Full Fibre Broadband ISP 4th Utility Cut Price of Social Tariff
UK ISP 4th Utility, which is deploying a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to more homes (SDU) and large residential blocks (MDU), has today announced that they’ve reduced the price of their cheaper social tariff for those on benefits from £14.40 to £13.99 per month – bucking the trend of rising prices.
The tariff is available to those covered by their network and includes a free installation, symmetric broadband speeds of 30Mbps and a 30-day rolling contract term, with “no tie-ins to lengthy agreements” and no requirements for “extensive paper trails involving credit checks.”
In order to be eligible, you must also be in a low-income family and claiming one of the following: Universal credit, Income support, Jobseekers allowance or Employment and support allowance. But take note that, at present, they have very limited UK network coverage.
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Tony Hughes, CEO of 4th Utility, said:
“Digital inclusivity is hugely important in helping reduce the digital divide across the nation, that’s why it is vital broadband providers offer competitive prices and initiatives like a Social Tariff for consumers on lower incomes.
At 4th Utility, we believe there should be better access to more affordable options for everyone. That’s why we proudly offer a Social Tariff for those most in need, and we are consistently shouting about our offers to make all eligible tenants aware.”
Finally, a quick reminder – we know social tariffs can be divisive for some, but that is not an excuse to abuse the comment system in order to post offensive remarks toward those who take state benefits. Such posts are against our rules and will be removed.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I wish I could sit around all day claiming benefits just to get this deal.
Try being in pain all day sitting in a wheelchairrelying on the internet as there way of connecting with people and engageing with groups, only venturing out once a week because you still can only afford to pay someone to help you outside the home once a week.
There will always be some bums in the system. Your statement needs amending to cover those in need of these benefits.
D-H I’d certainly shake your hand there. There are far too many taking the mick out of tax payers and laughing all the way.–The medical checks that go with some benefits need to be carried out by people with a me3dical background and a video of the interview and checks carried out needs to be kept on record.
To get my housing asociation rent paid for me and my council tax reduced I’m only allowed to ear what I **would get** in job seekers allowance, but I don’t get the related extras. Good isn’t it. Reward the feckless, and kick the working
Taking a step back from an apparently laudable move, I observe there are a whole range of targeted support schemes for low income groups in telecoms, water, gas and electricity, which add up to a good few billion pounds a year, and then schemes like food banks that depend on personal charitable donations plus those from supermarkets. This begs the question of why private companies and charities are having to supplement apparent failings in the welfare state (about £100bn a year on working age & child related benefits), and why despite the real that is inflation adjusted minimum wage having increased by 50% since 1999, and at double the rate that average wages have risen, we still have a problem of low income households.
Potentially well off topic for this forum, but seems to me the system is broken, and regardless of one’s political leanings, no established party has the intellect, vision or courage to fix the system, yet patting telecoms companies on the back for joining the shadow welfare state is not really a long term solution. If companies really want to support effective change then they need to use their intellectual and business talents to identify the core of the underlying problem, and then lobby for change, and that change isn’t as simple as just raising taxes.
Taxation is at record levels, if anything the solution is to cut taxes and let people create more employment rather than continuously expanding welfare by having companies kowtow to the system because other people’s pockets only extends so far. In talks with them, it’s insane that many council staff seem to be worried about “social offers” than getting the +99% of their tenants and electorate up to speed with fibre
The idea is nice, but look what happened when Truss & Kwarteng announced the idea of cutting taxes to enable growth. Unfortunately we already spend far more each year than tax raises, but nobody cares about balancing the budget, instead believing that they can keep borrowing more and more forever. Fundamentally that chips away at our exchange rate and contributes to inflation, and robs by reducing the real value of government debt but diluting people’s disposable incomes.
Moreover, international data is conclusive that high GDP per capita and high tax go hand in hand, there’s no enduring evidence that wealth really increases as tax reduces.
If the UK government wanted to provoke growth then they need to remove crap red tape (for example Modern Slavery and CO2 reporting requirements for companies), they need to come up with an energy policy that delivers affordable reliable power instead of net zero pipe dreams (especially affordable for industry), they need to simplify the tax system, make planning big projects quicker and easier, have faster infrastructure enabling for projects that rely on them, and recognise that public procurement at the lowest cost is not the same as best value for the nation. They need to remove the incentives for large companies to offshore customer services and back office. And finally you need proper work skills and a work ethic amongst the population – won’t be seeing too much of those in the UK anytime soon.
Nothing happened besides the media brainwashing people with the idea that having more money in their pockets is somehow bad. Inflation is caused by the money printer (increased money supply) and stopping the economy (producing less goods), which caused more money chasing less goods. The exchange rate is down against the dollar because in times of uncertainty, the dollar is the most stable fiat, but this goes for all the currencies (the euro even went as low as 0.92$). Agreed with controlling the spending, too bad we don’t have a fiscally conservative govt
I would question the veracity of that data and who funded it. Singapore has very low taxes and very high GDP per capita. The US also has lower taxes and very high GDP per capita. People and businesses thrive where they get rewarded, high earners simply go where they are punished less
Agreed on the entirety of the last paragraph. However work ethic, culture and welfare go hand in hand. A massive welfare state will promote lazy culture and no work ethic