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Thursday, Dec 12th, 2024 (11:35 am) - Score 200
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The UK telecoms regulator has today published their annual 2024 Pricing Trends Report, which among other things confirms that the take-up of cheaper social broadband ISP and mobile tariffs for those on state benefits has jumped to 506,000 customers in June 2024 (up from 380,000 in Sept 2023). But that’s still just 9.6% of eligible households (e.g. those on Universal Credit).
Consumer broadband, phone and mobile services are often considered to be quite reasonably priced in the UK, but there are always those – often people in the most disadvantaged groups (low income, unemployed etc.) – who will struggle with paying their bills. This is being fuelled further by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, which has pushed more people into financial difficulty.
NOTE: See our – Guide to UK Social Tariffs – Getting Broadband or Mobile for £15. The number of households claiming Universal Credit has risen to 5.3 million (up from 4.6m at the last report).
According to Ofcom’s latest data, the proportion of UK households reporting difficulty with affording their fixed broadband services is currently 8% (1.9 million), while 6% (1.6 million) said the same about their mobile phone service (a decrease compared to 9% in October 2023). The households that were most likely to have affordability issues were younger households (adults aged between 18 and 24), those in receipt of benefits, those with children, and those with a resident with an impacting/limiting condition.
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The previous UK Government and Ofcom responded to this by encouraging more mobile and broadband providers to introduce and promote low-cost Social Tariffs. The regulator suggests that, on average, these could save an eligible household around £200 per year and cost between £12 and £23 a month (less than comparable commercial products). A fair number of providers now offer such plans, but awareness remains an issue, albeit a shrinking one.
The latest report states that 69% of eligible households continue to be unaware that such tariffs exist. In terms of take-up, BT has offered such a tariff for the longest and has the largest share of broadband customers on one. TalkTalk is still the only major broadband ISP NOT to offer a social tariff.
Ofcom-Social-Tariff-Takeup-by-ISP-2024
The 69-page report also includes a plenty of other interesting highlights, and we’ve summarised a few of the key findings below.
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Ofcom’s Natalie Black CBE (Group Director, Networks and Telecoms) said:
“Today’s report shows that mobile and broadband services in the UK remain competitively priced and generally compare favourably to other countries. With significant savings to be had, especially for the fastest packages, it’s important as ever for customers to shop around. It’s also encouraging to see more people taking advantage of the wider range of social tariffs now available, but with many more eligible customers unaware, there’s still a job for communications providers to do to further promote this vital support.”
Details from Ofcom’s 2024 Pricing Trends Report
General:
➤ Falling inflation resulted in lower annual price rises than last year for in-contract customers. Most of the UK’s largest telecoms providers apply annual price rises in their contracts, linked to inflation, plus an additional percentage (typically 3.9%). Falling inflation resulted in smaller increases in 2024 than in 2023. In January 2025, new rules will come into effect that require providers to set out price rises clearly in pounds and pence and prohibit inflation-linked or percentage-based price rise terms in new contracts. This means that people will know when they sign up for a service what they will pay during the minimum contractual period.
➤ Some providers have already announced the price increases that they will implement from 2025, and have started to sign customers up to deals which are subject to fixed annual in-contract price rises. In 2025 these will increase monthly prices by up to £1.80 per month for mobile services and up to £3.50 for fixed broadband.
➤ Most average fixed broadband and landline dual-play bundle prices have fallen. In contrast to 2023, most new customer prices for dual-play fixed broadband bundles have been flat, or have fallen in real terms in 2024. Ultrafast list and promoted prices have fallen most, down by 9% and 8% in real terms year on year, while superfast list and promoted prices dropped by 7% and 3% respectively.
➤ Average prices for fixed broadband, landline and TV triple-play bundles have mostly increased year on year. Superfast list and promoted prices increased by 1% and 4% respectively in real terms; for ultrafast bundles, the average list price was up 3% while the average new-customer-promoted price fell by 3%. Despite these increases, triple-play fixed broadband, landline, and pay-TV bundles have fallen considerably since September 2019, ranging from 25% for superfast promoted prices to 48% for ultrafast promoted prices.
Bundles and broadband:
➤ Bundling services continues to offer savings for people who take fixed broadband. Analysis of the prices of ‘baskets’ of communications services shows that those baskets with a fixed broadband connection and landline service were between 24% and 45% cheaper when purchased as part of a bundle, rather than on a standalone basis.
➤ Customers who are out-of-contract typically pay more than those who are in contract. The promoted prices available to new customers and those re-contracting are lower than the ‘list’ prices that out of contract customers are likely to pay. Data collected from operators shows that 36% of dual-play fixed broadband and landline customers and 32% of triple-play fixed broadband, landline and pay-TV customers were out of contract at the end of June 2024, and their bills were 18% and 16% higher respectively than customers who were in contract.
➤ More people are benefiting from the savings and protections offered by social tariffs. Based on Ofcom research, we estimate that around 1.9 million UK households found it difficult to afford their fixed broadband service in October 2024. Take-up of fixed and mobile social tariffs, which offer lower-priced services to those on qualifying benefits, grew by 125,000 (33%) to 506,000 in the nine months to June 2024. However, awareness and take-up remain a challenge: nearly seven in ten (69%) of eligible households were unaware of social tariffs in October 2024, and while take-up is improving, it remains low as a proportion of eligible households (10%).
➤ Standalone fixed broadband offers savings for people who do not need a landline service. The average list price for standalone fixed broadband was 12% cheaper than the average list price of dual-play fixed broadband and landline packages, while the average promoted price for standalone fixed broadband was 14% cheaper than when bundled with a landline.
➤ UK broadband prices compare well internationally. The UK had the joint-lowest fixed broadband prices (with Italy) among the six countries included in our comparisons in 2024, and was cheaper than France, Germany, Spain, and the US. However, while the price of lower-bandwidth UK broadband services compared well internationally, UK prices for ultrafast broadband products (with an advertised speed of 300 Mbit/s or higher) were among the most expensive.
➤ Ultrafast broadband can be cheaper from smaller providers. Prices offered by the UK’s independent full-fibre network providers are frequently lower than those offered by established fixed broadband providers. Smaller full-fibre providers were offering 900 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s broadband services with promoted prices starting at £26 per month in October 2024, compared to £39 per month for the cheapest similar service taken from a larger provider.
➤ Average monthly spend is down for standalone and quad-play products, but up for dual- and triple-play bundles. In real terms, average monthly spend on standalone fixed broadband fell by 5%, year on year, while the decrease for quad-play bundles was larger, at 19%. Real-terms spend on dual- and triple-play bundles both increased by 8% over the same period.
Landline:
➤ Standalone landline prices increased significantly in the year to July 2024. Analysis of the new customer prices of four standalone landline connections, with varying usage levels, indicates an average price increase of 15% year on year. Few providers still offer standalone landlines, and a key driver of the increases was the withdrawal of some of BT’s call bundles.
Mobile:
➤ Mobile prices have fallen in real terms. The average price of a basket of mobile services reflecting average use in 2024 was 5% lower in real terms than one based on average use and prices in 2023. Overall, the basket price in 2024 was 23% lower than the price of a basket of mobile services based on prices and use in 2019 in real terms, and 5% lower in nominal terms, despite average data use having almost trebled over this period. Of the six countries we compared, the UK had the second-cheapest standalone mobile prices (higher than France but lower than Germany, Italy, Spain, and the US).
➤ Prices for SIM-only mobile services have fallen since September 2023. The average monthly promoted prices for SIM-only tariffs fell year on year in real terms for all the data allowance groups that we looked at, ranging from a 1% drop for services with 1 GB or less of inclusive data and those with >100 GB, to an 11% fall for tariffs offering between 1 GB and 10 GB of data.
➤ Tariffs that include airtime and a handset typically cost more than buying a handset and SIM-only contract separately. Pay-monthly mobile tariffs that include airtime and a handset (either under separate contracts or a single combined contract) accounted for 35% of all mobile subscriptions in June 2024. Our analysis shows that, on average, it was about 25% cheaper to buy a SIM-only plan and use it with a separately acquired handset, and across the mobile connections that we looked at, there was a £200 average saving over a typical 24-month contract. Many mobile providers only offer separate device and service mobile contracts and have stopped offering combined handset and airtime contracts.
➤ Pre-pay users pay a premium for 5G mobile services. Most pre-pay services are hybrid services which provide inclusive calls, texts and data that expire after a month. The availability of cheap hybrid tariffs resulted in pre-pay being cheaper for the two ‘baskets’ with the lowest data-use connections included in our analysis, while pay-monthly was cheaper for the four higher-use profiles. For three of these higher-use connections, this was because the baskets required 5G connectivity, which (unlike with pay-monthly contracts) commands a price premium on pre-pay.
Pay-TV and subscription video-on-demand (SVoD):
➤ Ad-supported tiers are now widespread within the SVoD market. However, some ad-free SVoD services have been subject to above-inflation price increases. Apple TV+ and Netflix (for its Premium and now discontinued Basic plan), were the only major UK SVoD services to increase their prices in the year to September 2024. However, Disney+ introduced an above-inflation price increase for both its ad-free plans in October 2024.
Finally, a quick reminder. We know social tariffs can be a divisive topic for some, but that is not an excuse to abuse the comment system in order to post offensive remarks toward those who take state benefits. Such posts are against our rules and will be removed.