IP telephony 50% increase from Jan 2026

1.00 Month, Services for all of Oct 2025
PSTN/VoIP telephone number (Bronze) £1.44
[£1.50+VAT from January 2026]

HOW can monthly service charge increase 50% ???

It is “only” 50p, but that is 50%

On already existing number, using my own equipment

What does cost more?
As far as I can see, absolutely nothing!
It makes zero difference if my phone logs in to the network or not

Seb

I believe the 1.00 your looking at is the quantity, looks like its going up from £1.44 including VAT to £1.50 excluding VAT (so £1.80 including VAT) which is a 36 pence rise.

Regards

Andrew

Ok, so that is 25% up

Still, for WHAT exactly?

Seb

In reply to a post by sebus:

Ok, so that is 25% up

Still, for WHAT exactly?

Seb

For providing a service to you. If you think you are being treated unfairly go somewhere else. That is how a market economy works.

In reply to a post by sebus:

1.00 Month, Services for all of Oct 2025

...

It makes zero difference if my phone logs in to the network or not

At £1.00/month, I would worry whether the service was long term viable, unless it were an add-on to some other service. Even at£1.50, I would still worry.

What happens if the outfit goes belly up? Are they going to be rescued? Are all the potential rescuers going to pass on taking over, if it becomes known that the customers are cheapskates who will whinge no end if prices have to be increased?

Food for thought.

My advice would be to get over it, have you seen what the wider economy is looking like currently? A&A provide probably the best low cost VoIP option and I'm fine if they charge an amount required to employ staff who know what they are doing.

Edited by jpm (Thu 02-Oct-25 10:38:47)

For continuing to provide a service to you while the government has seen fit to increase the cost to employers of employing its staff by increasing employers' National Insurance contributions rather heavily.

No doubt Magrathea, who provide the platform A&A use, have seen their own costs increase as well.

Don't vote for politicians, it only encourages them!

I see that you miss the point, it is little money, it is the fact that it is still 25%
I do not discuss if the value is good or bad, if the service is fair etc

It is just pure number, 25% looks bad, that’s all

As to support, I try to use none, all account management is done online, I make no calls ever (not to support, not via voip line - basically have the number so nobody else has it)

But you are right, sadly it is what it is and unlikely to get any better

Edited by sebus (Thu 02-Oct-25 16:53:20)

In reply to a post by sebus:

I see that you miss the point, it is little money, it is the fact that it is still 25%
I do not discuss if the value is good or bad, if the service is fair etc

It is just pure number, 25% looks bad, that’s all

As to support, I try to use none, all account management is done online, I make no calls ever (not to support, not via voip line - basically have the number so nobody else has it)

But you are right, sadly it is what it is and unlikely to get any better

May I enquire what your grocery shop inflation has been over the last year or two?

25% seems quite fair to me.

It will be the first increase for three years (the last increase was Jan'23) and as it is such a small amount then any increase will in percentage terms look bad, by contrast the prices for the silver level numbers is only going up by 12.5%

I looked up the price BT charge for just a landline nowadays and nearly choked on my cup of tea LOL

I looked them up a few days ago, wouldn't recommend partaking of any beverages whilst doing so. Think it's fair to assume they want out of telephony.

I moved from SipGate to AA and I am very disappointed in the price hike. AA has given the explaination that more people need support therefore they need to charge more to keep the product viable but for a company that initally had it's target market set at technical users this feels like a tax that's been passed onto us technical users in exchange for a price hike. It would be nice to have the ability to block spam callers in the control panel without having to notify AA about it. I have suggested to AA that they offer a technical bundle for people who don't need customer services and a paid for premium option that includes help with inital setup. I hope this is a one off.

Has anyone seen this increase charged yet?

I normally see the A&A DD come out in the early few days of the month, but now we're a week into January and so far the new £1.80 amount has not been debited from my bank account. No £1.44 debit either.

Is this common experience or has something gone wrong? I've had the notification from A&A but nothing showing up otherwise.

In reply to a post by rippedcotton:

Has anyone seen this increase charged yet?

I normally see the A&A DD come out in the early few days of the month, but now we're a week into January and so far the new £1.80 amount has not been debited from my bank account. No £1.44 debit either.

Is this common experience or has something gone wrong? I've had the notification from A&A but nothing showing up otherwise.

I've had the invoice @ £1.80, but my DD usually goes out around 10th of month, so not yet showing. Saying that the last DD went out early on the 1st of December, not sure why.

My invoice from the 1st is showing

PSTN/VoIP telephone number (Bronze) [£1.50+VAT from January 2026] £1.80
Can see my bill has risen by a massive 36pence

In reply to a post by andew:

Can see my bill has risen by a massive 36pence

Gougers

Same here. I don't see how £1.44 + 36p qualifies as a 50% increase. Utter nonsense about trivia.

Further update, the £1.80 DD was taken from my bank account today, so everything appears to have sorted itself out.

It will be interesting to see if the date changes going forwards or returns to the 1st of the month.

In reply to a post by Sun4Lw5LIQy:

for a company that initally had it's target market set at technical users

Have they ever stated that they targetted technical users or was the primary market for VOIP technical users but is now changing due to the migration to FTTP and the increase in number of telecoms providers (network operators and ISPs) some of which don't offer a built-in VOIP service.

In reply to a post by Bushy2025:

Have they ever stated that they targetted technical users or was the primary market for VOIP technical users

Well, yes:

In reference to www.aa.net.uk/etc/news/october-25-news/:

Support of lesser-technical users who have been forced to migrate, and then need help setting everything up makes it difficult to make the service – originally conceived and priced expecting only highly technical users - profitable, and as many people are reliant on it, we want to make sure it is sustainable so that we can continue to operate it into the future.

However, I feel that the increase is reasonable...

Edited by Mendip (Sat 10-Jan-26 19:30:18)

As I suggested, when initially providing the service they expected primarily technical users to want to purchase VOIP but the market has changed due to the developments in telecoms infrastructure..

In reply to a post by Mendip:

However, I feel that the increase is reasonable...

A 25% increase is never going to be popular, but compared to BT et.al it's still much cheaper for using the service to receive calls only, or use as PAYG.