Virgin Media increases broadband price

Cable giant ups price of packages just months after promise to double broadband speeds for freeVirgin Media is to up the price of its broadband packages, three months after it said it was doubling its customers' speeds for free.In early January, the cable giant announced it would double the speed of its broadband service for more than 4 million of its customers. The upgrade, which begins this month, will also see the service's top speed increase from 100Mbps to 120Mbps.At the time, Virgin Media's chief executive, Neil Berkett, said: "We want to make sure that consumers have access to the best value broadband service and that means a superfast connection."A spokesman added: "Most customers will not notice the upgrades taking place, nor will any have to pay for the changes to take place."However, a few weeks on it has emerged that customers will face price rises averaging more than £25 a year.The company will increase the price of its most popular broadband (large) package by £1 a month. It is also upping some call charges by 12%, and changing the time its free calls kicks in – meaning some customers will be charged for calls that were previously free.Large Broadband bought as standalone product (without line rental) is increasing in price by £1.50 a month to £22.50. The price changes will come into force on 1 April – with the first letters going out to customers announcing the move this week.Virgin's move is the latest in a series of price increases pushed through across the telecoms sector. BT, Sky TalkTalk, O2, Vodafone, and Orange have all put charges up in recent months, at a time when most customers have had little or no increase to incomes.A Virgin Media spokesperson defended the changes: "As part of our ongoing review of services, we're making some changes to our cable pricing from April. On average, customers will see an increase of around £2.68 per month."However as part of our review, we've also managed to provide some customer savings and frozen prices such as our phone line rental. We will be proactively contacting existing customers in the coming weeks to make sure that they are on the best value package for them."He pointed out that customers who wish to save money can move to a lower broadband tier which will eventually be upgraded at no extra cost.Virgin has moved back the daytime call period from 6pm to 7pm, so calls made between 6-7pm, which were free as part of a package, will now be charged at the new higher daytime rate of 14.94p plus 9.94 pence per minute (ppm). This brings Virgin into line with BT and other rival telecoms companies which had already made the change.The cost of several other add on Virgin products such as international calling discount are also rising – in each case by well above inflation.Internet, phones & broadbandConsumer affairsVirgin MediaInternetBroadbandMiles Brignallguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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