BT cuts see broadband prices fall

Resellers are cutting prices for broadband internet access in the wake of price reductions by BT Wholesale.

Last Friday BT cut its broadband wholesale prices to £30 a month effective from 1 September.

A number of resellers, including Freedom2surf, Nildram, PlusNet and Zen Internet have announced price cuts in the wake of this announcement, according to ISP review site Net4Nowt.

Zen Internet and others buy ADSL lines from BT Wholesale, and sell them to customers under their own labels.

These companies are in competition with BT Openworld, which has yet to announce a reduction in the prices of DSL lines. However, BT Openworld is still cheaper than most of its competitors, even after the price cuts.

Nevertheless, installation charges are still £150, which has discouraged many consumers from buying DSL. However, BT Wholesale has pledged to cut this with a range of self-install options.

ADSL from any provider is still more expensive than cable, which costs £33 from Telewest or £19.99 with NTL.

However, cable is not as widely available as DSL, which BT claims is available to over 50 per cent of UK households.

Last week Richard Sweet, regulations manager at Thus, which resells BT's ADSL service called for the price to be cut further, to £20 per month, to enable them to compete with the cable operators.