showing the matches in real time. It's geoblocked to prevent people from just watching at home in Blighty but there are obviously ways round that.

          *Excluding the licence fee which I do pay.

          1. Dabooka

            Re: BT Sport

            @AC

            Yes, 90cm dish and a suitable decoder. Boxing in German, football in Spanish. Top stuff all round

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: BT Sport

          it's the rank and file service users having to brunt the cost of their deal with the PL and UEFA

          I agree, although I would object to be called "rank". I never miss my annual bath.

      2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: BT Sport

        stick to Grand Sumo highlights on NHK world website

        Ohh - hopefully it'll also be on their broadcast service so I can record it..

        (in the early '90's, we used to get NTSC tapes of the Sumo Bashos - sadly, a similar service no longer exists).

    3. AndrueC Silver badge
      Meh

      Re: BT Sport

      Ofcom rules require telecom firms to give customers 30 days to leave their contract penalty-free. "We recommend customers take this opportunity to shop around, or at the very least get on the phone to BT to see if they can negotiate a better deal,"

      Of course it's likely that the other CPs will follow-suit but in that case maybe they are all the gift that keeps giving.

    4. Tom 7

      Re: BT Sport

      I hate football so I cant watch sport - having to pay for football via sky before I can have the privilege of paying for something I want. And now my fucking phone line and broadband are subsidising overpaid brownian motion. I'd go somewhere else but the all have to piggy back of these morons.

      And just to rub it in I cant even get BT sport down my piece of wet string.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: BT Sport

        @Tom 7

        Sky have split their sports into individual channels now, so you can subscribe to the tiddlywinks channel without paying for Football ( or vice versa ).

        Personally I watch enough different sports to just get the lot.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: BT Sport

          Yes but you have to pay the same amount. £18 a month for girlie dancing (football) or £18 for darts or F1 or Boxing or Rugby.

          So no matter what you choose you are still cross subsidising the tribal football fanatics.

  2. James Blessing

    Cynic Mode

    I wonder if that's to cover the Ofcom request decreases in non-Broadband phone line rental?

    1. rmason

      Re: Cynic Mode

      This,

      Weeks ago they announce they are happily / being forced to discount lines that aren't used.

      Today : we will be taking a bit more money. Sorry!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wankers.

    Nothing more to be said really.

  4. wolfetone Silver badge

    There was me thinking BT were being nice when they offered me a free speed boost. I didn't have to opt in, they just gave it to me.

    That was only a month ago, and now they want £2.50 a month more for the privelege.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      That reminds me of a street doughnut seller in Greece I encountered. He put a doughnut in the hand of every member of my family, we thought "how nice, a free sample". Then he said "Ten Euro".

      1. emmanuel goldstein

        If it was BT, 10 Euros would have been demanded not just from your family but from everyone in the vicinity, doughnut or no doughnut.

    2. Steve Evans

      They didn't offer me a speedboost (already going as fast as the FTTC can manage), they just offered me some more of their cloud storage (of which I have used 0 bytes)... Yeah... Right... That's about as tempting to me as being trapped with a @btinternet.com email address.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        btinternet.com email

        perfect for those 'throw away' email addys just before you leave BT for another provider.

        The sad thing is that the email account will still be there 5 or even 10 years from now.

      2. detritus

        "they just offered me some more of their cloud storage (of which I have used 0 bytes)... Yeah... Right... "

        haha, that disappointed me too - the mailer distinctly looked like it was going to offer me a speed 'boost', or rather bring my incredibly dire London line up to something like 'speed', rather than something that can barely handle two simultaneous low-resolution streams at the same time.

        What do I pay so much for again?

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Facepalm

        Steve Evans

        "That's about as tempting to me as being trapped with a @btinternet.com email address."

        Not to worry, no one is ever trapped with a BT address, it gets hacked too soon!

        (No joke icon, because it really does just get hacked :( )

    3. Haku

      Does that mean those of us who are paying for Infinity 2 are subsidising those who are paying less for Infinity 1 but getting Infinity 2 speeds?

      Bloody Telecom strikes again.

      1. Banksy

        No, I got the same offer but it's because I've been a customer for 2 years. (I've actually been an Infinity customer for 4/5 years but only 2 at the current address.)

        Oddly, they'd only just given me an "offer" to pay £3 more than my current bill a month for the same thing.

    4. pleb

      That's a favourite with Virgin too. Trumpet their "totally free" speed increases one month, then push through an "inflation" price rise the following month.

  5. djstardust

    Ah well

    I gave them one more chance and they've blown it.

    They used the same excuses about better CS last time, but last week I called eight times and got India every single time.

    Vodafone here I come. Screw you BT.

    1. Flak

      Re: Ah well

      Frying pan --> Fire ...

    2. IsJustabloke
      WTF?

      Re: Ah well

      "Vodafone here I come."

      ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.... *breathe*...ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

      No seriously, who're you going to ?

      1. AndrueC Silver badge
        Joke

        Re: Ah well

        They were kidding. They're going to Talk Talk really :)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't worry folks...

    Virgin will be offering a FREE increased download speed*, yes totally FREE. The price increase will be in 3 months time, but look at what we've given you FREE!

    *speed increase is dependent on your current horrendous contention, bandwidth throttling and Superhub dropouts and latency.

    ** Upload speeds will are unaffected by this change and will remain utterly shit.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't worry folks...

      Here's a tip for VM.

      I had a rubbish connection at peak time so I complained and was told they were aware of it and looking to fix soon so I got a credit on my bill, any reference to amount of bandwidth used was greeted with a reply of that's useless if I can't use my computer and let others watch netflix at night.

      I got credits for 7 months, the last one gave me three months so I didn't need to keep calling.

      Now I have a perfect connection so I could suggest that's linked to this.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't worry folks...

      Upload speeds will are unaffected by this change and will remain utterly shit.

      Yes, but that's mostly not VM's fault. The poor upload speeds are part of the DOCSIS 3.0 standard (the technical standard for data transfer of cable networks), where the download potential is up to 1 Gbps, but upload a mere 100 Mbps. Diced and sliced to "per house" levels you can see that VM can't do that much to speed up the upload with DOCSIS 3.0. If you wanted to pay for commercial grade kit things are probably different, for home users that's how it is.

      VM are due to start roll out of DOCSIS 3.1 at the end of this year (that increases the upstream capacity 10x) but I doubt that any existing VM modem or hub will be compatible even with a firmware upgrade, so you're waiting on a new VM hub (end of 2018?). And the real advance would be DOCSIS 3.1 Full Duplex. D3.1 FD would give the same upload speed potential as download, but no sign of that even being trialled by VM yet. At a guess, little prospect of that until 2019 or later, and even that assumes that there aren't problems of capacity with full duplex.

      Having said all that (and adding that the VM "superhubs" are all rather crap), if you want a fast download, fairly solid internet connection, and you can cope with 20 Mbps upload, then VM are a good, if expensive choice. Few people will be seeing reliable 200 Mbps download connections via Openreach for a good few years yet.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Don't worry folks...

        Hey VM fanboy, it's totally VMs fault... they choose the technology that there business uses - no one else.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Don't worry folks...

          Hey VM fanboy, it's totally VMs fault... they choose the technology that there business uses - no one else.

          You're right. They could have invented a completely new, proprietary cable data protocol, and that would surely have been better and cheaper? Obviously not. But you stick with your Openreach dial up.....

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Don't worry folks...

            Do you research fanboy, alternatives are available...

            Google it. You've heard of Google, no? Try it, I think you'll like it.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Don't worry folks...

            Forget protocol. They rolled out/adopted a crappy coax solution - if they used/replaced with a true fibre solution they would have more options. Or even copper... BT have the tech to go faster than Virgin currently but haven't rolled it out on mass - because BT are BT... in the sameway because Virgin are Virgin.

            Whether your a Virgin or BT fanboy - it doesn't matter - your getting ****** up the ass long and hard.

            Enjoy that...

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Don't worry folks...

          THEIR business uses. FFS.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Don't worry folks...

            thanks for the contribution

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't worry folks...

      I must say that my experience with VM has been not far from the advertised, and no major problems with superhub (that's v3 is it). Yes, they do updates at silly hours (daytime), yes, monthly fee and yearly hikes don't make the service super-cheap, but I (generally) get the advertised 50 Mbps, which is the bottom service they offer, and I fart in the general direction of whever-other-crap telly-mob-whatever they try to peddle. On top of that I get this (really priceless) smug feeling that BT leech is off my back, so I'd like to take this opportunitey to say in public again: BT suck! :)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Don't worry folks...

        no major problems with superhub (that's v3 is it)

        No problems that you notice. The faults with the Puma 6 chipset are baked in, and for casual internet use, or even heavy lift downloading it does appear to work fine - I'm using one now. But for real time gaming, or VOIP, or other time sensitive types of applications the Virginmedia Superhub 3 is a pile of shite.

        Put any form of trace on it, and you'll see the latency spiking to 150ms frequently, and a fair amount of packet loss. You might not perceive these, but they are there, and in gaming it amounts to missed shots, jumps in position of players, or even being kicked from a game server. For VOIP it'll be missing syllables, jumpy video and the like. Some streaming applications appear to struggle with these problems as well. Even in day to day internet use you might see symptoms (eg timeouts) that you attribute to the Wild West Web, but could be that little grey box with Intel's garbage chip inside. I'd also mention that although the problems have been known for over a year now, Virginmedia are still shipping the defective product out, and still no news on the software fix that their supplier (Arris) have supposedly been working on for the better part of a year.

        So I'd like to take this opportunity to say in public again, Virginmedia suck, just not as much as Intel suck!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Don't worry folks...

          you forgot to mention that the superhub is a freebie (well, not exactly, but on the face of it), and if it sucks, you can add your own hardware to de-suck its half-baked features (no sarcasm, just what I have always heard that you can substitute their hardware with your own, but not being an online gamer, i've never felt the need to).

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Don't worry folks...

            I asked a VM rep in some shopping mall I was in if I could use my own equipment on their network. He said of course "your tablets, computers, Tv's etc. can all be used." My own modem? Nope you use theirs - non negotiable. Someone suggested that they use the MAC address to authenticate the superhub on their network. Therefore just change the MAC address to match the superhub they supply and it "should work". I wasn't willing to sign up just to test that out.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Don't worry folks...

              Therefore just change the MAC address to match the superhub they supply and it "should work".

              It might work if your "pirate" modem is DOCSIS 3 compatible. But whenever VM try and remotely update the firmware, it'll either return an error message that you're using alien technology, or worse, it'll install VM firmware and brick your modem.....

        2. Salestard

          Re: Don't worry folks...

          Superhub is total rubbish, as is the packet loss at Smallheath and Manchester in the network, and the apparent loss of all packets as it leaves the VM core for Telia's cross-water links.

          My SH3 craps out when certain devices join the network when there's a certain number of other devices already on the Wi-Fi. It then assumes an IP conflict on all wireless addresses, and loses the sync with the network, requiring a reboot. I haven't managed to figure out the combination required to cause the fault, and because off and on fixes it, Virgin don't regard it as a problem.

          This is balanced, mostly, by the service being fairly reliable, and reasonable stable latency-wise. Although, 50m/s to Munich is a bit leggy by modern standards.

  7. 1Rafayal

    if it wasnt for the fact that most of our Internet comes from BT anyway, I would change ISP.

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      >if it wasnt for the fact that most of our Internet comes from BT anyway, I would change ISP.

      The announced price increases only apply to retail customers, not to wholesale customers.

      So you can change from having BT as your retail phone and broadband provider to someone else - such as EE(!) who will charge you BT wholesale prices plus their mark up.

  8. snozdop
    Thumb Down

    Funny

    "We know that no one likes price changes, but this allows us to upgrade our services and give you more. Every customer will see improvements to their products and services alongside these changes."

    I wonder what percentage of their customers actually asked for these forced "upgrades" and "improvements"?

    Surely it would be better to offer these as opt-in upgrades and improvements, rather than charge everybody for them regardless of whether they wanted them or not?

    TalkTalk did the same a while back for me. Put the price up, and when I asked why they said it was for service improvements and upgrades. I said I'm quite happy with my current level of service, I haven't asked for anything better, but they wouldn't allow me to stick with my current service for the current price.

    1. nematoad
      Unhappy

      Re: Funny

      "We know that no one likes price changes..."

      Should be: "We know that no one likes price rises.."

      Actually I think that people are in favour of price changes when they are in a downward direction. Not that happens unless the regulator starts knocking heads together.

  9. lansalot

    ooh...

    That's some nice changes to protecting me from dodgy callers. Of course, my phone has never been plugged in, but thanks loads for charging me for something that probably doesn't work and I don't need.

    Time to shop around I think !

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who do you think is paying for older people with line only getting the new discounted rate?

  11. My-Handle

    I was with BT until a few months ago. They upped my bill from £32 a month to £41 with very little notice (a sneaky email in amongst the crapton of marketing emails they usually send). Considering my service couldn't get a connection for about 50% of the time, the 'service improvements' excuse that BT's various drones kept spouting didn't exactly go down well.

    I'm with Zen now. Haven't had a single connection issue since the second the service went live. No throttling. And they're charging me £17 a month (to go up to £32 after the first six months). In all fairness, I can't say how good their customer service is. I've had no need to call them.

    1. 1Rafayal

      I was a customer of Zen way back in the dial up days.

      After looking at their latest offers, I am very tempted to become a customer once more!

      1. Andy 97

        Zen always was the best ISP that I ever had, quite why I went to BT is baffling.

        1. Chronos

          @Andy 97: Suckered in by the usual bait and switch. Don't feel as if it's your fault, many of us have been there. I'm fully expecting MinusNet to bump theirs by the same amount now, and STILL no IPv6 to show for it. Bastards.

    2. AndrueC Silver badge
      Boffin

      I'm with Zen now. Haven't had a single connection issue since the second the service went live.

      That's great and Zen is undoubtedly a better ISP. However unless you've moved from ADSL to FTTC (or vice versa) your physical connection won't have changed so the number of connection issues cannot either.

      Zen broadband do offer alternative backhaul providers but all FTTC connections rely on openreach hardware in the cabinet and switching providers does not require any changes in the cabinet. It's just a routing table and/or RADIUS update. In fact your modem will likely remain synchronised throughout the switching process.

      If you're still on ADSL it could be a switch to an LLUO's hardware though.

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        However unless you've moved from ADSL to FTTC (or vice versa) your physical connection won't have changed so the number of connection issues cannot either.

        No, however, if you take a Zen business rental, they will guarantee you a reasonably performant line speed based on what the BT Wholesale checker says. Also from my experience from migrating clients to Zen over several years on both ADSL and FTTC circuits and comparing them to the original BT ISP the service does seem to be more reliable. I suspect because many of the 'performance problems' generally experienced are more to do with the IP service management (ie. contention ratio, DNS, router performance, backhaul) and not the physical line and associated driver cards.

        Otherwise yes, whatever line speed you are getting today on your BT ADSL/FTTC/FTTP service, you will get the same with Zen/EE etc. - just that with Zen you'll probably be able to make greater use of it due to lower contention ratios etc...

      2. My-Handle

        @AndrueC

        You're correct in that the hardware to the exchange should not have changed. Indeed, BT serve all of the infrastructure for my area.

        I suspect that the reason that we experienced so many connection issues (here defined as us not being able to load websites etc) was either due to some kind of bug in BT's home hub router, or some kind of aggressive throttling at the exchange. The behaviour of BT's customer service when attempting to diagnose the problem, coupled with the fact that myself and my other half are fairly heavy internet users in an area where the typical speed is 1.5mbps (no fibre available), make me inclined to believe that we were being excessively throttled.

  12. Dominion

    OpenRetch

    I bet it's that pesky OpenRetch fleecing their customers again, nothing to do with BT at all...

    1. Augie
      Gimp

      Re: OpenRetch

      You mean the OpenRetch that is a totally separate subsidiary?

      Oh wait....

      1. FordPrefect

        Re: OpenRetch

        Openreach which is a seperate entity which charges all communication providers a price agreed with ofcom...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: OpenRetch

          Openreach which is a seperate entity....

          but merely operates the network assets which remain fully owned by BT, not Openreach. And the BT accounts will continue to fail to show a fully disaggregated set of regulatory accounts. Funnily enough you can easily find those for an electricity distributor, a gas distributor, or a water company, so BT evidently have much to hide.

  13. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    So...

    Answers on a postcard... best home / home business broadband supplier outside of the normal fucktards at BT / VM / TT et al? I require a fast 100mb('ish) link.

    I was thinking of going with A&A but they seem a bit pricey.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So...

      Pulse8. Great little ISP. Rock solid, good customer service. And they actually cut prices a few months back.

      Not 100mbps (76 is their top limit) but for most of us the only option for that speed is Virgin right now.

    2. zapper

      Re: So...

      We are using A&A at work. no complaints, as its only gone down once or twice in two years, Once due to a failed power supply on a firebrick and that was replaced in 24hrs. Great customer service with named individuals who actually know what they are talking about. Expensive compared to others but worth it when things go wrong.

    3. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: So...

      Depends on where you live!

      Gigaclear and other alt ISP's might be in your area, just that if you simply use the mainstream broadband availability checking websites, you would never know they exist.

      Live in a recently built (last 10 years) house, FTTP might be an option.

      Otherwise your choice of ISP really is down to what other services you need: Static IP address, IPv6, uplink speed, VPN supported, no traffic shaping or management etc.

      I've found EE to be reasonable (apart from the few well publicised service outages when the Three mobile broadband has kicked in) and have when necessary been able to talk directly to the network engineers. Obviously now EE is part of BT, this situation needs to be monitored.

      NB. I assume you currently have a home broadband connection, so the business can expense the upgrade to a business service (or check your employement T&C's as if home working is expected/permitted you will be able to expense some of the home costs).

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    At least with Talktalk the prices are cheap to be treated like shit.

    1. Paul

      TalkTalk should have subsidised their prices by selling all their customer data, instead of allowing it to be stolen, at least then their customers would have got some benefit!

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ooh so if Plusnet up their prices I can get out of my contract early?

    Oh pretty please. I've been waiting a year to dump the useless fucks

    1. IsJustabloke
      Megaphone

      "Oh pretty please. I've been waiting a year to dump the useless fucks"

      Weirdly, my Plusnet service has been rock solid reliable at the speed they promised for the price as advertised.

      1. Stese

        Indeed the customer service i get from Plus Net is always first rate.... I'm just stuck with a poor cable from the exchange...

        I'd say at least 80% of the faults attributed to ISP's are actually OpenRetch's fault.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Brexit Telecom

    Fear Uncertainty and Dread is a moneyspinner in the UK..enough said

  17. This post has been deleted by its author

  18. Pen-y-gors

    My patience is wearing thin

    For the last week I've been trying to get someone at BT to let me have FTTP (Openreach have finally wired us up) - both Biz and Rez seem to have difficulty with the concept. Maybe if they let people buy their 'premium' products they could keep prices down.

    (FYI - BT Biz want £150 + VAT p.m. for 300Mbps FTTP, BT Rez will do 'Infinity 4' 300Mbps for £60 including VAT special intro offer (£80 later)- but they seem to have difficulty working out how to transfer me over)

    1. Jopn

      Re: My patience is wearing thin

      Call the FTTP Sales team on 0800 587 4787, they were the only part of BT who could understand what I wanted when I moved into my new place that had FTTP installed.

    2. JamesGB

      Re: My patience is wearing thin

      If you move to FTTP and don't have a copper line as well as fibre you will be given a new phone number. BT are breaching Ofcom rules because they can't transfer numbers from copper to FTTP or vice versa, nor can they transfer numbers between FTTP premises even when both locations are on the same exchange.

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/bills-and-utilities/broadband/switch-bts-ultra-fast-internet-and-lose-phone-number/

  19. adam payne

    'The firm justified the increase by saying it is "making some great improvements to your service" including protection from nuisance calls with BT Call Protect and answering more calls here at home in the UK and Ireland, along with a range of broadband upgrades.'

    Improvements to your service are necessary evil for any company and make you more competitive in a given market, oh wait.

    "We know that no one likes price changes, but this allows us to upgrade our services and give you more. Every customer will see improvements to their products and services alongside these changes.

    While we still make record profits and give you terrible service.

  20. talk_is_cheap

    Just move to Origin Broadband

    Their basic phone plus adsl2+ service is currently only around £12 a month if you sign up for a year. It works and if there is an issue they have a 0800 UK based support team, who do seem to have a clue about what they sell.

  21. Dabooka
    Meh

    Well VM put there's a fiver recently

    I'm a few weeks off my 11 month anniversary with them before my intro offers runs out just prior to Christmas. I'm looking at around twenty quid a month increase allowing for that £5 hike, up to around £65 for the package.

    So I have to either get another tie in with them, move to Sky (shudder) or BT (never). So I'm pretty much limited to the no-brainer choice of VM then. Fingers crossed they do something decent to convince me stay

    1. Slx

      Re: Well VM put there's a fiver recently

      I have to say I have no complaints about Virgin Media Ireland (formerly UPC).

      Their *entry level* 240Mbit/s package. (Next residential tier is 360 and Business is 400)

      Seems Liberty Global (UPC) did a better rewiring job over here than the previous incarnation of Virgin did in the UK. Fingers crossed their upgrades over there deliver similar results.

      http://www.speedtest.net/result/6770238819.png

      (with wifi overheads)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Well VM put there's a fiver recently

        Their *entry level* 240Mbit/s package. (Next residential tier is 360 and Business is 400)

        I'm routinely getting 221 Mbps with a UK VM 200 Mbps package, but note your linked image and my speedtests are against fairly local servers, and I suspect VM prioritise Ookla traffic for those. I get somewhat slower speeds by selecting servers that VM wouldn't expect me to use, although those tend to be more distant.

        And according to hearsay, that 10% extra speed "free" I seem to be getting only comes if you are enrolled in VM's wifi hotspot scheme.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Well VM put there's a fiver recently

      Fingers crossed they do something decent to convince me stay

      If you lean hard on their retentions team they'll do something, but those people have been told to try and avoid giving in too easily. If you're on a higher speed package then there's not much competition and you've got to persuade them that you're off because poor value trumps the higher speed benefits (I'm assuming you're on cable).

      Also, if you're on a 150 Mbps package, that has been "delisted", so you only continue to get that speed if you're allowing the contract to roll over to whatever they want. Otherwise, if you negotiate a new deal it will have to be at either 50, 100, 200 or 300 Mbps, so be very clear on what want, what they are offering, how much you're prepared to pay. If you're taking phone and mid to high speed broadband package, then you should hope to get about £9-12 a month knocked off.

  22. Slx

    But your broadband comes with a free nostalgic crackly dialling tone and the quality of the paper they use on the bills is far better than the competitors, not to mention that lovely explodie-ball motif.

  23. This post has been deleted by its author

  24. Any mouse Cow turd

    Great News

    That's wonderful news for me. I'm in the middle of 24 month BT contract and now they've given me a get out of jail free card :)

    When does the 30 day timeframe start? From now or when I receive their letter? I've got FTTP, any recommendations folks?

  25. this

    Any Recommendations?

    a) If you find a good restaurant don't tell anyone.

    b) ISP ditto.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Any Recommendations?

      I've done this with my Energy Company. A small supplier that has a fantastic online portal. Not the cheapest, but near to the cheapest, but so much less hassle. Easy to contact, well laid out documents. And no, I'm not telling you.

      I've been through a few suppliers, all of the big six.

      The Worst: CoopEnergy by a long way. Totally incompetent, their CRM is a waste of space.

      Scottish Power next worst, but pretty much the big 6, all have problems/issues. Wouldn't touch any of them.

  26. Lee D Silver badge

    I sat and realised something recently.

    Whenever I stream a movie on my phone, it's often better to just turn off the wifi and rely on 4G. Less buffering, unscheduled stops, etc. I'm not the only one, either, XKCD even has a cartoon about it. At one point, yes, Wifi was the best available but nowadays I'm not so sure.

    And I can get large data packages for 4G really cheaply, and even routers that can load-balance / failover to 4G, and even multiple-4G connections.

    And then I consider how much I actually need the low-latency of Wifi for gaming, etc. and wonder whether that's worth paying for at all. I can't think it is.

    And I'm perfectly happy with 4G streaming of a movie to my phone / tablet and/or re-offering the phone connection over Wifi. And I'm already paying for it. And it costs less than my broadband as it is. And doesn't need separate (hidden) line-rental, TV, etc. packages.

    I think, given 4G coverage, I could be more than happy just sticking a 4G dongle in a decent router or bouncing my phone's 4G over Wifi for just about everything I do. Hell, I often log into work over RD, or do Amazon or grocery shopping, via my phone, so I could certainly do everything I would *need* to.

    It makes me wonder what the fixed-line broadband people are playing at and what it will take to actually get them to move.

    And, hell, if I'm not happy with one provider? Buy a different SIM/dongle and even share the traffic between them as necessary to stay under the limits.

    1. js6898

      I've got a 30GB package from Three, ditched my landline and used my Galaxy S6 (then S7) as a modem to connect my laptop for some time now. It's fast, reliable, better than my WiFi was. Don't have internet TV - then again, I never did.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A Trilogy in Five Parts.

    Is the ghost of Douglas Adams in charge of BT's "Annual" price rise??

    Having looked at the trend over the last few years, by 2022 BT will be having an "annual" price rise every month.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Advice

    I had paid up front for line rental saver a few months before BT last hiked their prices.

    When they upped the broadband price, I terminated the broadband only, and kept the landline - and had an assurance (in writing, from the chat guy in India) that I could later terminate my landline with no penalty.

    About a month later, BT then tried to tell me that by removing broadband from my package I had entered into a new minimum term contract for calls and line rental (at £0/month, but with the implication that I would have to start paying line rental to BT again once my line rental saver expired).

    I argued the toss, and eventually got their CEO's complaints team to agree that I could indeed terminate with no penalty.

    I terminated my line rental with BT when the line rental saver was up and moved to the same provider as my broadband. BT then tried to charge me for early cancellation of the contract. I kicked off again, and got the full amount refunded eventually.

    They are twats. But if you stick to your guns, threaten to take them to court, and don't ever back down, you can walk away from your contract without losing anything (apart from a few hours of your time - but for the principle, it's worth it...)

  29. MJI Silver badge

    What is stopping me moving?

    That BT is one of the few with FTTC.

    That BT can be among cheapest.

    That my wife keeps using a BT email address when I have set up one on my own server for her.

  30. lsces

    BT have been using a 10 month price increase cycle for years! So next year there will be two increases ...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Oh dear, by moving to France I've missed all that. My ADSL + phone* charge has been the same since 2003 so I have no complaints.

      * Phone includes free calls to land line phones in most countries and reduced rates to mobiles in selected countries (EU, US, Canada, Australia etc.).

  31. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    I would gladly pay BT at least 20 times what I pay now...

    ...for my rather slow and unreliable broadband, if this allows BT to spend even more money paying way too much for football matches that I will never watch because (a) I hate football and (b) my broadband is too slow to reliably stream the games anyway. At least with the Home Hub 6 I have the 'best ever WiFi signal compared to other big broadband companies'.*

    (* No I don't. The Home Hub 6 is shit at WiFi, just like every other Home Hub variant. Wobbling a baking tray sends a stronger, faster and more reliable signal out than the Home F**king Hub.)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I would gladly pay BT at least 20 times what I pay now...

      I would gladly sell my house, and all its content to help the BT Team.

      (NTNOCN knock-off).

  32. d3vy

    Hmm this comes very close to this story : https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2017/10/26/bt_to_cut_profit_from_landline_only_punters/

    Which suggests that the rest of us are being forced to subsidise those who do not have broadband.

  33. Banksy

    Lack of alternatives

    I actually like the Infinity service but I'm sick of the price rises. However, all of the other providers don't seem any cheaper once you add in the line rental and activation fees. There's also no Virgin Media or FTTP to where I live.

    Remember when Internet was very expensive when it was first available but gradually came down in price, I long for those days.

  34. JamesGB

    You can't change provider on FTTP only!

    For those unfortunate enough to be on FTTP only (without copper) and having to use Fibre Voice Access (FVA) for voice telephony, you can't change provider because BT are the only provider to support FVA. In my opinion, from the emails I've seen between BT and Openreach, this was and is deliberate market manipulation to give BT a monopoly on provision of service.

    1. Baldrickk

      Re: You can't change provider on FTTP only!

      eh. I'd just rely on my mobile in that situation.

  35. MrClump

    What’s that Virgin Media? You think you might as well follow suit in the next few months? Even though you only just raised them at the start of the month? Sure, why not? Allow me to bend over and present myself.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thank You Virgin

    200MBit for under 40 notes.

    Perfect. With the added bonus of no BT or Murdoch shite.

  37. Charles Smith

    Dung heap delivery

    Perhaps the POS broadband currently delivered by BT should be managed by farmers. In the B4RN project, a farmland community have optical fibre to the home delivering symmetric 1Gbps for £30 a month.

  38. Baldrickk

    Thinking of switching

    I'm moving house next year, and the new place will have FTTP. Thinking of Hyperoptic. Anyone here have any feedback on them?

  39. Rathernicelydone

    Vodafone

    As a user of the Vodafone broadband service I have to say it is rock solid - no outage so never had to call their support number. A solid 60Mb download and 19Mb upload and I get this at any time of the day or night with no download limits. I have just signed up to a new contract for 18 months of the Fibre 76 product for £30 a month including line rental which I consider quite the bargain.

    However their router is utterly crap with poor wifi coverage - I have Ethernet cables running off it to the rest of the house and a range extender that has much better wifi coverage than the router. Factor investment into a better router/range extender as part of any decision to move to Vodafone.

  40. Any mouse Cow turd

    FTTP - HELP

    I've got a lovely get out of jail free card here but I have FTTP (lucky me) but there are very few ISPs out there that I can switch to who will support FTTP connections.

    Please can someone help me out with suggestions.

    Thanks

  41. sabbott17

    Maybe it's time to change to a broadband provider that keeps the price the same for the length of the contract. Apparently, both the Post Office and TalkTalk offer this. As for watching BT Sport, according to https://broadbandinterneuk.com, BT broadcast around a dozen Champions League/Europa matches for FREE on their Freeview channel. Worth considering, then watching MOTD and paying now and again for Sky Sports day passes via NOWTV

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