BT is once again hiking prices, with punters facing an extra £30 on their annual broadband bill in the new year.

It seems standard (ADSL) and fibre (FTTC/P) broadband prices will now go up: you'll pay an extra £2 a month for BT Broadband copper and £2.50 per month more for Infinity from January next year.

The price increase has turned into an regular ritual for the former UK state monopoly, and no doubt other providers will soon be looking to follow suit.

The last broadband price rise was just seven months ago, on 2 April. The previous one was in July 2016, making the January 2018 hike the third in 18 months.

Rob Hilborn, head of strategy at Broadband Genie, said: "At a time when other goods and services are also increasing in price, this raise is going to be particularly hard to stomach for customers. BT have gone for an above-inflation increase, so many people are quite rightly going to be angry. There's also the worry now that other providers may soon follow suit.

However, he added that those affected by the rise can take action as Ofcom rules require telecom firms to give customers 30 days to leave their contract penalty-free. "We recommend customers take this opportunity to shop around, or at the very least get on the phone to BT to see if they can negotiate a better deal," he said.

In a statement BT said: "We’re changing some of our Landline, Broadband and BT Sport prices on 7 January 2018. We’ll write to you during November & December to let you know about the price changes, with a clear breakdown of how each of your products will be affected. If you only take landline services from us, the price of Line Rental isn’t changing on 7 January."

The firm justified the increase by saying it is "making some great improvements to your service" including protection from nuisance calls with BT Call Protect and answering more calls here at home in the UK and Ireland, along with a range of broadband upgrades.

"We know that no one likes price changes, but this allows us to upgrade our services and give you more. Every customer will see improvements to their products and services alongside these changes." ®