Price hikes – take a deal now, or wait until April?

gigaknight

My wife and I have just moved and don't have broadband at our new address yet. We can survive off our mobile data and local wifi hotspots for a while, so I'm wondering what we should do.

There are good deals being offered at the moment, but I'm assuming that's because we'd be locked for 12+ months into a price 14—17% higher in a few weeks' time. I used to work for Sky customer services, though, and I'm betting that prices for new customers won't rise by that much, since angry customers will be looking to switch when they see their new bills – but I'm not 100% confident in my bet. Price hikes were smaller, and not linked to inflation, when I worked there.

Is there anyone here with more up-to-date insider knowledge, or past data to compare to? What do you think is the safer bet? Should we bank on deals for new customers staying low come April, or take what we can get now before prices go up?

SaverRate

If you take a new deal now you may not be subject to the April price increase for this year. Check with the provider and get it in writing.

HaroldWhistler

gigaknight said:

My wife and I have just moved and don't have broadband at our new address yet. We can survive off our mobile data and local wifi hotspots for a while, so I'm wondering what we should do.

There are good deals being offered at the moment, but I'm assuming that's because we'd be locked for 12+ months into a price 14—17% higher in a few weeks' time. I used to work for Sky customer services, though, and I'm betting that prices for new customers won't rise by that much, since angry customers will be looking to switch when they see their new bills – but I'm not 100% confident in my bet. Price hikes were smaller, and not linked to inflation, when I worked there.

Is there anyone here with more up-to-date insider knowledge, or past data to compare to? What do you think is the safer bet? Should we bank on deals for new customers staying low come April, or take what we can get now before prices go up?

If you are in a FTTC property (non FTTP [Full Fibre area]), my advice would be to Wait.

If you are able to use a Mifi device for the internet during any interim period, then use that. Indeed, you can even get a rolling 30 day SIM (which can be cancelled at any time) from any provider that uses a network with a strong 4G signal in your area. Note that you can also use the likes of Lebara, Lyca, Smarty, etc to get the same signal as the underlying "big" operator (Vodafone, O2, Three). 

Once the price increase has been "done" in the March/April period, then you can look at the best "deals" on the marketplace then and choose accordingly. Even then, I would advise the shortest possible contract. 

If you are able to get FTTP (Full Fibre) from a broadband provider that uses either the Openreach, CityFibre, Hyperoptic or Alternative city/rural underlying network, then you may not have to wait. There are providers like Cuckoo Broadband, Zen Broadband, B4RN, Community Fibre, YouFibre, Giganet, Hyperoptic etc which offer Full Fibre Ultrafast broadband at fixed prices throughout any rolling, 12 month or 24 month contract. In which case, it would simply be a case of checking what is available at the address using the broadband checker on their websites and comparing prices and customer service etc to make your decision.

The other thing is if the address is going to be FTTC only (and not Full Fibre) for the next year or so, you might find that 4G Mobile Broadband might actually work better for now in terms of speed and reliability. In which case you can continue what you are doing, or shop around for a contract for the best SIM only deal as per the first paragraph. One advantage of mobile broadband (Mifi) is that it would work in the event of a power cut and is portable as well. 

gigaknight

Thanks! This place does have access to FTTP. It's not on the Cuckoo or Hyperoptic networks, but I hadn't heard of the others so I'll check them out.

HaroldWhistler

gigaknight said:

Thanks! This place does have access to FTTP. It's not on the Cuckoo or Hyperoptic networks, but I hadn't heard of the others so I'll check them out.

You're welcome!

Cuckoo is also on the Openreach network (like BT, Sky and others). 

Hyperoptic, CityFibre, and B4RN are different underlying networks. 

Supatramp

HaroldWhistler said:

gigaknight said:

My wife and I have just moved and don't have broadband at our new address yet. We can survive off our mobile data and local wifi hotspots for a while, so I'm wondering what we should do.

There are good deals being offered at the moment, but I'm assuming that's because we'd be locked for 12+ months into a price 14—17% higher in a few weeks' time. I used to work for Sky customer services, though, and I'm betting that prices for new customers won't rise by that much, since angry customers will be looking to switch when they see their new bills – but I'm not 100% confident in my bet. Price hikes were smaller, and not linked to inflation, when I worked there.

Is there anyone here with more up-to-date insider knowledge, or past data to compare to? What do you think is the safer bet? Should we bank on deals for new customers staying low come April, or take what we can get now before prices go up?

If you are in a FTTC property (non FTTP [Full Fibre area]), my advice would be to Wait.

If you are able to use a Mifi device for the internet during any interim period, then use that. Indeed, you can even get a rolling 30 day SIM (which can be cancelled at any time) from any provider that uses a network with a strong 4G signal in your area. Note that you can also use the likes of Lebara, Lyca, Smarty, etc to get the same signal as the underlying "big" operator (Vodafone, O2, Three). 

Once the price increase has been "done" in the March/April period, then you can look at the best "deals" on the marketplace then and choose accordingly. Even then, I would advise the shortest possible contract. 

If you are able to get FTTP (Full Fibre) from a broadband provider that uses either the Openreach, CityFibre, Hyperoptic or Alternative city/rural underlying network, then you may not have to wait. There are providers like Cuckoo Broadband, Zen Broadband, B4RN, Community Fibre, YouFibre, Giganet, Hyperoptic etc which offer Full Fibre Ultrafast broadband at fixed prices throughout any rolling, 12 month or 24 month contract. In which case, it would simply be a case of checking what is available at the address using the broadband checker on their websites and comparing prices and customer service etc to make your decision.

The other thing is if the address is going to be FTTC only (and not Full Fibre) for the next year or so, you might find that 4G Mobile Broadband might actually work better for now in terms of speed and reliability. In which case you can continue what you are doing, or shop around for a contract for the best SIM only deal as per the first paragraph. One advantage of mobile broadband (Mifi) is that it would work in the event of a power cut and is portable as well. 

Mifi has to be plugged into an electrical socket for it to work, so you would lose it in a power cut!!

flaneurs_lobster

Supatramp said:

HaroldWhistler said:

gigaknight said:

My wife and I have just moved and don't have broadband at our new address yet. We can survive off our mobile data and local wifi hotspots for a while, so I'm wondering what we should do.

There are good deals being offered at the moment, but I'm assuming that's because we'd be locked for 12+ months into a price 14—17% higher in a few weeks' time. I used to work for Sky customer services, though, and I'm betting that prices for new customers won't rise by that much, since angry customers will be looking to switch when they see their new bills – but I'm not 100% confident in my bet. Price hikes were smaller, and not linked to inflation, when I worked there.

Is there anyone here with more up-to-date insider knowledge, or past data to compare to? What do you think is the safer bet? Should we bank on deals for new customers staying low come April, or take what we can get now before prices go up?

If you are in a FTTC property (non FTTP [Full Fibre area]), my advice would be to Wait.

If you are able to use a Mifi device for the internet during any interim period, then use that. Indeed, you can even get a rolling 30 day SIM (which can be cancelled at any time) from any provider that uses a network with a strong 4G signal in your area. Note that you can also use the likes of Lebara, Lyca, Smarty, etc to get the same signal as the underlying "big" operator (Vodafone, O2, Three). 

Once the price increase has been "done" in the March/April period, then you can look at the best "deals" on the marketplace then and choose accordingly. Even then, I would advise the shortest possible contract. 

If you are able to get FTTP (Full Fibre) from a broadband provider that uses either the Openreach, CityFibre, Hyperoptic or Alternative city/rural underlying network, then you may not have to wait. There are providers like Cuckoo Broadband, Zen Broadband, B4RN, Community Fibre, YouFibre, Giganet, Hyperoptic etc which offer Full Fibre Ultrafast broadband at fixed prices throughout any rolling, 12 month or 24 month contract. In which case, it would simply be a case of checking what is available at the address using the broadband checker on their websites and comparing prices and customer service etc to make your decision.

The other thing is if the address is going to be FTTC only (and not Full Fibre) for the next year or so, you might find that 4G Mobile Broadband might actually work better for now in terms of speed and reliability. In which case you can continue what you are doing, or shop around for a contract for the best SIM only deal as per the first paragraph. One advantage of mobile broadband (Mifi) is that it would work in the event of a power cut and is portable as well. 

Mifi has to be plugged into an electrical socket for it to work, so you would lose it in a power cut!!

MiFi generally means a wi-fi router (or USB dongle) that is powered by rechargeable batteries, includes things like this 

https://www.three.co.uk/shop/broadband/mobile-broadband/huawei-4g-plus-mifi 

It's just like using your mobile as a hotspot but optimised for a single function.

There are also 4G/5G routers that are mains-powered and function much as wired routers insomuch as they may have wired Ethernet ports etc.

Examples here

https://www.three.co.uk/store/broadband/home-broadband