Return to Telecom
Introduction Page

Version 306 in late November 2023 updates British Telecom (business and residential), Community Fibre (business and residential), Shell Energy Retail (residential) and Sky Talk (residential).

The BT Price List site seems to have disappeared after 25 years with no replacement. Originally several ring binders of paper updated monthly, it was one the earliest web sites on the internet updated almost weekly with prices of all BT services.  In recent years a BT Consumer Web Guide has replaced most residential pricing, but there is now no proper business pricing available.

Version 305 in late October 2023 updates EE (residential), IDNet (business), KC (business), OneBill Telecom (business), TalkTalk (residential), and XLN Telecom (business).

Version 304 in late September 2023 updates Virgin Media (residential).

Ofcom has issued an updated list of dissolved companies that still have number allocations, including 24 that we'd missed due to lack of a web site or the site still being active, all the numbers allocated to these dissolved companies should disappear from the database in the coming months as Oftom removes them.  About 50 older companies now without number allocations have been removed and more will go next month.  

Version 303 in late August 2023 updates KC (residential) and Vodafone (residential). Call2Abroad has been removed.

In August 2023, BT Openreach has 11.14 million home passed with full fibre FTTP, increasing to 25 million properties by end of 2026, leaving up to 5 million with only part fibre broadband from BT, but perhaps with service from other fibre providers. 

The close down of the existing BT telephone PSTN network started in April 2023 when wholesale line rental service and ISDN were withdrawn from Salisbury and Mildenhall exchanges, to be replaced mostly by full fibre and some SOGEA copper broadband services.  Initially VDSL broadband speeds were capped at 2Mbps/sec, then from June 2023 outgoing PSTN phone calls were barred (except emergency), finally in October 2023 service will cease. 

From September 2023, it will not be possible to order new BT PSTN or ISDN lines anywhere in the UK where full fibre is available using FTTP or SOG.Fast.  There is no change for the 20 million properties without full fibre, until it becomes available in their area.  In December 2025, all PSTN and ISDN services will start close down, probably over six months, and all telephony will be VoIP or Digital Phone over broadband. For those properties still without full fibre in 2026, this will be using the slower and less reliable part-fibre SOGEA and SOADSL services.

From the BT Wholesale 'Product stop sells and FTTP exchange upgrades' document:

• Stop sell will apply at a premises level only, where there’s access to an available FTTP product.
• In those premises, stop sell of non-FTTP products will apply. There’ll be no new supply of the following: CP transfers; working line takeovers; adding broadband to voice lines; bandwidth modify; start of stopped lines; or migration to non-FTTP products.
• If premises can order FTTP, only FTTP will be available for new supply. As it becomes available at more premises, these will immediately come within scope of the stop sell.
• For premises that can’t access FTTP or SOG.Fast (if FTTP isn’t available), WLR, FTTC/G.Fast, SOGEA or SOADSL (when launched and if no fibre is available) will still be available.
• Exceptions are being discussed with industry.

Some broadband customers using BT copper lines have unbundled service, which means their lines are not connected to BT equipment, but to the broadband company instead, this was common for ADSL from TalkTalk and Sky, and their telephone service is unaffected by Openreach close down because it is VoIP already.

BT plans to exit 4,500 buildings by the mid 2030s since the replacement full fibre service can be terminated at much greater distances that copper cable, needing only about 1,000 remaining buildings around the country.  103 buildings will be closed up to December 2030, but this mainly effects the industry with leased fibre lines that will need to move to alternate remaining buildings.  Most BT buildings are owned by TT Group and have a contract break in December 2031, so there is urgency to reduce rent. Trials of exit exchange start in March 2024  when the Deddinton exchange will close, followed by Kenton Road and three Northern Ireland exchanges a few months later, all these exchanges are full fibre already.

Version 302 in late July 2023 updates BT (residential), Direct Save Telecom (residential), EE (residential), IDNet (business), and Sky Connect (business).

Line rental saver that provided cheaper line rental when paid annually in advance has been discontinued from 21st July 2023.

Version 301 in late June 2023 updates BT (residential), Community Fibre (business), PlusNet (residential), Skype (PC only residential), TalkTalk (residential), Vodafone (residential) and Your Co-op (residential). John Lewis Broadband has ceased offering broadband service to new customers so has been removed. 

Version 300 in late May 2023 updates Community Fibre (business and residential), Direct Save Telecom (residential) and TalkTalk (business).

Version 299 in late April 2023 updates British Telecom (business and residential), EE (residential),  IDNet (business), KC (business), PlusNet (residential). Shell Energy Retail (residential), Sky Talk (residential), Vodafone (residential) and Zen (business).

BT Business has increased new line install cost to £125 for 12 months, still £75 for 24 months.  All business broadband costs up about £5/month,  BT Superfast Essential Broadband (FTTC) 67M Unlimited £39.95/month, BT Ultrafast 1 (FTTP) 152M £44.95/mointh, Ultrafast 2 314M £49.95/month, 500M £54.95/month, 900M £59.95/month.

Version 298 in late March 2023 updates British Telecom (business and residential), Community Fibre (business and residential), EE (residential), KC (business and residential), Sky Talk (residential) and Vodafone (residential). SSE Phone and Broadband has been sold to TalkTalk, having been bought by OVO Energy in 2020, OVO will now concentrate on energy.  Customers will be migrated to TalkTalk in the coming months and the web SSE web site broadband pages have disappeared, so it has been removed from the comparison. 

Because of the failure of industry to agree clearer marketing of fibre broadband, Ofcom is planning to force the industry to stop using 'Fibre' to promote FTTC or SOGEA broadband delivered over copper pair cable, instead in future it must be marketed as 'Part Fibre'.  Fibre and Full Fibre will only refer to FTTP broadband, or Cable for hybrid coax cable and fibre. 

BT increased residential prices by about 14% from 31st March 2023, residential line rental is up £3.30 to £26.35/month, all call packages up, standard inland call charge up 2.5p to 19.83p/min with a 30.4p call set-up so three minutes now costs 90p, PAYG packages are up 3.3p to 26.12p/min but no set-up.  International calls all up as well.  BT has stated broadband prices are also up 14%, but the actual prices for new customers on the web site on 31st March 2023 are virtually unchanged, a few up £1 or £2/month, and many broadband and line rental packages reduced in price.  The official BT Consumer Price Guide only publishes 'maximum' broadband prices which are typically £20 to £40/month higher than the web pages, and which are probably what existing customers will be charged, all very unsatisfactory in comparison terms.

BT increased business rental and package prices by about 14% from 1st April 2023, but call charges appear unchanged at the moment.  Standard business line rental is up £4.89 to £38.78/month, value line rental to £31.52/month, ISDN-2e up £10 to £81.79/month, ISDN-30e channel up £5 to £37.15/month, all network and calling feature rental prices up.  SIP and Cloud rentals also increased.   A standard BT business line now costs £465/year, almost three times 20 years ago (£165/year) and three times what I pay today (£152/year), but only for a few more years until PSTN lines are all ceased.  

Version 297 in late February 2023 updates Hyperoptic (residential), JT (Jersey) (residential), Shell Energy Retail (residential), Virgin Media (residential), Vodafone (residential) and VoIPify (business).

Version 296 in late January 2023 updates Andrews & Arnold (business and residential), CIX (business and residential), Gradwell (business), Sipgate (residential), Sky Connect (business), Virgin Media (business), Vodafone (residential) and Your Co-op (residential).

SSE Phone and Broadband (part of SSE Energy) has been sold to TalkTalk, having been bought by OVO Energy in 2020, OVO will now concentrate on energy.  PlusNet has stopped marketing business services, recommending BT instead, that owns PlusNet.

Many of the main operators have said they are raising prices by inflation plus a percentage in March or April 2023, but so far no actual new prices have been announced. 

Version 295 in late December 2022 updates Community Fibre (business and residential), Shell Energy Retail (residential) and Virgin Media (residential).

Updated 2,800 localities with Full Fibre planned dates from Openreach, now shows currently being built, within 12 months and future planned. Still thousands of exchanges without any plans including major urban areas like Central Croydon, Bromley, Ealing and many other areas in London.

Version 294 in late November 2022 updates BT (residential), Community Fibre (business and residential), Localphone (residential), seethelight (residential), SSE Energy Supply (residential), Virgin Media (residential) , and Zen (residential). Lycatel LycaTalk prepaid service has gone and been removed. 

There is a new marketing trend to make broadband deals seem cheaper by offering "half price" for a few months, then a higher price for the rest of the 12, 18 or 24 month contract, then another increase to the final long term price, that might increase annually although rarely does due to competition. These comparison tables generally ignore short term deals that expire in less than one month, although we try to list the monthly cost for the minimum contract period, but currently we are unable to cope with the complication of half price for part of that period, so ignore it. 

Version 293 in late October 2022 updates BT (residential), Hyperoptic (residential), Shell Energy Retail (residential), Sipgate (residential), and Vodafone (residential). John Lewis Broadband has ceased offering broadband service to new customers and will be closing it's service.  Existing customers will presumably become PlusNet customers, since it provides the service. 

Some of the features of our CodeLook dialling code lookup are available using a Json API, for business and numbering members that prefer to integrate our data into their own systems rather than downloading data files or using a web page. There is a new membership category API member with the same annual £300 cost as numbering, but without the extra first year cost and without access to CSV files. There are now three different API servers for redundancy, similarly to the main web servers. Full details of the CodeLook API and quotas for business members are at: https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/bus/apidoc.htm