UPDATE2 TalkTalk Hike UK Phone Line Rental and Broadband ISP Prices

Customers of TalkTalk have today become the unwitting recipients of the ISPs latest ‘Pricing Notification’ update, which has revealed a raft of price rises for line rental services (e.g. an increase from £15.40 to £15.95), call charges and broadband packages.

The latest changes, which will come into force from 1st May 2014 (plus the daytime call rate will also rise to 11.5ppm from 1st June 2014), have been detailed in full on the ISP’s Pricing Notifications page. But if you don’t wish to follow the link then here’s a quick summary of the key adjustments.

Changes to TalkTalks Pricing – May 2014
From 1st May 2014, our SimplyBroadband package price will increase to £3.50 [previously £2.50]
From 1st May 2014, our Essentials package price will increase to £8.50 [previously £7.50]
From 1st May 2014, our Essentials TV package price will increase to £8.50 [previously £7.50]
From 1st May 2014, our Plus TV package price will increase to £18.50 [previously £15.50]
From 1st May 2014, standard line Rental will increase to £15.95 [previously £15.40]
From 1st May 2014, Talk UK Weekend BB will increase by £1.40
From 1st May 2014, Talk 3 BB will increase by £1.21
From 1st May 2014, the following packages will increase by £1

— Talk Global Anytime
— Talk Global Evening & Weekend
— Talk International Anytime
— Talk International Evening & Weekend
— Talk Total Anytime Evening & Weekend
— Talk Total Anytime
— Talk International Evening & Weekend IPS
— Talk International Anytime IPS

As usual the higher prices already apply to new subscribers, although existing customers do at least have a bit of notice until the changes are introduced. The price rises generally follow TalkTalk’s annual trend and all of the main ISPs usually adopt similar increases, with a second batch of hikes often occurring in the late summer or autumn period (BT tends to kick things off and then everybody else follows).

Consumers troubled by the rising costs of living can at least take heart from how Internet and telephone access tends to be less of a burden than the high cost of energy, although we suspect many will still feel aggrieved. Indeed a jump from £2.50 to £3.50 for the ISPs basic entry-level broadband service might, on the surface, not sound like a big deal but as a percentage it’s a huge hike.

A TalkTalk Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We’ve been working hard to improve our service while keeping customers’ bills low, and always at Britain’s best price.

The improvements to our packages are designed to keep up with our customers’ increasing needs and provide even better value. We’re adding more TV content, more ways for customers to control their bills and we’ve made all phone and privacy features completely free. Unlike our competitors, we are the only provider to offer totally unlimited broadband on every package, with no caps or slowing down at peak times.

TalkTalk remains Britain’s best value provider, offering the lowest priced packages, meaning TalkTalk homes make significant savings compared to other providers while also getting more for their money.”

As a side note TalkTalk has announced that their Plus TV package, while now slightly more expensive than before, will also include seven Sky TV channels as standard from 5th April 2014 (i.e. Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Sports News, Sky Living, Sky Living It, Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2).

UPDATE 5:24pm

We note that the pre-paid line rental is also set to rise from the equivalent of £10.50 to £11.75 per month, although the old price is currently still showing on their website. In addition, the monthly cost of TalkTalk’s Anytime calls boost has actually dropped from £5.50 to £5.

UPDATE 5:51pm

TalkTalk has sent us their official response.