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Sky phone line rental soars 18%

lovemoney staff
by Lovemoney Staff lovemoney staff on 11 October 2012  |  Comments 14 comments

Sky is pushing up its monthly line rental costs and charges for daytime phone calls.

Sky phone line rental soars 18%

Sky is going to push up the price of its monthly line rental for all customers from £12.25 to £14.50 in December.

Sky will also reportedly increase the cost of daytime phone calls from 7.95p a minute to 8.41p. This will be Sky’s second phone charge increase this year, following hikes in September.

Anyone who signed up after 1st September is already on the higher charges.

The increase is so high that customers will be able to cancel their contracts early if they so wish.

Today’s news follows BT’s move last month to increase its line rental charges to £15.45 a month. However, it’s interesting to note that even after Sky’s latest increase, Sky will still be charging a lower line rental than BT.

How line rental charges compare

Here are the current standard line rental costs across the major players:

Provider Monthly line rental
Primus £8.69
Sky £12.25
Plusnet £12.99
Virgin Media £13.90
Talk Talk £14.50
BT £14.60

And here's what they look like once BT and Sky increase their prices:

Provider Monthly line rental
Primus £8.69
Plusnet £12.99
Virgin Media £13.90
TalkTalk £14.50
Sky £14.50
BT £15.45

Sky has paid a high price to continue broadcasting the majority of live TV Premier League football matches, so it’s perhaps not surprising that the TV and telecoms giant is looking to boost revenues in other parts of the business.

Still, such a large increase will be very frustrating for Sky customers, regardless of the reason.

If you want to make sure you’re getting the best deal on your phone and broadband charges, check out the different tariffs via our partner Broadband Choices.

More on broadband, home phone and TV

BT and TalkTalk's YouView bundles compared

Sky launches new catch-up TV service

Orange announces landline telephone price rises

Post Office freezes broadband and home phone prices until October 2013

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Comments (14)

  • PeterM42
    Love rating 3
    PeterM42 said

    We have already quit money-grabbing Sky altogether after they tried to charge us for NOT using their TV service.

    We had previously stopped using TV because of the cost and Sky's dreadful, unreliable Sky recording box. We went Freesat.- BRILLIANT!

    Advice - do the same.

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • albbu
    Love rating 15
    albbu said

    Well said PeterM42.

    We refused to give Murdoch's evil empire any more of our money,

    get a freesatHD box, you dont even have to realign the dish,

    just plug it in and get all the quality tv you need.

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • JOHN MAXWELL
    Love rating 56
    JOHN MAXWELL said

    i find Plusnet an excellent service at a good price and if you pay the line rental 12 months in advance it is even better. Talk Talk service is in line with their prices - cheap.

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • firedm
    Love rating 0
    firedm said

    'And here's what they look like once BT and Sky increase their prices''......SKY appear twice!!

    Everyone loves SKY, the services they offer, SKY GO is worth every peny.

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Simon Ward
    Love rating 5
    Simon Ward said

    Thanks for that firedm, now fixed.

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Hardtruth
    Love rating 66
    Hardtruth said

    Are you laying the blame for this price increase on the cost of premier league football? If so then it is an opportunity for people to vote with the feet (NPI) and fix a few problems in the process.

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • marram
    Love rating 46
    marram said

    I have always disliked that lizard Murdoch and refused to have SKY. As time passes, that feeling gets stronger.

    It does mean that I can't see quite so much American junk, or be quite so frustrated when I see the same programmes being repeated time and time and time again (my son has Sky, that's how I know.) oh, hang on, that good, isn't it!

    We have Freeview and Freesat and that gives all we might ever want except live football for my husband. Shame.

    As for the line rental from BT, for some reason we are restricted to BT or Talk Talk in this area (South Lincolnshire). So no choice, then. Pay through the nose for snail broadband or go to the universally recognised worst, but cheaper, for snail broadband. Yeah, right.

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • orangecat
    Love rating 4
    orangecat said

    I am 78 years old, so why waste money on Sky? I will see enough Sky when i am six foot under.

    What's wrong with "FreeView"?

    orangecat

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • Jodakist
    Love rating 5
    Jodakist said

    albbu said

    Well said PeterM42.

    We refused to give Murdoch's evil empire any more of our money,

    get a freesatHD box, you dont even have to realign the dish,

    just plug it in and get all the quality tv you need.

    albbu, How do you get quality tv? Most of what I get is poor quality rubbish! There are too many channels now each lacking quality, where is the real entertainment?

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • DonnyG
    Love rating 2
    DonnyG said

    I have just swapped to BT from sky for phone and broadband. (Infinity2 is amazing if you can get it). Paid line rental a year in advance and saved a month's rental - 12 for the price of 11! I am actually saving money with my package compared to Sky.

    Still retain sky TV as I really like my sport. It grieves me to pay so if push came to shove it would certainly go!

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • meldrewreborn
    Love rating 44
    meldrewreborn said

    The strange thing is that Plusnet is owned lock stock and barrel by.....BT.

    Today Gas and electricity prices are going up and some are blaming Maggie Thatcher for the increases. Piffle.

    If we still had BT as a monopoly supplier with all its public sector inefficiencies your line rental would be double the price or more - if you could actually get a line - I can remember when you waited months to get a phone line in.

    None of us like to pay more but at least you have a choice of supplier. My deal with BT still has some months to run, but when it expires I'll not hesitate to move to the most competitive deal at the time. But few, if any, of these service companies - Gas, electric, phone, car breakdown services, insurance etc value their existing customers - they all chase new customers with juicy discounts and leave their existing customers paying the non discounted prices.

    You can't change these companies by whinging - but if enough of us vote with our feet they'll get the message.

    Walk away - don't pay excessive increases.

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • jamiecfc1
    Love rating 39
    jamiecfc1 said

    @ Meldrewreborn interesting what you say about BT, I just moved house and the initial offer from BT was a 5 week leadtime to move my phone and broadband. After a stern email to Ian Livingston @ BT (look him up) I managed (eventually) to get my phone working a week earlier, my broadband however still took 5 weeks from date of order. BT blame it on a shortage of engineers due to all the extra work they've got due to the floods etc, and nothing to do with them (a) having too few engineers and (b) not a lot of competition. Basically, if you want a (non-cable) phone line no matter who your contract is with its a BT engineer that will install it. As for your comment about Maggie Thatcher, I'm afraid it's true, a few people are better off (shareholders and directors mainly) but for the majority its the same old excuses about wholesale price increases.. blah blah... and the government does nothing to regulate them. No wonder they can't get inflation down.

    Report on 12 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • marram
    Love rating 46
    marram said

    @DonnyG thanks for the tip - so pleased that the favoured few are finding Infinity2 amazing. Some of us are paying twice the price and don't even get ADSL2!

    Infinity? that's the length of time we in the sticks (9 miles to the nearest town - is that really such a long way?) have to wait for anything approaching a fast broadband service, if they ever do actually get round to laying cable. Sickening. I check on BT site and basically it says 'NC' - not currently planned.

    Wait a minute, if I'm not happy, I can move! To - er - Talk Talk. Or Plusnet AKA BT.

    I might add, that when I did try to change to Plusnet (before I found it's owned by BT) I was told that my exchange was restricted and they could not offer me their special low price. So, I get a poorer service for a higher price just because of where I live. How can that be legal? Especially as they have invested zilch in the last 7 years in this area, which is the time I have lived here.

    Report on 15 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • r1w1b1
    Love rating 0
    r1w1b1 said

    Yep, got the letter too, BUT, after complaining to them by email and saying I'd transfer to BT as you can get 12 months line rental for £129 upfront, SKY offered me 12 months for £119 lump sum, saying it was 'always available on their website' - but the very honest lady talking to me said none of the staff even knew about it, so its well hidden. Anyway, just £10/month line rental until next November - result.

    Report on 18 October 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves

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