Openreach Reveal UK Broadband and Ethernet Price Rises for ISPs
Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today unveiled its usual round of annual price increases across their wholesale broadband and Ethernet products for UK ISPs, which touches on everything from full fibre (FTTP) lines to FTTC (VDSL2 / SOGEA), Cablelinks, ISDN and Ethernet Access Direct (EAD), among other products.
Ofcom’s regulatory rules (example) allow Openreach to increase prices across their various products, usually by the CPI level of inflation (currently 4.6%), although this may differ between products due to various factors (discounts etc.) and there could also be some decreases. Increases mean that ISPs on the same network will need to pay more for the services they sell, which typically ends up being passed on to consumers at the retail level.
The price changes this time around are too numerous to easily summarise as they occur across masses of different products, but you can find more details by following the links on their Pricing Page. Just to give a few examples, the standard connection (one-off) charge on FTTP lines is going up from £114.78 +vat to £120.05, while their 100Mbps (30Mbps upload) tier increases from £242.28 +vat to £253.44 per year and their 1Gbps (110Mbps) tier goes from £438.60 to £458.76. The discounts under their Equinox 1/2 special offer have also been impacted (here).
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The annual rental price of their 40Mbps (10Mbps upload) FTTC product will similarly increase from £69.91 to £73.12 and PCP Only self-installations of that same product will go from £54.59 (one-off) to £57.11. The connection fee for their 1Gbps Cablelink (capacity supply) also rises from £607.36 to £635.29, while 10Gbps Cablelinks go from £1,214.71 to £1,270.58. You get the idea.
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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Surely an FTTP connection is the same amount of work regardless of the speed you sign up for? It seems a bit naughty charging different rates. This may be good news for altnets though as it may make their services appear more attractive. At least until they apply their annual increase.
Not really — Openreach are responsible for getting the data between the customer premises and the Openreach Handover Point. If lots of customers order the fastest tier of service then they’ll need more capacity than if everyone is on 40Mb.
@Ben, true but I’d argue that’s what the higher monthly charge is for. The installation charge is for… well, installation.
It makes a difference in terms of how much backhaul has to be provided.
The FTTP installation charge is the same regardless of what speed you order, unless you take one of the advanced installation options.
The other prices quoted were annual rental prices: e.g. £253.44 per year = £21.12 per month (+ VAT) for 300/50
@ 125us
Obviously there are increased costs with more hardware, energy consumption, etc., but I would be really interested in how much. I.e. how much more does it really cost to provide a 1GB connection over say a 500Mbs connection and whether the price differential to the customer between the two tiers actually correlates to the cost difference of providing the two tiers.
Thanks NE555, looks like I misunderstood Mark.
How do ISPs even make any money if they need to pay £120 for the connection, then £435 per year in rental?
Half of the ISPs are selling 1Gbps connections at those prices.
Everyone is amortising that install fee across the length of the contract – that’s why you generally find 18 or 24 month contracts for ISPs now. They are then banking on keeping you after the initial contract period and that’s when they make the real money. On top of that, once a premises has FTTP installed, switching to a new provider or a remote activation of a ceased fibre circuit costs very little.
This helps: https://www.openreach.co.uk/cpportal/updates/briefings/general-briefings/gen07923
The big ISPs will have Equinox II scheme and other discounts.
And yet some people here religiously pray for a one network
Bring on the altnets. End the monopoly
Yep, you are so right.
Was I lucky locking in a price for 3 years. When it comes to DIA well 15% can be £40-450 rise.. I think i dodged 2 price rises in 3 years… luckily it’s ended last month. I will miss the speed but not the monthly price! – a year of AAISP is cheaper than month of BTNet!
pants on fire
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/11/survey-claims-1-in-every-5-businesses-receive-insufficient-internet-speeds.html#comment-295452
What are the EAD price increases referenced in the article, I can’t see any?
Agreed I cannot see any changes to EAD pricing. Last change 01.04.2023. Perhaps you could clarify please Mark?
They actually followed in full yesterday and should now be up. For some reason Openreach split the publication, rather than put everything out on one day.
Mark, I don’t know how you found it, but thank you for linking the Equinox 2 pricing for 2024/25