Area Codes Critical For Broadband Costs

Written by Editorial Team

26 May 2007

Some of Britain’s major broadband companies operate a ‘two-tier’ pricing system for broadband, differentiating between pricing for customers in the ‘core’ regions and elsewhere, uSwitch.com has claimed.

TalkTalk, Sky, UK Online, Virgin Media and AOL all implement different pricing systems according to whether customers live inside their unbundled or cabled zones, making broadband costs a ‘postcode lottery’, according to the switching site.

Customers pay up to 2.4 times more for their broadband if they live outside the supplier’s core area, said uSwitch.com’s head of communications Steve Weller.

“Rural areas tend to be the ones being neglected by the LLU [local loop unbundling] roll-out,” he commented.

Nevertheless, he commended Orange, Tiscali and Pipex for continuing to charge all customers the same amount regardless of location.

Moreover, a survey from Ofcom has showed a narrowing of the digital divide in the UK as more households in areas formerly excluded from broadband coverage get improved provision.

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