UPD BT Hike the Price of Standard UK Phone Line Rental and Calls in 2013

Consumers are being forewarned to brace themselves for yet more price hikes after BT confirmed that its standard UK phone line rental and call charges would increase next year, once its current price freeze ends. The move is also likely to trigger another round of hikes from rival broadband ISPs.

BT originally announced last August 2011 that its prices would be frozen until 2013 (here). Since then most of the largest ISPs and phone providers have increased their line rental and call charges to closely mirror BT’s. For example, TalkTalk’s standard Line Rental recently increased to £14.50 per month, Sky Broadband’s is about to go up to £14.50 (from £12.25) and Virgin Media currently sits at £13.90 a month.

BT Standard Line Rental
Current: £14.60 a month
New Price: £15.45 a month

BT Daytime UK Call Rates
Current: 7.95p a minute
New Price: 8.41p a minute

BT Evening UK Call Rates
Current: 1.05p a minute
New Price: 1.11p a minute

BT Call Connection Fee
Current: 13.1p per call
New Price: 13.87p per call

Most of the changes represent an increase of around 6% and as usual can often be avoided by taking one of the operators broadband and phone bundles. Most ISPs also offer reduced Line Rental for around £10 per month, albeit only when you pay 12 months in advance. Overall prices are going to increase but BT and other ISPs will inevitably use this as a means to encourage more bundling by offering lower prices when several services are taken together.

However ISPs are likely to face criticism for raising their prices, especially at a time when the wider economy is continuing to flounder. Similarly many consumers often only use their phone line for broadband and will thus increasingly question the value of paying line rental for a largely unused calls service (mobile phones and VoIP have become increasingly dominant), especially given the huge fees that can be levied for fixing faults.

At the same time some of BT’s harshest critics might well ponder whether or not Ofcom’s recent effort to force the operators wholesale broadband prices down has had some impact on the latest changes (example). Critics often suggest that when Ofcom forces price down in one area, BT simply raises them elsewhere.

The new prices are due to take effect from 5th of January 2013. Credits to Recombu.com for spotting BT’s latest rise.

UPDATE 29th August 2012

Sorry we forgot to include the link to BT’s Price Changes Page with all the updated details.