Net users in rural areas are becoming increasingly frustrated with being treated as ’second class citizens’ by the majority of UK broadband ISPs. Many operators have begun charging extra for line rental for customers who do not live in an area covered by their LLU network.
As was mentioned in a previous blog entry, AOL and TalkTalk have introduced a two-tier pricing system, where those not living in an unbundled area having to fork out for more than the advertised asking price.
As of today, Tiscali will be adopting a similar scheme, which will see customers who sign up for the £19.99 8Mb Broadband and Phone package having to pay an additional £8.25 surcharge for monthly line rental – that’s an extra £99 a year per non-LLU customer for Tiscali. Now that the UK’s third largest broadband provider has adopted this so-called ‘LLU lottery’ policy, it seems that it may well become the standard pricing practice for unbundling ISPs.
The only ISP which continues to charge the same rate regardless of the address is BT – who have recently cut the cost of their call packages.
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