BT to hike broadband bills and line rental by up to 7%
Millions of households will see their bills rise in September.
BT is increasing the cost of broadband and landline by up to 7%.
The hike will impact around 9.5 million households from 20th September.
BT says it is sending letters to customers to advise them of the rises.
What’s changing?
Here’s a rundown of the major changes BT customers are in line for.
Line rental
BT is hiking the cost of standard line rental by £1 to £17.99 a month, a 5.9% rise.
Line Rental Saver, which offers a 10% discount to those that pay for line rental upfront, will increase in line with this from £183.48 to £194.28 per year.
In additon Line Rental Plus, a premium service that offers priority fault repair, is increasing by £1 to £19.99 a month.
However, BT said the cost of BT Basic, its service for low-income customers, is not changing and will remain at £5.10 a month with a call allowance.
Broadband
BT says broadband prices are going up by no more than 6.94%.
However the firm says current broadband and bundles of broadband, TV and calls for new customers won’t be going up.
Call plans and charges
The cost of call plans are going up 6.7%.
The popular Unlimited Anytime Calls plan is increasing by 50p from £7.45 to £7.95 a month. While the cost of the Unlimited Evening & Weekend package is rising by 20p from £3 to £3.20 a month.
Out of plan charges like the call set up fee for landline calls is rising from 15.97p to 17.07p per call and the rate for calls to UK landlines as well as 0870 numbers will go up from 9.58p a minute to 10.24p a minute. Both of these changes represent a 6.9% rise.
Compare broadband deals in your area with broadbandchoices.co.uk
Why are prices going up?
It’s pretty common for telecoms companies to announce price rises around this time of year.
But the size of BT's latest increase will come as a shock to customers as the hikes are well above the latest inflation figures.
But BT’s Chief Executive, John Petter, defended the hikes. He said: “BT is investing more than ever to bring our customers the best deals across bundles of line, broadband and TV.
“We have spent billions rolling out superfast fibre broadband to more than 75% of the UK. We’ve also introduced great value BT Mobile offers, which offer the UK’s best value 4G tariffs for BT broadband customers.”
“We have also introduced a double data offer for broadband customers who sign another contract and free calls to BT Mobiles included in calls packages.”
A spokesperson also added that BT Sport, which will show live Premier League football, the SPFL and the Aviva Premiership rugby union, will remain free with BT Broadband for a third season. The BT Sport Pack, which will be the only place to watch live UEFA Champions League football next season, will be free for customers who take BT Broadband and BT TV.
What can customers do?
BT says anyone impacted by the changes will be able to leave penalty-free.
Customers just have to contact BT within 30 days of receiving their price rise notification.
Find the best broadband deals in your area with broadbandchoices.co.uk
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