Broadband prices penalise loyal customers - Citizens Advice

[DaBees-Knees]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39555140

The cheapest UK broadband prices shoot up by an average of 43% or £113 a year, after introductory deals end, Citizens Advice has said. The charity said more than a third of customers were unaware of the price increases. The rises amount to a "loyalty penalty" for customers who stay with the same provider, Citizens Advice said. It has urged broadband providers to be more transparent about prices and said government should scrutinise the firms. The £113 figure represents a five-fold rise on what customers were paying on average in 2011 to stay on the same broadband deal.

Five of the biggest internet service providers had "loyalty penalties" as follows, according to Citizens Advice:
◾BT 12 month contract: £198 (67% increase)
◾Sky 12 months: £120 (53% increase)
◾EE 18 months: £90 (36% increase)
◾TalkTalk 24 months: £66 (28% increase)
◾Virgin Media 12 months: £0 (0% increase)

"Loyal broadband customers are being stung by big price rises once their fixed deal ends," Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said.
"The UK government has rightly put energy firms on warning for how they treat loyal customers - the actions of broadband firms warrant similar  scrutiny." The Citizens Advice research also found that older people and poorer customers were more likely to be hit by such charges as they generally stayed with the same supplier for longer than other customers. In the survey of 3,000 consumers, broadband users aged 65 and over were more than twice as likely as younger users to have been on the same contract for more than 10 years.

[Pri]

It's odd to me that they say Virgin Media had a £0 increase because they increase prices practically every year.

[White Stripes]

with currency rate conversion in mind; the most expensive plan: "BT 12 month contract: £198" is cheaper than the second to the lowest, or with comcast the lowest, bandwidth plans typically available in the US...  the UK is getting off easy in this price hike... 67% increase in the price of the internet plan i use? id be forced back to dialup...

[Pri]

The reason BT has price hiked so much is they are subsidising sports broadcasting contracts with their other businesses. It's one of the reasons they have been forced to spin off Open Reach (their infrastructure subsidiary that actually runs the physical lines and maintains them) into its own independent entity.

Hopefully next year when it all concludes we'll see more competition in broadband as BT wont be able to raise rental rates on companies that use their networks. For example Sky, EE and Talk Talk all rent space on Open Reach which when owned by BT charged practically whatever they wanted. There was some regulation to stop price gouging but it didn't go far enough.