£30 rise in broadband charges over next three years
April 3, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Research has been released revealing that in three years time broadband users in the UK are going to have to pay an extra £30 a year for their connections. It is feared that this could see a large percentage of the population unable to afford to access broadband, which comes in the face of a recent government pledge to provide broadband for all by 2012.
The research has been released by Dr Chris Doyle from Warwick Business School, who was financed by Carphone Warehouse, the owner of TalkTalk. He has claimed that the price rises will come as a result of BT hiking the prices that it charges broadband service providers, and that BT is either “very inefficient”, “exaggerating its costs” or “being allowed to make excess profits”.
Numerous service providers, including TalkTalk, use BT’s network to provide broadband to their customers, but it is claimed that the price that BT charges them to use the network could rise by as much as 35% by 2012.
Dr Doyle has said that because the price cannot be absorbed by ISPs, it will inevitably be passed on to consumers. If this happens, it is his estimation that 800,000 households will lose out on access to broadband.
Although a spokesman for BT said the claims were “ludicrous”, it represents a worrying trend, especially after the government has committed itself to ensuring that the whole country gets access to broadband in the near future.
Currently, the average price that a household spends on broadband per year is £81.69. If the findings become a reality, BT will put this up to £91 in April, and £112 by 2012, figures which Ofcom has said it will allow.
