BT and Carphone Warehouse put up line rental prices

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 1 Apr 2009 at 09:44

BT has increased its monthly line rental prices, pushing up the price of broadband access.

BT line rental has gone up from £10.27 to £11.25. Customers who don't pay by Direct Debit and don't have paperless billing are hit with another £2.75 of mandatory monthly charges.

The BT move has been mirrored by Carphone Warehouse, which is putting up the price of its line rental from £10.50 to match BT's £11.25.

Carphone Warehouse admits that its put up prices simply to retain parity with BT. "We're just keeping step with them in the marketplace," a Carphone spokesman told PC Pro. "Our goal is to make sure we're a much cheaper overall package."

Market watchers claim such artificial price synchronisation is common. "Generally speaking, BT sets the agenda for the rest of the market," says Michael Phillips, product director at HomePhoneChoices.co.uk. "When BT drops prices the others drop prices, but when BT increases prices the others put them up too."

Phillips says the price increases are poorly timed. "This price increase is very disappointing - bills should be getting cheaper given the current state of their customers' finances in the midst of the credit crunch," he adds. "There's a percentage of people who pay line rental just to get broadband."