Millions face dearer phone and broadband bills from BT

AROUND ten million BT customers are being told that telephone and broadband bills are to rise by up to 6 per cent, in the latest blow to many cash-strapped households.

BT is hiking its prices from 5 January, with phone calls, line rental and broadband rising by up to 5.9 per cent – which is more than twice the rate of inflation, at 2.6 per cent.

The group, which recently agreed deals worth £890 million to secure rights to screen Premier League football and Premiership rugby matches, revealed that people signing up to the group’s cheapest television package 
Vision Essentials will see the monthly tariff increase from £4 to £5, a 25 per cent rise.

BT is notifying customers about the bill changes from this month, meaning families are facing yet more price-rise misery this winter as a raft of firms and utilities hike bills, with fears of others following suit.

SSE was the first of the big six UK energy firms to announce an increase in tariffs this year when it braced customers last month for a 9 per cent rise for gas and electricity from 15 October.

Homeowners have also been hit as high street banking giant Santander said it is increasing its standard variable rate mortgage by 0.5 per cent next month.

BT’s move is the latest in a line of price increases by telecoms and TV providers.

Its rival, Sky, increased some tariffs on 1 September, following callcharge and broadband increases by Virgin Media in April, and rises for many TalkTalk customers since May.

But BT said it would not raise prices on a range of services again before 2014, including its Unlimited Anytime call plan, standard line rental and calls to UK landlines.

The price-rise announcements come just months after the company agreed to pay £738 million for the rights to 38 Premier League football matches a season for three years amid fears it vastly overpaid.

BT also announced that it would pay £152m for exclusive live broadcast rights to Premiership rugby.

But a BT spokesman denied that the TV sports rights deals were behind the customer bill rises.

“We make major investments in services for customers and technology all the time. It’s business as usual,” he said.

“These rights are an investment for our BT’s new sports channel.”

It is hoping that the rights deals for its forthcoming sports channel will help attract subscribers from rivals BSkyB and Virgin Media.

BT recently revealed that its revenues fell 6 per cent to £4.5 billion in the three months to 
30 June, following a 1.9 per cent fall in underlying turnover during the previous financial year, although annual underlying earnings rose 3 per cent to £6.1bn after it cut costs.

Its BT Retail arm, which covers residential phones and broadband, suffered a 4 per cent fall in annual revenues.