Full Fibre UK ISP Hyperoptic Cuts Price of Social Broadband Tariff

City-focused full fibre (FTTP/B) broadband ISP Hyperoptic, which is working to extend their gigabit-speed network to 2 million UK homes by the end of 2023, has today announced that they’re permanently cutting the price of their fastest (150Mbps) “social tariff” (Fair Fibre Plan) for those on benefits, from £25 to £20 per month.

The provider launched their Fair Fibre Plan last year, which is a social tariff that starts at £15 per month for an unlimited 50Mbps (5Mbps upload) package and now rises to just £25 £20 for 150Mbps (symmetric). You can also add a phone service with included evening and weekend UK calls to this for an extra £3. The tariff is available to any of the 900,000+ premises they currently cover, which mostly consists of large residential (MDU) buildings, some office blocks and a growing number of houses in lots of different cities and large towns.

The provider’s Fair Fibre tariffs are available to any eligible new or existing customers to move to at any time, without penalty, and don’t need a credit check – all plans are 30 day rolling contracts. In terms of eligibility, customers need to be on benefits such as Universal Credit, Income Support, Pension Credit, Income-related Job Seekers Allowance (JSA), Housing Benefit, Personal Independence Payment, Attendance Allowance, Universal Credit, Care Leavers support, and Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

Dana Tobak, Hyperoptic CEO, said:

“Just because a family is eligible for a social tariff, doesn’t mean they should be limited to slow speeds. We know from our conversations with Which?, and seeing their research, that slow speeds and challenges exiting current contracts are key reasons customers who are aware of social tariffs are not signing up. We already offer the fastest tariff, and now we’re reducing the price of that to ensure it’s available to more households, giving them the speed they need.”

The move appears timed to roughly coincide with today’s meeting between ISPs and the Government (DCMS), which is expected to focus on the challenges of boosting take-up for social tariffs. On top of that, Hyperoptic’s move to slash the price of their top social tier also stands in stark contrast to BT’s recent comments (here), which saw the national incumbent warn that such tariffs may become “unsustainable” without more support (e.g. a public subsidy).

In fairness, BT are currently seeing the lion’s share of adoption (roughly 85%) of such tariffs and so are most exposed to any related drag on costs. By comparison, it’s unclear how many of Hyperoptic’s customers have taken such a tariff, although they have only been offering it for a little over a year.