BT to drop BB price to ISPs

Quentin

BT Wholesale are going to drop the price they charge to ISPs for providing broadband to £7.63 a month. The cost of lines in busy exchanges will drop further.

This will take place no later than May 2007, but could come sooner (depending on how many landlines they lose to other customers - they are allowed to reduce their prices earlier if they have lost 1.5m lines, and so far they have lost over 1m)

Maybe worth hanging on before signing up to any new 12 month deal if you can, as no doubt the price cuts will be reflected in the monthly charges from the ISPs, and a price war will be on the cards.

Full story in today's Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/11/14/cnbt14.xml

mrJ_5

remember this is £7.63+VAT, down from around £8.50+VAT (was about a 9% drop) - so the savings will not be that much

activation charges drop from £47 inc VAT, to £40 inc VAT......

however, BT are introducing a ceverance charge (cease and reprovide), which will cost £40 inc VAT, to try and incourage migrations

... so you could end up being worse off, in some situations! However, I wouldn't expect much hope that the saving will get passed on as much as people hope for - ISPs are already operating at minimal profit levels

Quentin

The "cessation charge" is to be levied only when the ISP doesn't provide a MAC. (And is proposed to cost £33.75 + vat)

It's aimed at LLU services (eg talk talk), not IPstream ISPs.

And a further drop in the price of broadband (following the drop to £7.63 (+vat) is expected from BT wholesale in January, 2008.