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Telco calls on U.K. service providers to to ditch ‘bad habit’ of advertising line rental cost separately from subscription fee.
TalkTalk on Tuesday announced that from this autumn it will advertise subscription fees and line rental costs as a single price, as opposed to the standard practice among U.K. telcos of advertising them separately.
"As long as line rental and broadband are priced separately, the temptation to advertise deals in this way will always be there," said Tristia Harrison, TalkTalk’s consumer managing director, in a statement.
"But it’s time for providers to be honest about this – it’s a bad habit we have all been guilty of, it doesn’t serve customers well and it’s time it stopped," she said.
At the moment, the monthly cost of subscribing to a broadband service is split out from the cost of renting the physical cable connecting the premises to the network.
For example, BT currently charges £5 per month for basic broadband, but line rental costs an additional £17.99 per month (for now at least; the incumbent last week revealed that the charge will rise to £18.99 from 3 July). Meanwhile, Sky charges line rental of £17.40 per month, Virgin Media’s costs £17.99, and TalkTalk’s costs £17.70.
These fees are usually advertised in smaller print below whichever eye-grabbing offer the telco wants prospective customers to look at.
TalkTalk believes this is misleading; it has already rolled out all-in pricing for the fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) service it offers in York.
TalkTalk’s stance is also supported by telco regulator Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
In January, they surveyed 300 U.K. adults and found that only 23% could correctly identify the total monthly cost of broadband upon first viewing an advert. Upon second viewing, 22% still failed to correctly identify the price.
The watchdogs are keen to ensure broadband prices reflect the true cost of the service, and therefore plan to that telcos advertise all-inclusive up-front and monthly costs, and give greater prominence to contract length, as well as any introductory discounted rates.
"TalkTalk can’t do this alone. Until other providers follow our lead, households across the U.K. risk being misled by seemingly good deals that all too often mask extra charges," Harrison said.
TalkTalk’s all-in prices will be available to new customers and existing customers renewing their contract. TalkTalk said it will continue to provide itemised bills because they enable customers to track usage and spending.
"People deserve to know they are getting value for money and, as the value for money provider, TalkTalk is going to fight hard to ensure customers get the transparency they deserve," Harrison said.
