O2 plans home broadband price hike

O2 will raise its home broadband prices from the end of March, citing changing use of the internet as a reason for the hike.

On Monday, a spokesperson for the operator said that over the last 18 months "it has become clear to us that internet customers have changed the way they use the web", adding that it was necessary to increase prices in order to maintain service levels.

"Customers on our packages launched in September will see a small increase of between 14p and 58p a month from their first bill on or after 31 March," the spokesperson explained. "For those on our older packages the increases are higher but they can move to one of our new packages, where the increase will be considerably smaller. Customers who receive our Access package will see increases of between £2.63 and £4.12 a month."

The spokesperson said that O2 had not raised its price levels since launching home broadband services, but "we cannot continue to maintain this service level at the same price in the current climate". However, the spokesperson did not specify what level of infrastructural investment would be enabled by the price hike, other than to say O2 would be "investing millions of pounds" in its network this year.

The company would also not specify what sort of change in web usage had necessitated the price rise.