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Last month, the UK's biggest broadband providers increased monthly bills for millions of customers.
Brands like BT, EE, Sky, Vodafone, Virgin Media, Plusnet, and others all hiked costs between £2 - £3.50 extra or raise subscriptions between 4.5 - 7.5%. The exact price rise that applies to your broadband bills will depend on the supplier and the date you signed up. We've got a comprehensive rundown of the exact price rise coming to BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet, and EE broadband customers.
But there's a chance that you — and millions of others — do not have to put up with these latest price hikes.
According to figures from Ofcom, some 7.4 million UK households are currently out of contract and could switch to a new subscription with no repercussions. Broadband suppliers regularly keep their best deals for new subscribers, with loyalty from existing subscribers rarely rewarded.
Openreach maintains a vast underground network of broadband cables that connects 99% of all UK homes. These fibre-optic cables are used by more than 650 individual brands, including the likes of Sky, BT, Vodafone, TalkTalk, EE, Plusnet, and others. If you're with any of these providers, you can switch to another Openreach-powered supplier and enjoy the same top speeds.
Engineers won't even need to visit to drill a hole to fit the cable to your new Wi-Fi router.
Virgin Media O2 operates the second-biggest network across the UK, with roughly 60% of all premises able to connect to the internet via its cables. Smaller full-fibre providers — known as alt-nets — operate their own localised networks distinct from Openreach and Virgin Media O2. These are becoming increasingly popular with Britons looking for fast broadband speeds at an affordable price.
If you've been hit with the latest round of broadband price hikes and want to switch to something new, we've rounded up some of the latest discounts and deals for new customers. If you're outside of the mimum contract term for your existing agreement, it's worth moving over to a new brand.
Free Broadband
Two of the most popular altnets in the UK — Hyperoptic and Gigaclear — are offering free broadband when you switch from your current supplier. The perk is designed to incentivise you to make the switch today ...even if your current broadband contract hasn't completely expired.
Hyperoptic will offer up to 9 months of free full-fibre broadband while your current contract ends. It summarises the offer like this: "Pick your speed and order any 24-month residential package with our Switch Now offer. You’ll simply need to send us proof of your current broadband contract within 30 days of your service being activated."
When your current contract does finish, "you’ll have sorted your new broadband connection in advance, ready to switch fully to Hyperoptic". Cancel the previous contract without incurring any early exit fees, and continue using the Hyperoptic connection you've already been enjoying in recent months.
Since there'll be a crossover with your existing broadband, you don't need to worry about being disconnected and without internet at any point in the process!
Gigaclear doesn't want you to wait until your existing broadband contract has expired... it'll cover the costs of its full-fibre broadband for the next 12 months if you switch immediately
GIGACLEAR | GBN
Gigaclear is offering something very similar, but this little-known brand is willing to cover your broadband bills for 12 months while it waits for you to switch.
It explains: "Get FREE full fibre for up to 12 months while you wait for your current contract to end. No hassle, no extra cost, just faster, more reliable full fibre broadband."
It's an incredible offer, not to mention, one that you won't find from any Openreach-powered brands.
However, if you're desperate to switch now — and you're not living in an area supplied by Hyperoptic or Gigaclear, EE will pay £300 towards any early cancellation fees. This should be enough to cover 10 months of remaining contract at £30 per month, which is the average monthly broadband bill in the UK.
EE will pay £300 to your current broadband supplier to cover early exit fees
If you're still within the minimum contract term of your current broadband deal, there's still a way to ditch the price hikes and switch to a brand-new deal. EE will pay up to £300 to cover any early exit fees from your existing broadband provider so you can switch to one of its full-fibre broadband and TV deals now
EE Full-Fibre Broadband
Switch Broadband, Get Paid £100 To Spend On Anything You Want
Plusnet wants to entice new switchers with the promise of up to £100 to spend on anything you want.
This takes the form of a pre-paid Mastercard debit card that can be used anywhere that accepts Mastercard... which is pretty much everywhere.
You could use the free funds to treat yourself to a new gadget, put it towards a holiday, or even use the £100 in credit to pay the first three months of your new Plusnet broadband deal.
Plsunet leverages Openreach's full-fibre cables. If you've had a broadband contract with BT, TalkTalk, EE, Vodafone, or Sky, to name just a few, then you'll be able to switch without any hassle.
To unlock the maximum £100 Reward Card from Plusnet, you'll need to sign up to its fastest full-fibre plan, Full Fibre 900, which unlocks eye-watering download speeds of 900Mbps, for £37.99 a month.
For context, that's over 11x faster than the average home internet speed as measured in the UK earlier this year — so you'll have no problem downloading large files, streaming movies in the highest quality, or making stutter-free video calls at peak times.
Switch to Full Fibre 500, which unlocks 500Mbps speeds, for £32.99 a month and you'll be rewarded with a £75 Reward Card to treat yourself. The most affordable broadband plan from Plusnet that still unlocks a Reward Card is Full Fibre 145, which offers 145Mbps downloads for £27.99 a month, and earns you a £50 pre-paid Mastercard.
Get paid £100 when you switch to Plusnet's fastest full-fibre speeds
Switch to Plusnet's fastest broadband deal and be rewarded with a £100 Gift Card. This generous giveaway takes the form of a pre-paid Mastercard debit card which can be used anywhere that accepts Mastercard... in other words, pretty much anywhere. You could even use it to pay your Plusnet bills!
Plusnet Full Fibre 900
$37.99
According to figures published by Ofcom, the average home broadband speed in the UK sits at roughly 73Mbps. If you upgrade to any of the 300Mbps full-fibre plans listed above, you'll enjoy 4x faster download speeds — meaning you can stream high-quality video, back-up photos to the cloud, download software updates, and make video calls with friends and family anywhere in the world without any buffering.
An Openreach engineer is pictured installing fibre-optic cables to an exchange location
BT PRESS OFFICEIf you're unsure about what broadband speed you need in your home. We've put together the average download speeds for an hour-long television show episode in Standard Definition (SD), roughly 450MB in size.
- 73Mbps, the average broadband speed in the UK: 54 seconds
- 150Mbps, the lowest speed available with most full-fibre packages: 24 seconds
- 500Mbps, widely available from all full-fibre providers: 7 seconds
- 1Gbps (or 1,000Mbps) is not available from all broadband companies: 4 seconds
Under the One Touch Switch system, which made its debut in September 2024, switching between any of the broadband brands listed above is much, much easier.
Under this simplifed system, customers only need to contact their new provider, which will handle the entire switching process, including liaising with the existing provider.
If that sounds familiar, it's likely because the process of switching between broadband brands running on BT-owned Openreach cables has been like this for years, but it was moving between different full-fibre networks, from Openreach to Virgin Media for example, where customers would need to contact multiple customer service teams and organise the switchover date themselves.
Bringing the same hassle-free switching that's existed between Openreach-powered brands since 2013 should remove almost all fears about switching broadband providers — being left without a connection for weeks, evenings spent on the phone to arrange a date for an engineer appointment, paying two broadband bills because the cut-off date and start of your new contract didn't line-up perfectly.
Ahead of the (long-delayed) launch of One Touch Switch, Ofcom released data that showed four in 10 people (41%) in the UK would decide against switching because of the headache of having to contact more than one provider. A similar number (43%) told the regulator they were put off switching because it seemed too time-consuming.
And of those who had decided to switch, almost a quarter (24%) who reached out to their current provider faced unwanted attempts to persuade them to stay. Under the new system, you only need to sign-up to a broadband deal with the new provider, who will handle the switchover date and admin with your current internet supplier behind the scenes.
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