Thanks for those links ren.
I find this bit interesting
Baroness Harding, TalkTalk’s chief executive, said consumers found line rental charges increasingly “confusing” when selecting a broadband package. While headline prices for broadband have remained low amid fierce completion in the sector, in recent years line rental has risen significantly faster than the rate of inflation.
iirc it was TT who first brought in - or at least were one of the first - the mixing up with line rental charges and packages making it harder to decide who was the cheapest.
There's no doubt that its now become the norm for ISPs to use line rental to offset broadband fees. In some ways it was much simpler in the old days when you paid your line rental and went where you like for your broadband. Theses days its currently harder to do this particularly when the likes of Sky and TT now dont retail stand alone broadband. Things have also moved on in the world of mobile and there's more and more households that now seldom use the landline for telephony.
TalkTalk said it could not afford to simplify charges elsewhere in the country, where it relies on wholesale access to the BT network, because it would be penalised by comparison websites, many of which focus on headline broadband prices.
Understood, but whilst on the topic of headline broadband prices, another area that makes it hard for the EU to compare is the use of the "Pay only £x" but its for just an introductory period. Because the introductory periods vary then this is one area where I find it is very hard for the consumer to decide which package is the cheapest and usually involves pulling out a calculator.
