Sky hikes the cost of line rental and increases voicemail charge by 400%

Critics accuse the firm of raking in extra phone profits to subsidise broadband and tv packages

Simon Read
Personal Finance Editor
Tuesday 06 October 2015 23:49 BST
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Sky customers won't be laughing at the price increase
Sky customers won't be laughing at the price increase

Are you a Sky subscriber? The company has hiked the cost of line rental and made changes to its packages. Rental charges are climbing £1 a month to £17.40 from 1 December while Sky voicemail will increase from 25p to £1.25 a month.

Meanwhile it’s cutting its eight Sky Talk packages to four new deals on 1 December. The move is designed to simplify things for customers but Hannah Maundrell of money.co.uk said: “I will be interested to see if anyone actually sees their bill going down as a result of this”.

Call rates are also changing with the connection fee for non-inclusive calls rising from 15.9p to 16.9p while rates are being levelled at 11.5 pence per minute.

Increases in landline charges have outstripped inflation in recent years. Which? found it cost up to 64 per cent more at the end of 2014 than in 2008 – compared to the inflation rise over the period of 20.5 per cent.

Robert McKechnie of TenTel reckons increasing landline prices are subsidising the cost of broadband and premium TV. “Many providers promote misleading headlines, such as free Broadband for 12 months when in reality they are increasing their line rental costs and hidden charges,” he said. “As an industry we must be more transparent about our pricing and help the consumer to make informed choices by separating charges for landline, broadband and premium TV.”

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