Price increase on the way?

[#1]

I am not usually price sensitive as long as I am paying for something I use.  But what is happening with line rental in this country is obscene, it wasnt too long ago line rental was around £10-11 a month and now its approaching £20 fast, considering wholesale costs arent going up this huge amount every year, retail isps such as plusnet are simply profiteering from it, now we know why plusnet hate broadband only customers so much.  
In terms of value for money landlines are already very bad value, they can only be used in one place and do not have integrated minutes by default, or integrated caller id display.  10 years ago mobile phones were considered very expensive, now its the complete opposite.  Plusnet (and other isps) are praying on customers the fact that a line line is required for dsl broadband so they have to pay the line rental.

[#2]

I think BT's strategy of ever increasing line rental and not upgrading exchanges without BDUK funding, will put their future at grave risk.
When the first mobile broadband operator rolls out an uncongested UNLIMITED data wireless dongle that allows internet connection sharing at say £20 per month, then there will be no need to have a landine, or a home phone, or wired broadband.
When that happens, then BT will lose significant market share.

[#3]

Openreach's WLR Line Rental Monthly Charges
01/03/2006 - 31/03/2010 - £8.39 (£9.65 inc VAT at 15% / £9.86 inc VAT at 17.5%)
01/04/2010 - 31/03/2012 - £8.64 (£10.15 inc VAT at 17.5% / £10.37 inc VAT at 20%)
01/04/2012 - 31/03/2013 - £8.23 (£9.88 inc VAT at 20%)
01/04/2013 - 30/04/2013 - £7.90 (£9.47 inc VAT at 20%)
01/05/2013 - 19/12/2013 - £7.77 (£9.32 inc VAT at 20%)
20/12/2013 - 16/05/2014 - £7.78 (£9.33 inc VAT at 20%)
17/05/2014 -                         £8.01 (£9.62 inc VAT at 20%)
In real life terms, Openreach's WLR pricing has actually fallen. Compounded from 2006-2014 with an average RPI of 2.86%, the pricing could now have been something like £10.50 (£12.60 inc VAT at 20%) a month.
As far as I understand, the Openreach WLR is literally just the line rental - you have to then have your own call supplier, who for Plusnet will be BT Wholesale. I did try to find the wholesale pricing for this, but I couldn't find anything. This would need to be added on to the WLR pricing to see what PN's profit margins are (as a rough guide) on line rental.
If you look at PN's Line Rental Saver, you would save £3.51 a month or £42.12 a year by taking this - which is quite a big saving. Plusnet take a net amount of £9.16 a month for the Line Rental Saver. If BT Wholesale pass on the £7.78 a month Openreach WLR charge plus say £1 a month for usage of the BT Wholesale call network (complete guess), then you can see the profit margins are very minimal.

[#4]

The problem is the usual one of not appreciating what line rental in the UK really is
It is the combined cost of
1. The rent/maintenance/upgrade for the physical phone line to your address and the tech behind it
PLUS
2. The cost of receiving a voice service on the line (Call costs being extra)
OFCOM have required it to be bundled up in this way.  So the price of BB alone seems quite cheap by comparison as it is being artificially cross subsidized by the voice side. This is giving a totally false impression of the prices.
We could equally have item 1 above bundled up with BB charges.  Then all our broadband charges would be huge while the extra cost for having a voice service on the line would be relatively small.
In reality we should have 3 charges:
To BTOR as network operator for their charges in maintaining/upgrading the network.
To our voice phone retailer for having a voice service on the line plus call charges as appropriate
To our Broadband retailer for having a data service on the line plus data charges if applicable.

[#5]

Im not sure if i remember this correctly, but wasnt there a time when plusnet campaigned, or at least made some noise when the likes of offcom/the government did something or proposed something that may have had a negative impact on consumers?
And i also vaguely remember a time when the only major advertsing spend by plusnet was to sponsor the local football team as most people signed up via word of mouth.

[#6]

It's time broadband and voice charges were properly separated instead of one grossly subsidising the other.
Until that's done the consumer usually has little real choices available to them.
As I've said before I keep the voice side with BT as I believe they do the best job there and the broadband with Plusnet likewise.
No one had this problem with dial-up (obviously). Things then were so much more transparent.

[#7]

x47c I agree thats 'a' reason, no doubt broadband is been subsidised by line rental.
broadband pricing is the new customer draw.
line rental + voice services is the profit driver.

[#8]

Does anyone know what happened to this idea from 10 months ago?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/10173026/Broadba...

[#9]

I did see something official from Ofcom, just a couple of months back that suggested line rentals will be progressively reduced, which is what triggered BT to put their prices up ahead of the proposed cuts.
I'll try and find a link to the document/article, when I remember where I saw it.

[#10]

Thanks Purleigh
Yes, I guess the threat of a forced price reduction could well explain a price increase... 

[#11]

Quote from: billnotben

It's time broadband and voice charges were properly separated instead of one grossly subsidising the other. Until that's done the consumer usually has little real choices available to them. As I've said before I keep the voice side with BT as I believe they do the best job there and the broadband with Plusnet likewise.

Me too.

[#12]

Quote from: purleigh

I did see something official from Ofcom, just a couple of months back that suggested line rentals will be progressively reduced, which is what triggered BT to put their prices up ahead of the proposed cuts.

The OFCOM pricing reviews into fixed access broadband, LLU access and WLR have been delayed by a few months. These will basically set how much Openreach can increase or decrease their prices for the coming years.
Openreach has always amended its prices for WLR in April/May in line with the OFCOM price ceilings. They were expecting to have the new ceilings from OFCOM already, but the delay has meant they took the decision to increase their prices in line with what they expect OFCOM to set the new ceilings to be. Once the OFCOM pricing ceilings (which might require Openreach to reduce its WLR pricing) are released and confirmed, Openreach has agreed refund CPs if their current pricing is higher than the new OFCOM ceilings.

[#13]

Quote from: alanj

Does anyone know what happened to this idea from 10 months ago? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/10173026/Broadba...

thats wholesale, retail uses it as a ATM, so wont be going down.  Sadly regulators are to be blunt often niave, reducing wholesale cost doesnt mean retail follows suit.

[#14]

Quote from: chrcoluk

Sadly regulators are to be blunt often niave, reducing wholesale cost doesnt mean retail follows suit.

Similarly, wholesale costs going up doesn't mean the retail side put their prices up.
I think what will happen is that full LLU providers will be given cheaper access to the exchanges and in turn, will be able to pass on this cost saving in lower line rental charges to end users. This will bring more competition and competitive pricing on the WLR side for non-LLU CPs.

[#15]

Quote from: billnotben

As I've said before I keep the voice side with BT as I believe they do the best job there

This statement either conveys a lack of understanding that BT Retail should be receiving the same arm's length service from BTOR as should all CPs or (if the statement is a factual reflection of real experience) indicates that BTOR is favouring BT Retail customers to the detriment of other CP's customers.