What am I actually paying for my broadband?

[Bewlaybro]

Okay I know how much I’m paying for my “package” but how do I find out what I’m paying for my broadband alone ?

[Andrew-G]

The most you'll get as a breakdown is what's visible under Contract in My Virgin Media.  If you've got a bundle, then there may be no breakdown that exists publicly. 

Obviously there's some back office calculations on what the underlying cost is that will never be public, and there's not-very-prominent public pricing for undiscounted elements where they're sold separately (eg M250 broadband is £53.80, or call add ons), but beyond that you'll struggle.

Think of it from VM's perspective - they put together a bundle that includes things with an aggregate cost to them of say £70, the bundle includes some element eg a channel selection that they don't sell separately, there's some incentives offered eg Volt speed bumps, and then for commercial reasons they offer a 40% discount that won't last outside the 18 month new customer contract - how can you break out the cost of broadband?

[nodrogd]

Add to that an Advertising Standards ruling that now prevents providers from quoting Phone Line Rental charges as a seperate item, as they considered it too confusing to customers.

[Roger_Gooner · Accepted solution]

If you look only at VM's broadband prices they are quite high and, frankly, not good value if all you want is broadband. However, as a Pay TV provider VM wants to hook you into TV (and landline) as well, so the price of the broadband in the bundle will fall. You can think of it as similar to a tour operator's holiday package where the price of the accommodation is a lot less than if purchased on its own. The price of the components of the bundle or package is never disclosed for reasons of commercial confidentiality.

In the end what matters is how much you are paying for everything (broadband, TV, landline and mobile) rather than a single component such as broadband.

[Bewlaybro]

So comparing what you're paying for broadband compared to other providers is not possible then ... crazy

[jem101]

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@Bewlaybro wrote:

So comparing what you're paying for broadband compared to other providers is not possible then ... crazy

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Correct, except you need to think of it as you are getting a certain overall service 'package', for which you pay £x, it can't be meaningfully split up into individual 'parts'. All you can do is to compare it with a broadly similar overall package from another provider.