Broadband

Sky broadband and home phone customers face outages across south east England, Leicester and Wales today, the telecoms provider has confirmed. It adds that it's investigating the problem and is working to restore service as soon as possible. 

Over a million more homes and businesses in England are set to get ultrafast broadband connectivity as part of a £5 billion upgrade – though work on the project won't start until next year at the earliest.

Plusnet is to hit 100,000s of broadband, home phone and mobile customers with a 4.6% price hike from 30 June. The rise means some broadband customers could pay up to £18/yr more - but as the increase is written into its T&Cs, you can't cancel penalty-free unless you're outside your contract's minimum term.

Millions of Sky broadband and TV customers will be hit with price hikes of up to £72 a year from April onwards, MoneySavingExpert.com can reveal. But if you're affected you may be able to leave penalty-free or haggle down your bill – we've full details on what's happening and your rights below.

Plusnet customers will no longer be able to get a discount on their home phone line rental by paying for a year upfront, after the telecoms firm axed its 'line rental saver' option for existing customers. If you're on the line rental saver currently, you won't pay any more until your minimum contract term expires, but when it does you'll be switched to paying line rental monthly, which costs just over £30/year more.  

Almost all BT and EE broadband, landline, mobile and TV customers who sign up to a new deal or renew their existing one will be hit with steep price hikes next year, after the companies made changes to their terms and conditions. Once you've agreed to a new deal, you're locked into the price rise – so it's important to factor it in before you sign up.

EE, Plusnet and Sky have become the latest broadband firms to commit to doing more to help vulnerable and out-of-contract customers, as part of an Ofcom review which the watchdog claims could result in total savings for consumers of £270 million per year.

Hundreds of thousands of Plusnet broadband and phone line rental customers who are out of contract will see an inflation-linked price rise in October – though if you're affected, you can leave penalty-free.

Millions of BT customers will see their monthly bills for broadband, landlines and mobiles rise by 1.3% in March even if they're still within their minimum contract term, MoneySavingExpert.com can reveal.

Some of the biggest broadband providers are set to cut costs for those loyal customers paying expensive out-of-contract prices by March 2020, under new measures announced by the telecoms regulator. Yet don't be fooled, the best deals will still be for switchers.