It's that time of year again, with energy companies and service providers alike ganging up on us poor, neglected customers, to increase their prices even further all within a couple of weeks of each other. BT have just announced that from January 2013 all BT customers will need to pay up to 5.9% more for all their phone and broadband services.
The price rises will come into effect around the same time as the increase in energy prices announced by British Gas, Npower and Scottish Power, which will already add between 80 and 109 to the average family heating bill.
BT have commented that: "We've kept changes to 5.9 percent or less for Voice and Broadband, and we will freeze prices on monthly line rental, UK landline calls, BT Broadband, BT Infinity, Vision Essential, and the Unlimited Anytime Plan from 5 January, 2013 until 2014 at the earliest."
BT have also announced that anyone unhappy with the price rises can cancel their service without incurring a penalty - so long as the cancellation is made within 10 days of being notified of the price increase.
The main price increase will be for line rental - which will increase from 14.60 to 15.45 per month - and also call connection costs, with the call connection fee increasing substantially from 13.1pence to 13.87 pence per call.
The costs of actual calls will be increasing also, with daytime costs rising from 7.95 to 8.41 pence per minute, and evening costs rising from 1.05 to 1.11 pence per minute. Specialist plans such as Unlimited Anytime, Evening or Weekend plans will see an increase of 30 pence per month.
And so, as we chew once more upon the curd of distress, and our fears over our finances threaten flood over once more, the question that has to be asked is why do we put ourselves through it - or more precisely - why do we let ourselves get put through it when there are better options out there; namely Voip.
So ok, Voip may not yet be the perfect technology, and there may be some flaws still to be ironed out, but for the benefits it has to offer - such as massively cheaper call rates and massively improved audio quality - surely the pro's of Voip far outweigh the con's. And if you're still not convinced, stay with your analogue system, count down the days until the next price rise and get angry all over again.
The price rises will come into effect around the same time as the increase in energy prices announced by British Gas, Npower and Scottish Power, which will already add between 80 and 109 to the average family heating bill.
BT have commented that: "We've kept changes to 5.9 percent or less for Voice and Broadband, and we will freeze prices on monthly line rental, UK landline calls, BT Broadband, BT Infinity, Vision Essential, and the Unlimited Anytime Plan from 5 January, 2013 until 2014 at the earliest."
BT have also announced that anyone unhappy with the price rises can cancel their service without incurring a penalty - so long as the cancellation is made within 10 days of being notified of the price increase.
The main price increase will be for line rental - which will increase from 14.60 to 15.45 per month - and also call connection costs, with the call connection fee increasing substantially from 13.1pence to 13.87 pence per call.
The costs of actual calls will be increasing also, with daytime costs rising from 7.95 to 8.41 pence per minute, and evening costs rising from 1.05 to 1.11 pence per minute. Specialist plans such as Unlimited Anytime, Evening or Weekend plans will see an increase of 30 pence per month.
And so, as we chew once more upon the curd of distress, and our fears over our finances threaten flood over once more, the question that has to be asked is why do we put ourselves through it - or more precisely - why do we let ourselves get put through it when there are better options out there; namely Voip.
So ok, Voip may not yet be the perfect technology, and there may be some flaws still to be ironed out, but for the benefits it has to offer - such as massively cheaper call rates and massively improved audio quality - surely the pro's of Voip far outweigh the con's. And if you're still not convinced, stay with your analogue system, count down the days until the next price rise and get angry all over again.
About the Author:
Saul Saresi writes regularly about the world of Voip communications and technology for his website business voip more information about Voip systems can be found here internet telephony