Rural ISP B4RN Raise 1Gbps Broadband Prices for First Time

Network builder and UK ISP B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North), which has spent the past decade deploying a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across rural parts of England, has for the first time ever announced a price increase to their monthly rental. But they’ve also added a social tariff and cut setup fees.

The provider, which is a registered Community Benefit Society (i.e. it can’t be bought by a commercial operator and profits are distributed back into the community), first began building full fibre services to remote rural homes in Lancashire during 2012, and they’ve since expanded across various parts of Cheshire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Yorkshire.

So far B4RN has managed to cover over 20,000 premises, with more than 10,000 customers connected. Until now, a typical home would have paid a standard one-off connect fee of £150 (waived for some volunteers) and a monthly rental of just £30 per month for an unlimited 1Gbps symmetric speed package, which has been the norm since the start.

However, the operator has today announced new service charges, which will mostly be introduced from June 2022. Except the connection fee, which has been introduced today for new customers.

The key changes are:

• The standard residential service charge is being increased for the first time in more than a decade, from £30 to £33 a month.

• B4RN is introducing a Social Tariff of £15 a month, which is available to any customers who are recipients of Universal Credit.

• Businesses run from home, and holiday lets, will be charged at the standard residential service charge of £33 a month.

• The connection fee is being reduced from £150 to £60 and will now be payable as monthly instalments of £5 over the first year of service.

A couple of years ago we questioned the sustainability of B4RN’s current £30 price point over the longer-term and today’s announcement looks like a reasonable adjustment, which should enable them to continue their current trajectory without needing to make sacrifices. We also shouldn’t forget that this is the first time they’ve increased their prices in over a decade, which is not something that many other ISPs can say.

On top of that, this increase has to be weighed against the significant reduction in their connection fee and the launch of a cheaper Social Tariff.

B4RN CEO, Michael Lee, said:

“It is costing us more each year to deliver service to our customers. We are setting our service charges at a level which will enable us to continue to deliver our market leading service to our existing customers.

The basic costs of delivering our service, regardless of the number of customers using the service, are high, and increasing. The extra costs of delivering our service to any additional customers are, however, relatively low. Therefore, if we increase our customer numbers, we can deliver our service more efficiently to everyone, and future service charge increases can be minimised.

We are not asking our existing customers to pay for the costs of expanding the network, or to offset the reduced connection fee. Each new B4RN project is entirely self-funding – the build costs, including connection costs, are paid for using money raised from community shares investment, grants, and the Government gigabit voucher scheme and connection fees.”

On the subject of that Social Tariff. The announcement itself doesn’t clarify what you get for it, but B4RN has confirmed that customers will receive the same 1Gbps service as their standard subscribers, although we understand that the £60 one-off connection fee will still be applicable to this product.

The announcement also hints at the launch of a new VoIP (phone) product, which is due to arrive “soon” and will provide “unlimited usage within reasonable expectations” (we assume they mean calls) for a standard monthly price of £9. The product is currently in trial and is due to arrive within the “next few months“.