BRITISH consumers are being ripped off for their broadband, home phone and energy services compared with their European counterparts, according to new research. They are paying up to seven times as much as broadband users on the Continent and landline costs are also higher.

Meanwhile, some European energy giants charge their UK customers more than in their domestic market. Fuel bills have also been rising faster here than on the Continent – even though the energy market in Britain was among the first to be deregulated and should therefore be more competitive.

The research comes at a time when the cost of living in general is rising rapidly, with mortgage bills and taxes sharply higher, and will add to the sense that “rip-off Britain” is back.

Broadband

Britain is one of the most expensive places in Europe to get high-speed internet access, according to switching site Moneysupermarket. French broadband customers pay an average of only 83p a month for every 1Mb per second connection – UK consumers pay £5.60 a month.

Italian and German users also fare better, paying £1.71 and £2.64 respectively. Only the Spanish pay more at £6.33.

French broadband is also much faster than in the UK, with an average speed of 17.6Mb per second while Britain’s consumers suffer speeds as slow as 2.6Mb. Users on the Continent can therefore download material such as films in minutes rather than the hours it can take here.

Jason Lloyd at Moneysupermarket said: “The main reason UK consumers can’t get access to super-fast, low-cost broadband is the inferior telecoms infrastruc-ture and low investment in cable networks over the past 10 years. While we’ve accepted what has been given to us via BT’s copper network and Virgin Media’s cable network, in mainland Europe there has been massive investment in fibre-optic cable networks that deliver super-fast communication services.”

Ofcom, the regulator, admits broadband and telecoms are at a more advanced stage of development in some other European countries. In France, for example, more broadband is sent through fibre-optic cables, which are capable of speeds of up to 50Mb to 100Mb a second, compared with Britain’s average top speed of about 8Mb.

Virgin Media, which provides the fastest mainstream broadband service in Britain, can only offer up to 20Mb speeds.

France has also enjoyed the benefits of the Mintel system since the 1980s, an early version of the internet which has provided a sound foundation for broadband.

The regulator urged all consumers to switch providers where possible, which will put pressure on suppliers to bring costs down to European levels.

Energy

Some European energy giants charge their UK customers more than their domestic users, according to consumer watchdog Energyhelpline. EDF Energy, a French-based utility, charges the average customer here about £350 a year for electricity, but only £274 in France.

Scottish Power, owned by Spain’s Iberdrola, charges UK users about £340, but in Spain the annual cost is about £316. Paul Green of Energyhelpline said the difference is due to foreign firms taking advantage of UK consumers’ lack of appetite for switching. “We have a more deregulated market in Britain so potentially our costs could be lower, but competition doesn’t seem to be working,” he said.

While on average British households pay less for both gas and electricity than in Europe, bills have risen far faster here recently as global wholesale prices have gone up.

Energy prices were up 11.6% in the year to April compared with an increase of only 1.8% on the Continent, according to Royal Bank of Scotland.

This means the gap between fuel prices in the deregulated UK market and in Europe has narrowed significantly. Electricity prices were 14.5% cheaper than the European average in January 2004, but are now 8.7% more expensive, according to Department of Trade and Industry figures. Britain has gone from being the third-cheapest EU nation for electricity, if you exclude tax, to ninth position.

With gas, Britain’s prices were 25.7% below the European average in January 2004, but are now only 3.2% cheaper. Italian consumers now enjoy lower gas prices, if you exclude tax.

Ofgem, the UK regulator, blamed European gas suppliers for the high energy prices in 2005 and 2006, saying they were slow to export gas through the interconnector which links the UK with mainland Europe. Sir John Mogg, Ofgem chairman, said the failure of the interconnector to run at full capacity had added £1 billion to our energy bills.

Joe Malinowski of The Energy Shop said: “Even though we have a deregulated energy market here, our prices are determined by a more regulated one in mainland Europe.”

Home phone

Telephone bills also tend to be higher here than in Europe. A monthly bill in London for someone who makes 90 minutes of national calls would be £13.70 on average, according to Mercer, a consultant. Someone in Madrid would pay £13.60, while in Rome the cost would be £12.56, in Athens £11.80, and in Warsaw only £11.48.

Lloyd said: “Telephone and broadband networks in mainland Europe tend to be more integrated, allowing providers to pass on savings.”

Get a cheaper deal

Use a comparison site such as Moneysupermarket or Uswitch to find the cheapest suppliers in your area. Simplyswitch, another comparison site, recommends Tiscali for home phone and broadband if you are a low-end user – meaning you only use the internet to view e-mails and browse the internet. This provides 2Mb broadband as well as free weekend calls to UK landlines for £14.99 a month.

For a medium user who makes some international calls and views films online, Simplyswitch recommends Talk Talk’s Talk3 International and broadband package. This provides up to 8Mb speeds with a 40GB monthly limit and free calls at any time to UK and some international destinations. It costs £9.99 as well as £10.50 line rental.

For the high-end user, Sky’s Max package provides up to 16Mb broadband, unlimited downloads subject to a fair usage policy, and includes a basic TV subscription for £25 a month.

For energy, the cheapest deal is British Gas’s online dual-fuel tariff. This costs £755 a year, against its standard price of £837.

SWITCHING COULD SAVE US £700 A YEAR

BEVERLEY HART, 39, who works in advertising, lives near Edinburgh with husband Michael, 40, and children, Sadie, 5, andInnes, 18 months.

Beverley has recently used People’s Champion, a comparison website, to find the cheapest service providers in her area and found that she could save about £700 a year.

For energy, she is on the standard British Gas dual-fuel tariff. If she switched to the supplier’s online deal, she would save £465 a year. For her home telephone, she pays BT £19.99 a month but if she switched to Toucan, she could save £11 a month – £132 a year.

Her broadband provider is also BT. She pays £25 a month for an 8Mb connection. Virgin Media, however, offers the same speed for £14.99 a month, potentially saving her another £10 a month or £120 a year.