Outrageous difference in Infinity pricing (Business v Home)

[Chris-BTuser]

Just a bit of background for you all......

I am a sole trader working from home and I have had a BT Business phone and broadband package for over 10 years, as well as a BT residential phone line for 14+ years.

Because I have two separate BT lines and numbers, I have been receiving lots of promotional material lately, (e-mails, letters and phone calls), regarding BT Infinity on both lines since my area was upgraded a few weeks ago.

I've always been a great supporter of BT Business, but after looking at the Home BT Infinity literature and both websites I am baffled as to why there is such a huge difference in the pricing.

Comparisons and prices accurate as of 14th June 2012, (I have put all prices as being VAT inclusive just to make a direct comparison)........

Cost for BT Infinity Option 2 unlimited usage:

Business - £48 per month

Home - £20 for the first 6 months, £26 thereafter

Length of contract:

Business - 24 months

Home - 18 months

Calls:

Business - non included

Home - Unlimited evening and weekend calls subject to line rental, (but being a BT customer I already pay this anyway).

Other:

Business - an extra £6 per month for a static IP address

Home - a £50 Sainsbury voucher if ordered online.

Total cost for contract term:

Business - £1,152 for 24 months, (£1,296 if static IP address option taken)

Home - £450 for 18 months

So the bottom line is that it would be several hundreds of pounds cheaper to have 2 broadband accounts on BT Infinity Option 2 in the same property than just upgrading the BT Business Broadband line that is already there.

I couldn't believe this crazy situation was true, (especially seeing it wasn't as if I was dealing with two separate companies and the same engineer wouldn't be sent out to do exactly the same job apart from put the new wires/hub etc. in a different room), so I've spoken to both Business and Home sales teams.

Business sales team response - "Those are the price configurations for Business, and you do get extra support"

Home sales team response - "We can do everything except offer a static IP address. There *shouldn't* be any loss of quality due to contention ratios because the junction box is less than 150 metres from you and all is 'pushed' to the junction box from the exchange by fibre optic cable so there is no degradation at all to there".

I was hoping when I rang that BT Business would convince me why I should spend the extra money and upgrade solely with them, but seeing as they didn't really want to know I'm not so sure now - especially in these financially tough times.

I wondered if anyone had a similar experience of having the same situation, or if anyone can help me justify spending over twice as much for essentially the same service?

Alternatively I can wait for a while, but doea anyone know if other companies will be able to take advantage the BT Infinity infrastructure like they already do with standard broadband?

If so, any idea when this will be?

Looking foward to your comments.

[tidaltides]

There's possibly be some reason why the pricing difference between Business and Home is a bit high. I am sure there is.

[MHC]

One reasoin is that every cost has been pared down on residential.  Business has a guaranteed throughput which needs to have infrastructure there;  business has a better response time - again resources need to be available whereas residential takes what is left;  tech support & help lines;  Uk based for business but overseas for residential and business support is 24 hour and 365 days/year ... and there are more.

[Compbck]

I run a one-man IT Support Company from home and currently use a residential BTInfinity Broadband connection to run my own IT infrastructure at a cost of £26 per month. I have been a BT customer for years and years, and quite often recommend that my customers use BT for their broadband connections.

However, I would like to setup a Small Business Server 2011 initially for training purposes then to sell the product if all goes well. So now I need 1 static /Public IP Address.

I have just spoken to the appropriate department who have quoted an increase in my costs from £26 to £48 plus VAT which means my monthly broadband bill will be £60 instead of £26 just so I can acquire a £5 static IP address.

Apparently, there is no flexibility in this which I find really strange. I know of many other Home Businesses that would like a static IP address, but the increase in price is fare too great.

I fail to understand why BT cannot limit the use of Static IP addresses to 1 if you are a residential user, which would probably generate quite a lot of extra £5's on residential accounts.

I was under the impression that during tough ecomonic times we were supposed to be helping each other to grow our business's.  It does not appear that BT want to join that scenario.

[sej7278]

to be fair, if you're running a VAT-registered IT business you should be using the business packages and claiming it as a business expense.

not many (any?) residential ISP's offer even a single static IP anymore.

that said, i'm paying about £800 for bt business adsl/phone which is no better than my parent's talktalk residential for about £150

[Chris-BTuser]

Thank you everyone for your comments.

I too can't believe the differences in pricing considering the service is practically the same. I understand what people are saying about the so-called extra level of support you receive through the Business team, but most of the posts on this forum seem to be about poor customer service. I've used the Business support team about 4 times in the past 10 years and I must admit that they have been excellent.

Also, as a BT residential customer I can't recall dealing with a non-UK based call centre.

To be honest I don't care where the call centre is as ALL BT staff should be able to service the customer, no matter where they are based.

My main point was that it is hundreds of pounds cheaper for me to have 2 broadband services running at the same time rather than just upgrading the one that is already here.

That is a crazy situation - especially when dealing with the same company.

[Compbck]

I am a one-man enterprise, and I wish I was running a business doing well enough to be VAT registered, a threshold that I have not yet reached.

However, all that said and done, I am now in the process of moving to PLUSNET Broadband Extra Fibre, which uses the same fibre technology as BT and similar fibre optic modem. It also has UK baed Helpdesks - That's a bonus in itself.

The cost is considerably cheaper than BT; line rental: £12.99, Fibre Broadband: £21.49 a single one-off payment of £5 for a static IP Address which will make my payments £34.48 inc vat, whereas BT wanted me to change my account and could only offer me a monthly fee of £48 plus VAT.

BT even make difficult to get a MAC Code quickly - At least 5 days - it should be virtually instant.

As a long-standing customer I have spent literally thousands with BT, but loyalty does not seem to mean much.

[Chris-BTuser]

Thanks for the tip-off about PlusNet. I didn't know other companies could use the Infinity infrastructure yet. I will check to see if they provide that service in my area.

[MHC]

Plusnet are a BT subsidiary company.   The only fibre based product they have is a Residential one and the prices are similar to BT.

[Compbck]

If PLUSNET prices are the same as BT why am I saving nearly £30 per month on a residential account that also provides me with a Static IP address for a one-off fee of £5 and NOT £5 per month.