Customers of ISP Sky Broadband Braced for Annual Price Hike

Sky has quietly updated their UK website to note that “some” of their Sky Broadband prices will “increase” on 1st April 2018, which we predict could result in an average rise of around +£1-2 per month on the standard rental charge. Unfortunately Sky aren’t expected to reveal the exact details until next week.

The move would be in keeping with Sky’s last price rise on related packages, which occurred on 1st March 2017 (here); that one saw the underlying price of their line rental and broadband packages increase by +£1.59 per month. The cost of calling via Sky Talk also increased by several pence.

Price rises are rarely greeted with much affection, although there are a number of reasons why they occur. The main reason is because we’re all consuming much more data than before and ISP’s have to compensate for the flexibility of their “unlimited” allowances somewhere.

Rising inflation can be another factor and providers are also under pressure to adopt all sorts of new Ofcom rules and Government regulations, such as the system for sending millions of copyright warning emails (“subscriber alerts“) (here). Not to mention new Internet snooping measures (here) and plans for automatic compensation (here), as well as the need to introduce new content or services.

Ofcom’s rule against mid-contract price hikes means that some customers might be able to use such increases to exit their contract penalty free (you’d need to do this within 30 days of the notification), although this may depend upon the scale of Sky’s increase. Alternatively customers could try calling the operator to haggle for a lower price (Retentions – Tips for Cutting Your Broadband Bill Without Switching ISP).

Just remember that most of the major broadband ISPs will increase their prices at least once a year.