All four of Ireland’s biggest broadband providers have announced price increases in the last number of weeks and months. Why are prices increasing and is there anything that you can do about it?
eir kicked off the broadband provider hiking trend back in September, with Sky and Vodafone following suit in late October and finally, Virgin Media announcing hikes of its own just yesterday. So who is increasing what, and is there anything you can do about it?
eir
Back in late September, eir announced that the monthly subscription fee for its residential customers including those who have double, triple or quad-play bundles (voice, broadband, mobile and TV) would increase by between €2 and €8 inc VAT, depending on the customer’s specific bundle. The average increase per month to a residential customer's bill is less than €5, according to the provider.
Sky
From December 1st 2017, Sky will increase its prices by between €2 and €4 a month for certain broadband customers and certain TV customers. The good news is, Sky has stated that this increase will only affect older legacy customers who have been benefitting from lower prices. This means if you signed up recently, you shouldn’t be affected.
Vodafone
Vodafone customers are facing some of the most punitive increases. In December, some broadband and voice customers will be hit with increases of a €4 monthly average, while Simply Broadband customer will see an increase of €7 a month and Simply Talk customers will be hit with a hike of €10 per month!
Vodafone has made efforts to assure its customers that the changes will only affect a small proportion of customers and will take bills in line with current pricing.
Virgin Media
Just yesterday, Virgin Media announced that a number of its packages are set to go up by €1.50 per month, while a €3.50 discount which had previously been applied to all bills will be removed too. The change will come into effect in the new year. In effect, certain customers will see bills rise by €5 a month. Virgin Media claims that the affected customers will still be paying less than new customers for their packages.
The upside?
So, is there a silver lining to all of these hikes? Thankfully, yes!
If you are a customer of any of the above providers and you aren’t satisfied with changes made to your contract, you have 30 days from the day that you are contacted about the increases to switch providers without incurring a contract breakage fee.
But who should I switch to?
If all of the major providers are increasing prices, you might wonder what the use of switching is? Well, many providers offer enticing sign-up incentives and discounts to new customers, so switching to a new provider altogether could be well within your interests.
In the video below, we discuss a selection of some the most competitive tripleplay bundles currently on the market to give you a better idea of where to start when it comes to finding a new bundle.
Ready to switch?
If you’re ready to leave your broadband provider in favour of a new one, or indeed you are looking to sign up as a new customer, be sure to compare all deals and providers before you make any decisions to ensure that you get the very best deal for your needs. You can compare, switch or sign up to a new provider using our comparison calculator.
