We reported yesterday that, from 1st January 2010, BT Wholesale planned to reduce its prices, specifically for their 'up to' 24Mbps ( ADSL2+ ) services - Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC). Today we have managed to gain some more detail on the specifics of that reduction and what it could mean for UK ISPs (those using BT’s platform).

BT said that bandwidth charges were to be dropped by almost 50% and that WBC rental costs would be standardised at the lowest current price (here). This accompanied a related announcement about plans to extend the reach of 24Mbps services to 75% of UK homes and businesses by the spring of 2011.

The Details:
* WBC bandwidth charges will reduce from £79.34 (excluding VAT) to £40.00 (excluding VAT) per Mbits/s per month.

* WBC rental is being standardised at £5.88 (excluding VAT) per line per month across the enlarged WBC footprint, a reduction from £7.66 (excluding VAT) in some areas.

BT believes that together these pricing changes will, for typical customers, result in an overall 14% WBC price reduction in Market 3 (WBC Geographic Tier A) and 29% WBC price reduction in Markets 2 and 1 (WBC Geographic Tiers C and E) on the exchanges in the enlarged WBC footprint by Spring 2011.

For those unfamiliar with some of that, there are 3 different categories for UK telephone exchanges and their coverage - Market 1, 2 and 3 (Hull is separate). These represent definitions of competition, thus Market 3 represents locations with a large amount of available competition from rival ISPs, while Market 1 may only be covered by BT.

Naturally Market 3 services are likely to be cheaper because of the added competition, which in turn is frequently the result of related areas being busy urban environments with plenty of people and opportunity. Some UK ISPs , such as PlusNet , already charge roughly £5 per month less for broadband services in Market 3 than those provided to 1 and 2. Most other ISPs prefer to split the cost evenly and offer a single standard package price to all.

UPDATE - 3:02pm

BT informs us that the reduction does not apply to the Managed version of its WBC product (WBMC).