Rural Full Fibre UK ISP Truespeed Hit Customers with Price Hike

Alternative network operator and broadband ISP Truespeed, which is deploying a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across rural homes in parts of South West England, has this year decided not to maintain their previous Price Freeze by hitting existing customers with a sizeable hike.

The provider has spent the past few years rolling out their full fibre network across rural parts of Devon, Wiltshire and Somerset in England. The operator has so far covered 95,000 premises RFS (Feb 2024 data) and they’re home to over 17,000 customers (Aug 2023 data), but their build has slowed a lot in the past few months and some jobs have also been cut (here).

One of the advantages of the provider is that, despite recent challenges, they have still managed to maintain a strong price freeze, which even continued through a period where other providers were busy introducing some of the market’s largest ever hikes (i.e. the past two years). But the reality is that, as costs mount, such a stance can’t always be maintained and Truespeed have now begun to inform customers of a future price hike.

In order to cover these costs, the provider has confirmed to ISPreview that they will be increasing the list prices of their broadband services by approx. £5 per month. But once again, this does need to be contrasted against the fact that their base prices have effectively been frozen for the past decade, while many of their rivals have hiked prices each year for that same period.

A spokesperson for Truespeed told ISPreview:

“We now need to update our prices to cover the significantly higher costs of running the business. Over the last ten years, our operational costs have increased by over 45%. These include the costs of utilities such as power and fuel, increased costs of maintenance, hardware as well as staffing costs.”

Unlike many other providers, Truespeed also retains their Fixed Price Promise, which means that customers pay only for what they sign up to – “we will never increase customer prices during a fixed contract with us … we will also not change the price of our social tariff which offers broadband connectivity to financially stressed customers.” But obviously this doesn’t protect those who may now be out of their original minimum term.

However, the provider also has a range of contract renewal options for customers, such as those who may wish to secure their prices at a fixed level for the next 12-24 months. “Our customers can contact the Support team to discuss and choose the option best suited for their needs,” added the spokesperson.

The new pricing is due to be formally introduced from 1st April 2024.