From next week, millions of BT broadband customer will be able to take advantage of much lower prices with the firm launching its new Home Essentials plan. This bundle, which costs £15 per month, is available to anyone claiming Universal Credit.
It will offer speeds of around 36 Mbps plus you get free calls thrown in and there’s no long-term contract to sign meaning you can cancel at any time you like or upgrade to something faster when your financial situation improves.
£15 per month is a good price for fibre broadband but one of BT’s smaller rivals is fighting back with a similar plan at an even lower cost.
Community Fibre, which supplies large parts of London with its own broadband connection, has announced that it is offering one full year of full-fibre broadband for just £10 per month to those who are on income support.
This plan doesn’t feature a data cap so you can download as much as you like although it’s worth noting that you will have to sign up to a 12-month deal and, at 10Mbps, it isn’t quite as fast as BT’s offering.
READ MORE: These apps destroy your smartphone battery life and you should probably delete them
As a comparison, a full HD movie will take around 55-minutes to download via a 10Mbps connection compared to 17-minutes at 36Mbps.
Speaking about the new plan Graeme Oxby, CEO of Community Fibre said: “Our mission is to bring better internet to all Londoners and we always look for opportunities to give back to the communities we serve.
“We recognise that many have lost their job because of the COVID-19 pandemic and may not be able to afford a good internet connection to secure their next job opportunity. “Unlike other packages available on the market, our COVID-19 recovery package capitalises on the advantage of the 100% full fibre network to deliver a full 10Mbps broadband service as promised at an affordable price to support the community.”
BT and Community Fibre now follow Virgin Media who launched something similar last year.
Virgin’s Essential broadband plan offers an internet connection at a much lower price. Virgin launched this ‘Essential ‘ service to help those facing financial hardship during these turbulent times.
The new plan includes unlimited broadband for £15 per month with Virgin stating that there’s no fixed-term contract to sign and the promise of no price increases.
To be eligible you’ll need to supply proof of your Universal Credit with customers then receiving confirmation that their application has been successful before they are moved onto the plan.