Home phone and broadband prices on the rise

The UK's largest telecoms firm BT raised prices for the third time in 14 months in December, Primus customers saw call costs go up last month, but now many of the other major providers have announced their own rises.

From 1 March, Orange customers will see the cost of some calls rise, while O2 users face an increase in the price of line rental on the same day.

Some of Virgin Media's broadband and television package prices will rise for existing customers on 1 April. Certain phone costs are also scheduled to rise then.

Sky and TalkTalk say they have no current plans to change prices.

Here's a round up of the key changes:

Virgin Media landline rises

From 1 April the following prices will also rise:

• Daytime and evening calls are going up from 8.68p per minute to 9.94p.

• Talk Off Peak customers will see evening and weekend calls rise from 5.1p per minute to 6.1p per minute for the first hour.

• Call connection fee up from 13.24p to 14.94p per chargeable call.

• Talk Evenings and Weekends package up from £4 to £4.60 per month.

• Talk Evenings and Weekend Local package up from £2 to £2.50 per month.

• Talk Anywhere packages are also rising in price by up to £2.60 a month.

• The paper billing option is also going up from 1 April from £1.50 to £1.75 per month.

Virgin's inclusive evening calling period is also changing from 6pm-6am to 7pm-7am.

Virgin Media broadband and TV rises

The monthly cost of some broadband and TV packages is going up from 1 April. Virgin says on average customers will see an increase of around £2.68 per month though the figure can vary depending on the package.

Orange landline risesfrom 1 March

• The connection fee will go up from 10p to 12p per call.

• Daytime calls to landlines are increasing from 6p to 7.5p per minute.

O2 landline risesfrom 1 March

• Existing customers will see their line rental go up from £7.50 to £9 a month until March 2013, when they will then be charged £10.50 a month.

How to beat landline price hikes

You can halve the cost of line rental, unless you've a cable or Kingston Communications line, by getting Primus's Line Rental Saver, which is currently £6.79 per month for a year without calls.

Alternatively, Primus's Home Phone Saver is £7.99 including landline, evening and weekend calls.

Also, check whether you can sign up to a no-frills 'override' calls provider, such as 18185, which, when dialled as a prefix, will allow you to cut the cost of calls to landlines and mobiles.