BT broadband cuts: What it means for your wallet

Let the affordable fast access begin...

Hours after BT announced its wholesale broadband price cuts, ISPs across the UK have responded by chopping the retail prices of their own offerings. First off the mark was Pipex. It cut its self-install ADSL price to £23.44 per month (including VAT), down from £29.32. David Rickard, MD of Pipex, said: "This price reduction has been long awaited by ISPs. Lobbying by the ISP community has had the desired effect. Now we can sell broadband to consumers at an affordable price and still make a margin." Freedom2Surf has cut £10 from the monthly cost of its self-install product, from £32.50 (including VAT) to £22.50. Freedom2Surf's MD Chris Panayis said the price cuts were welcome. He said: "Up till now broadband has been so expensive, it's been very difficult for us to market. This problem has always been about the base line price and now its there." Freeserve's self-install price has gone down to a healthy £29.99 (including VAT) per month, and PlusNet has cut its prices to £22.99. Lars Godell, Forrester Research European telcoms analyst, said: "We haven't found much interest in broadband from consumers and small to medium-sized businesses so far in the UK because of price, which was the major stumbling block." BT's ISP, BTopenworld, is expected to make an announcement on its new pricing models in the coming weeks. The price cuts announced this morning were for BT's wholesale broadband offerings. It is up to each individual service provider to decide how much of the savings are passed on to end users.