BT raise prices for second time in year

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The headline is that as of July 3rd, standard line rental will cost £18.99 a month - and unlimited standard broadband will rise from £13 a month to £18.

Those looking to save a little off those costs will find that BT's Line Rental Saver - which not so long ago offered the equivalent of two month's service free - will cost more than £200 a year.

And shortly after announcing that all new Infinity 1 connections would offer speeds of up to 52Mb, the sting in the tail is that fibre prices will be rising by between £1 and £3 per month.

The silver lining is that for those who are eligible, the cost of BT Basic, and the accompanying no frills broadband, won't be increasing.

Phone costs from July

For the rest of us, however, the immediate pain is likely to be felt in the form of a combination of line rental and the price we pay for broadband. Phone charges are changing as follows:

Friends and Family International, which offers discounted call rates to 236 countries, will be increasing from £1.25 a month to £1.35; the International Freedom bolt-on, which gives 600 minutes of free calls to 36 countries and discounted rates to all other destinations, is rising from £6.60 to £7.50 a month.

People with the anytime calls bundle will also find that the cost of calling a mobile from their landline will rise from 6.41p per minute to 7.5p per minute - unless they're calling a BT mobile, in which case the call will be free of charge.

The incentive to bundle services is being built up further yet: customers with the anytime calls plan who also take BT broadband will not only get the usual £5 discount on their mobile tariff, but they'll get unlimited calls on their mobile whichever tariff they're on.

Broadband from July

However, that incentive might pale somewhat when we take into account how the prices of broadband are changing.

A large proportion of us still take BT's standard broadband, whether capped or unlimited, and the price of both looks to be increasing significantly.

From July, the capped deal will cost £15 a month, while the unlimited package will rise to £18 per month.

BT say Infinity 1 will rise by an average of £2.05, taking into account that they offer their slower fibre in both capped and unlimited packages.

Here's what those changes mean for the unlimited packages:

	Broadband package	Current price	From July 3rd
	Unlimited broadband (up to 17Mb)	£13 per month	£18 per month
	Unlimited Infinity 1 (up to 38Mb)	£20 per month	£21 per month
	Unlimited Infinity 2 (up to 76Mb)	£30 per month	£32.50 per month

BT say that to soothe the pain, they're going to boost the value of the services every broadband customer receives.

People with one of the capped packages will get extra data - BT say they'll either see their allowance increase by 20%, or upgraded to unlimited usage free of charge.

Following the launch earlier this month of their new faster Infinity 1, they've said customers with the existing up to 38Mb service will get a boost to the up to 52Mb service.

Those of us who already have unlimited standard broadband will have to make do with the addition of Net Protect security free of charge, which BT say is worth £36 a year - although Net Protect Plus currently costs £3.70 a month (£44.40 a year) for most customers.

BT are also saying that they're boosting their customer service: by the end of the year they plan to answer at least 80% of customer calls in the UK, and anyone who reports a fault with should get help quicker, with home visits expected to be a whole day sooner.

BT TV

Finally, there are a few changes to the BT TV price list.

None of the main packages appear to be affected by this round of increases, but some of the extras - and BT Sport - are rising in cost by £1 a month.

BT Kids, Kids Extra, and BT Music will all be £4 a month from July. For those who aren't within contract or who only have BT Broadband, BT Sport will be £6 a month; existing customers with BT Sport Lite will continue to get it free of charge for the time being.