ISP Plusnet Confirm 2018 Round of Annual Broadband Price Rises

Customers of low cost UK ISP Plusnet are facing another round of annual price rises on their broadband and phone bundles, which will see the monthly cost of related packages increase by +£1 from 5th June 2018. On top of that the cost of making phone calls is also set to increase.

In a statement Plusnet said, “Over the past year we’ve been working really hard to make improvements to our products and services that will make your experience as a Plusnet customer better than ever. We’ve continued to win awards for our customer services and our great value products and we promise we’ll continue to do you proud. Investing in our customer service to make sure we’re available to answer your calls or chats at our UK call centres is a priority for us. We’ll soon be expanding one of our UK sites to make sure we’re on hand when you need us the most.”

On the upside their ‘Caller Display‘ feature, which manages nuisance calls for 99p extra per month, is becoming free of charge from the same date. Furthermore if you have the BT Sport App then good news, from the 3rd April 2018 you should also be able to use the app when you travel to the EU, as well as when you’re in the UK. Plusnet’s monthly line rental cost also remains the same at £18.99 per month.

Calling Changes

Changes to Early Termination Charges?

This is the price you will pay to terminate your contract within the minimum term, which is calculated based on your service and the amount of time you have remaining on your contract.

Most of the major ISPs have already announced similar price increases for this year and in fairness Plusnet’s rise is smaller than many of those. One reason for price rises like this is because we’re all consuming much more data than before and providers have to compensate for the flexibility of their “unlimited” allowances somewhere. Likewise the loss of revenue from calling (a service in decline) has a role to play too.

At the same time providers are also under lots of pressure to adopt various new rules and regulations, such as the system for sending millions of copyright warning emails / “subscriber alerts” (here). Not to mention new internet snooping measures (here), plans for automatic compensation (here) and tougher requirements on broadband speeds (here), as well as the need to introduce new content or services.

As usual customers could also use such increases as an opportunity to haggle for a lower price (Retentions – Tips for Cutting Your Broadband Bill Without Switching ISP), although your success here may vary. Alternatively you could decide to leave penalty free and switch to a different ISP (this must be done within 30 days after you receive their price rise notification) but remember that other providers tend to adopt similar increases.