Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today started to unveil their usual round of annual (2024) price increases across their wholesale broadband and Ethernet products for UK ISPs, which touches on everything from full fibre (FTTP) lines to hybrid fibre (FTTC / SOGEA), Cablelinks and Ethernet, among other products.
Ofcom’s regulatory rules (example) currently allow Openreach to increase prices across their various products, usually by the CPI level of inflation (currently 2.3%), although this may differ between products due to various factors (discounts etc.) and there could also be some decreases. But increases mean that ISPs on the same network will need to pay more for the services they sell, which often ends up being passed on to consumers at the retail level.
The price changes are far too numerous to easily summarise as they occur across masses of different products, but you can find more details by following the links on their Pricing Page, although at the time of writing they haven’t yet confirmed all of their Ethernet related changes (sometimes these follow a little later).
Just to give a few examples, the standard connection (one-off) charge on FTTP broadband lines is going up from £120.05 +vat to £122.84, while the rental for their 100Mbps (30Mbps upload) speed tier increases from £253.44 to £259.20 per year and their 1.8Gbps (120Mbps) tier goes from £500.88 to £512.40. The discounts under their Equinox 1/2 special offers will often also be impacted.
The annual rental price of their 40Mbps (10Mbps upload) hybrid fibre FTTC product will similarly increase from £73.12 to £74.82 and PCP Only (self-installations) of that same product will go from £57.11 (one-off) to £58.43. The connection fee for their 1Gbps Cablelink (capacity supply) also rises from £635.29 to £649.91, while 10Gbps Cablelinks go from £1,270.58 to £1,299.82. You get the idea.