Aquiss Calls for UK Broadband Cease Charges to be Scrapped at Wholesale

Shropshire-based independent ISP Aquiss has called for the abolition of “unnecessary and unjustifiable” Broadband Cease Charges across the industry, which reflects charges that are typically imposed by wholesale network operators on retail service providers when a customer disconnects from their network.

Aquiss states that, in the “vast majority of cases“, particularly with modern Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) deployments, the disconnection involves “nothing more than a simple software-based network stop or configuration change“.

The disgruntled provider then adds that no physical network equipment is removed or recovered from the customer’s premises during a cease, while new occupants of the same property can simply get the Optical Network Terminal (ONT) reactivated without additional effort or expense (when required).

However, despite this “minimal operational impact“, cease charges continue to be levied – often passed on to end customers or absorbed by retail ISPs. Aquiss says they see “no credible justification for their persistence” in an era of efficient, software-driven network management and widespread full fibre rollout.

Aquiss Statement

As a provider committed to fair, transparent, and customer-focused broadband services, delivering ultrafast full-fibre connections over networks such as Openreach and CityFibre, to name but a couple, Aquiss urges the wider UK broadband industry, including wholesale operators, other ISPs, and regulatory stakeholders, to move decisively towards the complete removal of these charges.

Eliminating Broadband Cease Charges would:

– Reduce unnecessary costs for service providers and, ultimately, consumers

– Support the UK’s ongoing transition to full-fibre connectivity by removing outdated legacy frictions

– Align industry practices with the low-effort reality of modern network disconnections

Aquiss stands ready to collaborate with industry partners and welcomes dialogue on this important issue to drive positive change for customers nationwide.

Practical examples of this aren’t always visible to the public (only some wholesale providers openly publish their pricing), although we do note that BT Wholesale charges ISPs a flat one-off “cease charge” of £35.59 +vat regardless of whether you have an ADSL, FTTC, SOGEA or modern FTTP broadband line. CityFibre and other networks do seem to apply a similar charge.

BTW’s charges apply when the broadband service is terminated at an end user premises either as a result of an end-user requested activity, or a system’s generated activity as part of a migration. But such charges are often waived for service regrades/upgrades or switches that take place on the same network.

We do think that Aquiss has a valid point about such charges on modern FTTP lines, although it’s worth considering that they might still have some application for some older copper-line based broadband products that may, in some cases, still require a physical change to disconnect the line. Equally, such charges do form a part of how wholesale providers model their overall pricing, thus by removing them we might well see price increases occurring in other areas to compensate.

We should add that, under Ofcom’s rules, ISPs that pass on such charges to consumer must usually make them transparent at the point of sale (only sticking them in the small print might not be good enough) and cannot charge excessive amounts that put them in a better financial position than if the contract continued.

Finally, a small apology for not covering this sooner, as the news actually came in last week but was overlooked in our already busy inbox (only spotted it by chance today).