Unfortunately we all know inflation is soaring. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has now published their latest UK inflation figures, showing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) hitting 10.5% (up from 5.4% in January 2022) and the Retail Price Index (RPI) topping 13.4% (up from 7.5%).
On the back of this, most of the big players in the UK broadband industry are set to hike their prices imminently. And yes, with inflation increasing everything is going up.
But what many small business owners don’t realise is that a discretionary additional 3.9% is often added to customer bills by internet providers on top of the CPI. So those providers adopting the 10.5% CPI + 3.9% policy will soon be increasing their prices, on average, by an eye-watering 14.4% (up from 9.3% last year).
Confirmed price increases for 2023 with other providers
BT 10.5% CPI + 3.9% = 14.4%
EE 10.5% CPI + 3.9% = 14.4%
Plusnet 10.5% CPI + 3.9% = 14.4%
Vodafone 10.5% CPI + 3.9% = 14.4%
O2 / Virgin Mobile = TBA (February Announced RPI + 3.9%)
TalkTalk 10.5% CPI + 3.7% = 14.2%
Shell Energy 10.5% CPI + 3% = 13.5%
Three UK 10.5% CPI + 3.9% = 14.4%
bOnline won’t add this extra 3.9%
We take any price increases seriously - in fact, we avoid them for as long as possible. Our team is proud to offer the lowest prices to UK businesses, and unlike BT and other large providers, we won’t be adding on the additional 3.9% above the CPI inflation rate.
Our costs have increased sharply over the last year or so. Most of these costs have been out of our hands, including rising supplier costs. It’s the last thing we want to do, but sadly this year we’ll need to pass through a fraction of these inflationary increases to keep our service levels high. However, your bill will only go by the CPI inflation rate - and no more.
We know that business costs are spiralling and believe that adding an extra 3.9% over and above inflation simply wouldn’t be fair. So that’s why we haven’t done it.
According to bOnline CEO Anthony Karibian: “There is no justification to increase prices by 14.5% when a 10.5% CPI-based increase is already excessive. We’re proud to be the only Telecoms provider to take this position in favour of small businesses.”
20 awards since 2020
bOnline has won more awards between 2020 and 2022 than at any time before, making us the most awarded small business VoIP provider in the UK. We also launched several new connectivity products including Full Fibre with super fast speeds of up to 1000 Mbps (1GB, £48/mo).
We are proud to serve our small business community by offering the best customer service possible (real humans on the end of the phone too). We are also the only Telecoms provider in the UK not to have put through mid-contract price increases last year. Again, we never take price increases lightly - and when we do, it’s by the least amount possible.
To minimise the change in your monthly bills, new prices will only kick in from the 15th February 2023, which you’ll be able to view as usual in MYbOnline.
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