Sky Broadband Stealthily Scraps FREE UK Weekend Phone Calls

Customers of Sky Broadband have until now been able to get free UK weekend calls alongside Sky Line Rental (£16.40 per month), thanks to the included Sky Talk Weekends option, yet it’s been noted to ISPreview.co.uk that this feature has vanished from Sky’s site only to be replaced by a new range of paid plans.

The move has been spotted on the same day that the standard price of Sky Broadband Unlimited (up to 17Mbps) jumped by more than 33% from £7.50 to £10 per month (here), which means that new customers will now be paying more and yet getting less for their money.

Curiously Sky has not made any obvious mention of the Sky Talk Weekends removal and indeed we wouldn’t have even thought to check for it had Sky not announced the introduction of their new Sky Talk plans today. The new plans are set out as follows and among other things include free calls to UK mobiles, but they also remove the free weekend calls option from line rental.

Sky Pay As You Talk (Line Rental)
* No inclusive calls are included, calls are charged via Sky’s standard pay-as-you-go rates.

PRICE: £16.40 per month line rental

Sky Talk Evenings & Weekends Extra
* Inclusive calls to UK mobile and UK landline numbers at evenings and weekends.
* 0870 and 0845 numbers included within inclusive calls.

PRICE: £4 per month + line rental

Sky Talk Anytime Extra
* Unlimited inclusive calls at any time day or night to UK mobile and UK landline numbers.
* 0870 and 0845 numbers included within inclusive calls.
* Only 2p per minute to call geographic landlines in 22 popular international destinations.

PRICE: £8 per month + line rental

Sky Talk International Extra
* Unlimited inclusive geographic landline calls to 50 popular worldwide destinations.
* Unlimited inclusive calls at any time day or night to UK mobile and UK landline numbers.
* 0870 and 0845 numbers included within inclusive calls.

PRICE: £12 per month + line rental

At present the change only appears to affect new subscribers, with existing customers continuing to benefit from included Sky Talk Weekends. But that doesn’t mean to say that existing subscribers will continue to receive the service forever.

It’s worth pointing out that TalkTalk did something similar with their Simply Broadband service not so long ago, which reflects the increasing move away from fixed phone lines for making voice calls (i.e. people prefer to use their mobiles). But at the same time offering such services at an extra cost will do nothing to reverse that trend.