What annoys me is BT appears to not have any fixed prices. What they offer seems to vary in price monthly or even weekly with the prices going up and down like a brides nighty and the onus is on the users to ring up and haggle for a better price, it seems a very off way of doing business.

Given the price of fibre i can seem people taking the odd step of going backwards to ADSL in an effort to lower costs, all these companies seem to have forgot we are a country in austerity.

So do the thing that seems to be screaming out, move to an operator with fixed pricing...

No law or obligation for a retailer to commit to fixed prices, the rules just say they must inform you of any price changes and if you don't accept them let you walk from any contract penalty free.

On austerity, am writing up offers for FTTC services that are cheaper than BT standard ADSL pricing every week. If money is tight you will do things like mark end contract dates on the wall calendar and make sure to chase the best deals.

The alternative is that legislation kicks in and forces lots of obligations about pricing and end of contract term and price rises, and overall effect is then likely to be a lot less competition and sign up offers. This might also see provider choice reduced in some areas leaving people with just BT as the option.

yes ofcom needs a change of remit.

The impression given is that ofcom is there to protect consumers, it is not.

Their remit is to actually protect competition in the market.

So the way they see it, if all the providers are ripping people off then its ok.

Occasionally (due to bad press) they may take direct action to help consumers but its not their primary concern.

I expect there has been discussions between ofcom and the major CPs about all these fee's, the CPs have likely told ofcom if they do anything about it then base rental costs will skyrocket and they will take the heat for it from the press, hence ofcom not doing anything. Of course ofcom seems willing enough to directly cap openreach's earnings, but wont do the same to the retail CP's.

An even bigger threat would be if the likes of sky and talktalk threatening to withdraw from the market then this competitive market becomes less competitive, which is against ofcom's remit.

Name ONE, they all seem to hide behind terms and conditions making contracts unbalanced in their favour

TalkTalk

In reply to a post by Discus:

Having only re- contracted in August, I have had an email today about a price increase

Some of our prices are changing, and we've been making some improvements to your service

Hello,
We're writing to tell you that the price you pay for your BT services will be changing from 7 January 2018. We've put the changes in a simple table below for you.
We've been making improvements to your BT services to offer you more than ever before, and you can see more about these below. We're not stopping there, we've got some exciting new developments in the pipeline for 2018.

Prices are going up by £2.50 per month. Why can't these telcos keep a price for the contract period?

Mark

They need to pay for the obscene amounts that they have paid for sport and to make up for the loss of income due to people using inclusive minutes on mobile contracts rather than making call via landlines.

My bill will be £57 per month for 80/20 unlimited calls sports lite, for the sky version of sports light the quality is so poor you can�t watch it, so no real loss, and just looking at Plusnet will do 80/20 and unlimited call and mobile calls for £37.99, Talktalk will do £43.50 for same, but I am unsure what service I would get, am I right in saying Plusnet is really BT as I get full speed internet day and night and don�t really want to leave but I just can�t afford to keep paying the extra for good service, is there any ex plusnet users that are with BT now due to issues with speed, or is everybody else just biting the bullet yet again and paying the rise

In reply to a post by idmanager:

My bill will be £57 per month for 80/20 unlimited calls sports lite, for the sky version of sports light the quality is so poor you can�t watch it, so no real loss, and just looking at Plusnet will do 80/20 and unlimited call and mobile calls for £37.99, Talktalk will do £43.50 for same, but I am unsure what service I would get, am I right in saying Plusnet is really BT as I get full speed internet day and night and don�t really want to leave but I just can�t afford to keep paying the extra for good service, is there any ex plusnet users that are with BT now due to issues with speed, or is everybody else just biting the bullet yet again and paying the rise

Can't you just cancel the sport?

What, with the Ashes about to start?

In reply to a post by 961a:

What, with the Ashes about to start?

My wife and I will actually be in Adelaide whilst the Ashes are on there. I think we'll probably be the only English people in the city with no interest in cricket whatsoever.