Paying the same after 14 years

So just decided to look at what I was paying in 2002/2003 for Tel/Adsl vs what I am paying now.

2002/2003 Tel was 11.50 + 28.00 for ADSL 512K = £39.50
2016 I am paying 17.40+20.00 for 40/10M VADSL = £37.50


so over the 13+ years I am actually paying roughly the same amount, but for a 80* service of VDSL vs. what I had 13 years ago using ADSL. I was originally amazed around what a 512K download line could do vs the 56K model of 2001 era in 2002/2003. Now for 2016 the whole family gets transparent catch up tv, download tv and any internet access they want, all for the same cost paid over 10 years ago...

Result.

Edited by iand (Thu 18-Aug-16 19:29:46)

I first got broadband around 2002 I think it was. AOL 512K was £27.99 + line rental. A while later they started offering 1Mb for £34.99.

I'm currently on a retention offer with BT Unlimited Infinity 1, which is £10 + line rental. So I'm actually paying quite a bit less.

What was the average hourly wage 14 yrs ago V's todays....you are paying a lot less in real terms.

You need to include the actual line rental figures to get a true cost.

Well I can't remember what line rental cost in 2002, but I'm currently paying £1 more for a 40/10 connection (inc line rental) than I did for just the 512k broadband back in the day. So still cheaper, even in cash terms for a far superior product.

I first joined when BT Openworld were doing 512Kb for £40 a month (with a £150 installation charge).

2003 - Freeserve 11:50 + 26.99 ADSL 1Mbps = £38.49

2016 - BT 18:99 + 29.99 VDSL2 80Mbps = £48.98

You would think there was a UK version of this :-

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/125566-telkom...

How about :-

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dfkih7bxr7kC&pg=...

2001 freeserve dial up £14.99
2004 wanadoo 1mb £ 17.99
2016 Plusnet 80/20 £ 7.50

Edited by deleted (Fri 19-Aug-16 09:24:11)

So you had the 512Kdown/256Kup service in 2000/2001 ???, I managed to get the same "discounted" service in qtr4 2002

Yes you are correct. Assuming a 3% salary increase per year from 2003 to 2016, this means that the cost of the internet+phone connection in 2016 is actually 65% of the original 2002 cost. So in approximate real terms the service is roughly 30-35%, cheaper now in 2016, for a much larger (80times the download) service.

and we still think this is "expensive"..

I started out with the ADSL trials with Demon in 2000, at 2Mbps.

The prices charged were, IIRC, rather weird - with some amount on top of their standard £10 per month (+VAT) (and line rental was on top) for the trial. Then they wanted something astronomical at the end of the trial, but had no 512K product for people to move onto. Then it went quiet for a while. When all was sorted, I think I ended up paying around £40pm, plus the £10pm, plus line rental to BT (which was likely to have been around £10pm too). Maybe £60pm all in?

We added a second line with Plusnet somewhere around 2004, when the wife's work required it for her to work from home. I imagine that pushed our total up to somewhere nearer £90pm, but at least some of it will have been covered as a work expense.

Demon were jettisoned when ADSLmax became available. Ever since then, we have been on a package where the broadband component cost around £20 - whether that was fixed-speed 2Mbps, ADSL-Max at 8Mbps, FTTC at 40/10, or FTTC at 80/20.

Nowadays, I guess we are somewhere around £37 all-in, but with a call package on top of that. A mere shadow of the peak price!

In reply to a post by iand:

Yes you are correct. Assuming a 3% salary increase per year from 2003 to 2016, this means that the cost of the internet+phone connection in 2016 is actually 65% of the original 2002 cost. So in approximate real terms the service is roughly 30-35%, cheaper now in 2016, for a much larger (80times the download) service.

I am sure the service now is better value/cheaper than it was in 2002. However, to work that out you don't compare the price to the change in wage levels but to the change in inflation over the period..

I used to pay £40 a month to BT for 256kbps I believe it was. That did not include the line rental either.

I now have 2 connections
1) BT Unlimited Infinity 1 - 52Mbps for £11 + Line rental
2) TalkTalk Fibre Large - 76Mbps for £0 + Line rental (Retentions deal)

So my price has gone down significantly.

In April 2002 I was paying Pipex £23.44/month for 512k adsl. I recall that the Frog cost about £120.

I pay Plusnet about 1/3rd that ( after discounts) for 40/2 unlimited fibre.

£39.50 in 2002 is the equivalent of £58 today

Yes, it was around then - so long ago I can't remember exactly when I first got it. And have been through a few ISPs over the years as well.

In the days of dial-up I was paying for my ISP by per min. phone charges on my phone bill whilst I was connected to my ISP on their 0844 no. In those days, pre-2002, my phone bill was between £200 to £300 per quarter for line rental + calls + these ISP charges.

When I switched to paying my ISP a monthly fee for dial-up in Jan. 2002 I was paying slightly more than I'm paying them now for BB Only (20 Meg ADSL2+) . However BT's line rental & calls have increased somewhat.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In the days of dial-up I was paying for my ISP by per min. phone charges on my phone bill whilst I was connected to my ISP on their 0844 no. In those days, pre-2002, my phone bill was between £200 to £300 per quarter for line rental + calls + these ISP charges.

2002 is pretty late. In mid-2000 I joined NTLworld, an unlimited dial-up service on BT lines which was free when you bought £15 of calls provisioned over carrier pre-selection. So if you used up the £15 of calls it was free, and even if you didn't the £15 was very reasonable.

It was obviously a heavy loss-leader to get them a CPS userbase in non-NTL cabled areas, but I wasn't going to argue.

Edited by Oliver341 (Wed 24-Aug-16 13:31:19)