BT is slashing prices for its consumer broadband
packages by up to 25%, but there are no reductions for its business
broadband services.
The price reductions, available to both new and existing
consumers, come into effect today (1 July). The reductions are as
follows:
- BT Broadband (512k) - down from £27 per month to £24.99
- BT Yahoo! Broadband 512k - down from £29.99 per month to
£26.99
- BT Yahoo! Broadband 1Mb - down from £40.99 per month to
£29.99
- BT Broadband Basic (512k), remains at £19.99 per
month.
Duncan Ingram, managing director of BTOpenworld, said, "The
price cuts and our announcement to extend broadband coverage to
99.6% of the UK by August 2005, shows BT's commitment to bring
broadband to as wide an audience as possible."
But on the business side, BT is more sluggish. "We keep all
prices under review, although there is nothing imminent at the
moment," a BT spokesman said of possible business price
reductions.
There is also no further movement by BT on reducing the cost of
alternative suppliers who re-sell its broadband services. Telecoms
watchdog Ofcom recently forced BT to reduce the monthly cost of
alternative suppliers connecting customers to their re-branded
services over BT’s infrastructure, but only by a pound.
The BT spokesman said no further reductions to its BT Datastream
service were planned, despite the likes of Telefonica and Energis
urging further reductions and claiming BT Datastream, which allows
rivals to tailor connections to customer needs, being the only way
Broadband Britain can be created.