UK Broadband ISPs TenTel and TalkTalk Business Hike Line Rental Prices

The cost of fixed line rental (phone) services at two further broadband ISPs – TalkTalk Business (TTB) and TenTel – has today increased by over 9% and this follows similar changes by many of the market’s other providers.

TenTel has pushed the cost of line rental from £15.99 to £17.49 inc. VAT per month, while TalkTalk Business increased from £15.50 +vat (£18.60 inc. VAT) to £16.95 +vat (£20.34 inc. VAT) per month. TenTel’s price increase will not affect existing customers, only new customers who sign up from today. TTB’s router deliver charge has also gone from £4.99 to £7.99.

We also asked the residential division of TalkTalk whether they too would be increasing their prices (they normally do at this time of year) and interestingly a spokesperson told us that they “have no plans to increase line rental at this time,” but we’d take that with a big pinch of salt because such annual increases are fairly routine.

Mind you it is possible that TalkTalk’s previous spate of price hikes and recent Cyber Attack might give them an opportunity to conduct a price freeze, but were that the case then we would have expected to be told about it by now by their PR machine, perhaps repeatedly.

Otherwise the rising price of line rental tends to have more to do with broadband than phone, although the desire to offset lower call revenues does play a role. However the ever rising consumer demand for data and the need to implement new Government policy can also put a burden on ISPs, which often gets reflected via line rental so as to make broadband prices seem more attractive.

The ASA’s plan to force ISPs into combining the cost of broadband and line rental should, in the next few months, make the two more difficult to separate promotionally (here).