- One of the UK’s largest telecommunications companies has announced plans to increase bills.
- The new charges will come into effect from April 1 and will mean millions of people will have to pay more
Sky has revealed price increases of an average of 6.7 per cent across most of its broadband, phone and pay-TV offerings from 1 April.
The news follows similar announcements that BT, EE, Three and other companies would increase broadband and mobile prices by up to 7.9 per cent.
Sky said the price increases were necessary to offer faster broadband and better TV, as well as reflecting the company’s higher costs.
Sky has around 3 million mobile customers, 6 million broadband users and 12.7 million television subscribers.
Communication costs: the price of the airtime part of Sky Mobile bills will increase from April
Sky chief operating officer Devesh Raj said: “We’re always listening to our customers, so we know that what matters is delivering the best Sky experience, whether it’s the technology we create, the content we deliver or the service to the client we provide”. most for them.
‘To continue to do this, from April 1, the majority of our TV and broadband customers will see a monthly increase in the cost of their package, with an average increase across all our products of 6.7 per cent.
“We have worked hard to keep our prices as low as possible.”
It will depend on exactly how much the price of your broadband, phone or pay TV deal will rise, as the 6.7 per cent figure is just an average.
Sky will write to all affected customers in the coming weeks to give them exact figures for any fare increases.
Sky social rates will not increase in price.
A social tariff is a cheap offer that is only available to households in difficulty.
These arrangements are not open to everyone and are mostly restricted to those on benefits, lower incomes or older people.
How do these price increases compare?
Most broadband and mobile customers will see price increases this year.
Most companies increase their prices between March and May of each year, in line with the inflation of the consumer price index (CPI) in December of the previous year. They also usually add an additional 3.9 percent.
The Office for National Statistics said CPI inflation was 4 per cent in December 2023.
For mobile customers, the part of their bill that increases is the airtime element – the cost of calls and data.
However, Sky is the only major telco that does not follow the inflation-linked model and instead sets its own rate for any increases each year.
Virgin Media O2 bases its price rises on January inflation figures. However, the company uses retail price index inflation figures for this, not CPI inflation, which tends to be lower.