Customers of Sky’s sibling NOW Broadband (NOW TV) sub-brand are starting to receive notifications of this year’s price increases, but unlike their parent operator, they appear to be keeping their broadband and phone line rental prices frozen in 2023. Instead, only call charges are being increased.
Sky Broadband recently told their customers to brace for a modest average annual price hike of 8.1% (here), which to be fair is well below the c. 14-15% increases being introduced by all of their closest competitors this year. As such, it was expected that NOW TV’s own broadband and phone line rental prices would probably follow suit after previously being frozen, but they haven’t.
The provider does NOT, much like Sky, use inflation figures as the basis for its related price increases. But their terms do still allow them to hike prices for customers mid-contract, although they didn’t do this in 2022. According to Choose, NOW Broadband have this week opted to keep their existing prices unchanged in 2023 too, which will no doubt be welcomed by their subscribers.
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However, the operator has confirmed that their UK landline and mobile call charges will be increasing from 1st May 2023, which means that the charge for non-inclusive calls to UK landlines & mobiles will increase from 22p per minute to 25p per minute (details). But in another surprising move, NOW will allow customers to leave penalty free if they don’t like the change (this doesn’t usually occur for routine changes to call rates).
The downside is that NOW Broadband seems like an ISP stuck in a time warp, where the clock stopped five years ago and hasn’t really moved forward. Virtually every broadband ISP in the market is now offering some form of full fibre (FTTP) package, yet the best that NOW can muster is a choice between a practically geriatric ADSL service or a couple of old FTTC (VDSL2) plans. Hopefully, at some point, Sky will help them to catch-up.
I signed up recently for the month to month contract, purely as a stop gap until FTTP comes along (either Openreach or Community Fibre will win the race and be first to serve). This move already saved me money on my previous 2 year contract with another ISP. So knowing no increase, while most other mainstream ISP’s is an absolute bonus.
Before I switched to FTTP, I was with them for years. They were always the cheapest and as long as you used your own router their service was perfect.
Is the NOW-supplied router awful? I’m considering switching for my parents who only really need reliability and upstairs+downstairs coverage. They’ve had no complaints with ancient TalkTalk (Huawei) routers for years, I really don’t want them having to struggle now.
The router I was given only had 2 Lan ports and the WIFI range wasn’t the best.
Every ISP router I have ever received has been awful with the sole exception of BT Home Hubs.
They might possibly have improved their router since then as like I say I signed up for them years ago (about 5 years ago).
For me I found it was worth buying a good decent used router from Amazon during their marketplace sale or from CEX and just sticking with it for all ISPs.
I’ve read quite a few people complaining about the wifi coverage, even in more recent reviews. It seems they use a rebadged Sky Q Hub – given that this will surely be much more modern than the TalkTalk routers that have worked perfectly well in my parents home, would you guess that I’m no more likely to be worse for wifi range? Also, did you have any difficulties using your own router with NOW?
“Also, did you have any difficulties using your own router with NOW?”
You need to have a router that supports Option61 to use it with Sky/NowTV. TP-Link routers do this. As do (I believe) Asus Routers if you install one of the custom firmwares onto it. Personally for me I bought a cheap used Zyxel VMG1312-B10A from ebay for £10. Flashed it with a custom Jumboframes firmware from Kitzforums and set it up into bridge mode and then used PFsense on an Intel Nuc. I then stuck with this when I was with all ISPs. I did this because I read if you can match your router chipset with your local cabinet chipset you can get maximum possible sync speeds. I had a Huawei cabinet and Zyxel chipsets work perfectly with this according to Kitzforums again.
This is why Plusnet do well, using re badged BT HH’s
They let me leave penalty free when moving to FTTP. Great provider if FTTC is suitable and I have set 4 contracts up for other people with them. I suspect they are there to maximise sky’s investment in exchange equipment but eventually they will have to adopt FTTP
Same here. I was pleasantly surprised when I enquired back in January as my contract was due to end in March, I was able to leave penalty free there and then with no extra charges even for the two months left.
NOW doesn’t seem to be offered in more affluent areas, even where Sky does have LLU/FTTC service. And I think Now will cap FTTC at 36 even if the line can do 70
Have you got any evidence to back up such a snobbish claim? In my local area there are plenty of multi million pound houses and there is nothing to stop them ordering Now
Your comment about the cap is not accurate, they do offer the higher tier and the only restriction is whether you line is sufficient to allow that speed i.e. mostly down to distance to the local cab.
I live in West London, which isn’t exactly known as a poor area – although why we are waiting for fibre still is another question. Anyway, they let me order the 80/20 service and I will be expecting that speed given it’s what I get on Sky.
What a tw** comment.
I have worked for NOW in the sales team, the only places NOW won’t sell to are areas which have 75% coverage of Fttp as openreach stop them selling there. If you bought fab fibre the max speed is 36 maps, but for a couple of pounds more you can get super fibre which use the lines full capacity, I have sold to customer speeds of 75mbps.
I live in an area served by sky but now tv is not available. There is very little FTTP.
Moving to Now next week, from Sky. I can only get FTTC here anyway, and Sky want £40 per month! Seems stupid to be swapping router to exactly the same model on the same network.
You will probably find your Sky router works on the now set up. Certainly did for my father in law when he did the same as you.
Buy a third party router, turn the WiFi off on the sky or now hub, both will work with NOW, People assume you are going to get the best speeds possible but they are a budget provider and haven’t invested in a new router for a while, buy a WiFi 6 or 6e router that you can plug into the isp on and use as an access point, then you will have great service
SKY routers used a VLAN ID or set “options” so unless something changed and they don’t do this anymore, your own router will need to be able to have these values configured else you won’t logon to FTTC.
I was expecting to do the annual dance with Now once mine and my parents contracts ended April. I was pretty surprised that both of us got emails saying basically the deal we have (£20 “Super Fibre” & anytime calls) would roll to April 2024.
Well played Now, two customers retained.
I used my own router, zero difference in service to the Sky FTTC we had before Now.
i will look at Now when my plusnet contract comes to the end, the prices seems good and I am not bothered about FTTP, at least they won’t be pushing to change if they don’t privide it
FTTP is lightyears ahead of FTTC. The switchover for me felt like going from VHS to UHD. You never have to worry about line stabilisation, you can turn your router off overnight and get the same speed in the morning. And your pings are 8ms compared to 80 for FTTC which makes gaming so much better. You can also get FTTP cheaper than FTTC on certain deals
@Anthony, no doubt FTTP is light years ahead, but I have no need for the higher speed, would be nice to have a higher upload speed sometimes, but I have no real need for anything faster than 36Mb/s download. Stabilisation is fine, and why would I want to turn the router off at night? If I turn the router off, my external cameras will stop working, my echo units will not work and won’t turn my coffee machine on in the morning, so it is nice and hot ready for me to make coffee before going to work. Heating is also done via the router, while I can still control it via the thermostat if need be. 80? Wow, if you got that on FTTC then something is wrong, I get around 9. Not that I test it very often as I am not a games player and pings is not that important to me.
Plusnet did offer 36 down, 9 up FTTP for £23, which was a couple of quid cheaper than I am paying for FTTC at the same speed, but now I notice they have put the price up for FTTP to the same price I am paying for FTTC. The next one up is £28 a month, that is for 75Mb/s.
Sorry, but I don’t think it is worth going through the hassle of getting FTTP installed and go for the same speed. If someone is going to go through the installation process of FTTP then they may as well get some for it and go for a higher speed.
The other problem at the moment is the higher prices that will be charged in March, so don’t do anything until at least the end of march.
@Anthony, just an add-on to my post, the other thing is the 24 months contract, far too long for me
Not so much pushing to change it’s more BTO will stop you from being able to do anything BUT upgrade!
PN do not ever push you – I check for every customer when i speak to them and I let them know (as I would with you) but the decision is yours – Nothing in it for me to push you as a tech agent, but seeing someone go from ADSL to FTTP and be happy gives me a kick, especially when they didn’t even know it was available.
It’s not about pushing people at all… Some of us are in it for the personal satisfaction of actually helping.. Makes no odds to me if you pay £23,99 or £55 – as long as the customer is happy I don’t care for anything else.
“the other thing is the 24 months contract, far too long for me”
I am sure BT could let PN do 30 days (in fact we used to) as PN use their network – same as Sky can let Now do 30 days as it’s very cheap for them to provide.
If only you knew how much it costs to set up and provide ANY circuit, you might not think 24 months is unreasonable at all.
‘If only you knew how much it costs to set up and provide ANY circuit, you might not think 24 months is unreasonable at all.’
New FTTC line, delivered over SOGEA as that’s how we all roll Openreach charge £54.59 + VAT as of April 1st. Needs copper to the home already of course.
Migration from another FTTC supplier Openreach charge £3.55 + VAT from 1st April. Add the printing, postage, etc, for what should be an entirely automated process once customer found and details sent to BT Enterprise to pass to Openreach let’s be generous and say a tenner.
FTTP £114.79 + VAT for a new install with ONT install.
£3.35 + VAT to take over an existing fibre connection. Again add admin, say a tenner.
No idea what BT Enterprise charge on top, presume minimal due to BT Consumer group discount
Tons of special offers on FTTP connection charges, or indeed suppliers could offer rolling one month contracts in return for the install charge or higher monthly fees in return for a 12 month contract but this wouldn’t be good for churn so all guns blazing both go get the long contracts signed and to get them extended with offers part way through.
Most ISPs couldn’t give a toss about customer happiness index if churn is low. A customer may be ecstatic but an altnet rocking up offering more for less has a decent chance of having that customer part ways with their ISP.
The longer and more tightly locked up the contract the less often the competition need fending off, the lower the churn is.
Forgot to mention. Anyone can do 1 month contracts on FTTC and FTTP, both direct from Openreach and through BT Enterprise. The minimum term on standard FTTC/P lines is a month.
Either Plusnet decided or somewhere else in Consumer decided Plusnet would not take advantage of these.
@haha, by all accounts because I am on the lower end of FTTC, I can stay even when the FTTC stop sell happens, and I go for a new contract. Not that it is going to happen for a while here. So far plusnet have been good, they have not got in contact with me about changing to fibre, no doubt they will contact me towards the end of my contract and will mention FTTP, which is fine.
Going from ADSL to FTTP is a bit different, then going from FTTC to FTTP, you will certainly notice the difference, but then you will notice the difference going from ADSL to FTTC, mostly as you can do a lot more.
I have said before, and I will say it again, FTTP will not make any difference to me, unless it has a higher upload speed, that may make a difference at some point.
You say you are in it for the personal satisfaction, you are there for a job to get money to live. in my job I like helping customers when I am in contact with them, as most of my work is in the warehouse, but at the end of the day it is just a job.
Zzoomm sent me another leaflet yesterday, that is three in less than 2 weeks, getting stupid, starting to sound as if they are desperate, new plans, new prices from £19.95 a month. Sounds good until you look at it and see the £19.95 a month is for 3 months, still at least one thing, they now do 12-month contracts.
I am not bothered how much it costs to set up, maybe providers should stop sending, so many routers out, I am sure that will cut down costs. I realise it is not a big part of the costs, but still, no need to send the amount of routers out they do.
I am also not asking for 30 day contracts, 12 months would be fine, 18 months at a stretch, 24 months is a long time and anything can happen in 24 months, I really thought we have got past the long contract stage,now FTTP have given them an excuse to bring it back.
We will see what happens in the next 3-4 months, see how much bills go up next month, but I just don’t see the point in paying more for a faster service I don’t need. It would be like paying for a fast top of the range Samsung phone or any high spec phone for that matter, as I would never use the features or extra speed. This is why my last phone cost me less than £150
+1 on the comment that the standard Now router is fairly poor quality, I have one in a second property (a small bungalow) and had to use powerline extenders to get a connection through a former exterior wall, front of house to back.
@Steve I tried to get a quote for Now in a posh area of North London which is well served by Sky. Comparison websites and Now’ own website reported “no coverage”.
You can claim this as Anecdata/Sample of 1, but I don’t have the time to speculatively try lots of different postcodes
The other two things to note with them is it that is an initial 12 month contract which is a lot shorter when compared to most of the other ISPs and the second thing is that once you are out of those 12 months the price should stay the same, I came out of contract in February this year and still paying £20. I had to get a TP WiFi extender though cause like many other people are saying the WiFi range is rubbish.
Im with Now broadband, and using my own router, which was surprisingly easy to set up .
My minimum term contract is aso up, and they offered me a deal fr a new 12 month contract that was signifficantly more than the do nothing 1 month rolling contract offer.
As for availability with Now broadband being ADSL/VDSL FTTc only then if you are in an area that is an openreach copper stop sell area then Now broadband is not available
@pint – May I ask which router you have?
I use a TP link archer VR2800 , the set up guide is on the tp link dsl modem and router forums ( other cheaper newer models should also work) in short all you do is under connection select Sky(MER)_VDSL and give a generic username and password , Username : abcdefgh@nowtv password 1234567890abcdef and that is all there is to it.
Speed wise I’m getting 58 down and 17 up it might not be as quick as FTTP but for the price ( £22/month) with calls included im not complaining the speed etc fits my needs it seems fine streaming to two TVs at the same time as well as some web browsing etc on top
Thanks very much for this – after the cost saving, having a router that provides the same whole house wireless coverage is the other major requirement, so it’s reassuring to know that there are not-too-expensive options should the supplied router be as rubbish as others suggest.
And as FTTP won’t be available here for some time, we have a similar use case as you – good enough.
I tried the Now router to see how bad it was, and in my opinion the online reviews/complaints about it don’t do it justice – i found it to be much worse than expected.
FTTP is available in my area, and it went FTTP only a few months after i signed up to Now on a 12 month deal, so far ive not been forced off FTTC and there is no sign of that happening ( yet)
i dont need the speed etc from FTTP as FTTC is good enough – why pay more for something else (FTTP) when you can pay less for something that fits my needs – plus FTTC doesn’t require an engineer to install its just plug in and go.
They seem to have completely changed their price strategy from this month.
Today, May 11th, new customers can join NOW Broadband paying £25/month, but that price will rise to £28.50/month from July 5th for the remainder of the 12 month minimum term.
They told me on renewal today (16/05/23) that I will pay £22pm, which is great!, Only to be then told that it will rise to £25pm in July. They aren’t keeping prices cheaper at all, and they informed me of the rise right before I was about to ‘sign up’ for the renewal. Their router has never been the best either, resets itself most days.
It looks like prices are going up on July 5th
https://help.nowtv.com/article/changes-to-your-broadband-membership
“From 5 July 2023, the prices of our broadband membership plans will be going up by £3.50. You’ll see the price change reflected in your bill on or after 5 July. If you’re on an offer, you’ll continue to enjoy a discounted price until your offer end date, but your payments will increase by £3.50 a month.”