ISP Gigaclear Freezes Prices for 18 Months – Ahead of 2023 Hike

UK ISP Gigaclear, which is busy extending their 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across rural parts of England, has today announced that they’re “freezing … prices for 18 months at the lowest ever rate” in order to help tackle the ongoing cost of living crisis. But there’s a catch, a big hike is coming in 2023.

The provider, which already covers 250,000 premises and aims to reach 500,000 with their full fibre network by the end of 2023 (here), currently charges just £17 a month (discounted rate) for a symmetric 200Mbps broadband package on an 18-month term (£40 thereafter) and that rises to £49 (£79 thereafter) for their top 830Mbps plan. All packages include a wireless router and free installation.

The latest announcement states that the ISP has frozen its “FULL FIBRE PRICES AT BEST-EVER RATES,” which it says means that their package rates have been frozen for 18-months, before adding that “both new and existing customers will not see a rise in prices until October 2023 at the earliest.”

The press release makes it sounds like they’re freezing both their discount (“Best-Ever Rates“) and their standard post-contract prices for the stated period, but we suspect the current discount rates will continue to change (they’re often changing offers) and this may just mean that their post-contract rates will not change for the next 18-months. We have asked for some clarification.

Nick Rawlings, Chief Marketing Officer at Gigaclear, said:

“Gigaclear has built its ultrafast, full-fibre broadband network to some of the most underserviced areas of the country, areas that had been failed by other providers.

Now prices with the big ISPs are sky-rocketing and the cost of living is on the up, we have responded by taking the stress away from our customers by fixing our prices at a fair level. This is the lowest rate we’ve ever gone to for our full-fibre packages, and we are committed to continuing to provide our customers with great value for money.”

Naturally, there’s a catch, which is revealed by the addition of some unwelcome small print underneath Gigaclear’s packages: “Price Freeze – the advertised monthly prices will not increase in 2022 but on or after the 1st October every year from October 2023 we’ll increase the monthly price of your broadband Service by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published by the Office for National Statistics in July of that year plus 3.5%.”

The decision to adopt the CPI (inflation) + 3.5% measure, which brings Gigaclear’s approach into line with many of the market’s largest players (an approach that has been widely criticised), is unlikely to go down well. The price freeze is welcome, but existing customers will no doubt be weary of what this means for next year.

The Bank of England had hoped that inflation might start to drop back a bit later in 2022, but the impact of Russia’s war could end up having the opposite effect (i.e. if the hikes in 2022 were dire, then 2023 could be worse).