A new survey of 2,000 UK adults has estimated that around 6.95 million households are now out of contract with their current home broadband ISP, which they claim means that all of those customers could be “overpaying” by an average of £162 when out-of-contract (collective total of around £1 billion).
The Uswitch commissioned study, which was conducted between 17th and 19th January 2022 by Opinium, warns that those in this group (7 million households) will be suffering from a “double sting” this year – overpaying because they are out of contract and also facing inflation-busting price rises of around 9-10% or more.
At this point it’s worth noting that some providers, such as Giganet (here), FibreNest (here), KCOM (here), Fibrus (here), Wildanet (here) and Gigaclear (here), have opted to keep prices frozen this year and many smaller providers haven’t increased their prices either. Similarly, Virgin Media introduced a much more traditional price rise (as opposed to the major hikes of their rivals), thus these survey results may not be entirely reflective.
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On the issue of “overpaying,” it’s also important to remember that price alone isn’t the only deciding factor and consumers also tend to consider other aspects, such as service and support quality or value-added extras (some features may not be found on rivals), which isn’t reflected by this survey. Suffice to say, if your current provider has continued to deliver a good service, then you’re less likely to consider switching.
The survey also fails to establish how many consumers may have alternatively haggled for a lower price, or even been offered a lower price automatically, to stay with their existing ISP (Retentions – Tips for Cutting Your Broadband Bill). The new end-of-contract notifications system arguably makes existing customers much more likely to try this approach, rather than switch, unless they’re unhappy with their ISP’s performance.
At present a lot of the best deals today are coming from the rise of alternative network providers, many of which are busy deploying FTTP across the UK to rival the established players. The catch is that the industry lacks a smooth migration system for moving between physically separate networks, which can result in longer periods of downtime and added costs. Ofcom intend to solve this with their One Touch Switch (OTS) solution, but this won’t be enforced until April 2023.
Just remember that the entire (ridiculous) pricing system for Telcos in the UK relies on the ‘Overpayers’ funding the cheap acquisition deals and the cheap retention deals.
Without the hump of revenue in the middle, prices would rise across the board. Fairer perhaps, but the estimated overpayment revenue would just spread out across all the customers.
“The catch is that the industry lacks a smooth migration system for moving between physically separate networks, which can result in longer periods of downtime and added costs”….I have never had a single problem switching vDSL? The new ISP just tells you a certain day your old internet wont work and when that happens put in the new router we gave you and it will work instead. Or is this issue in the story an issue for FTTP?
Indeed, hence why your quote says “physically separate networks” (e.g. Virgin Media to BT).
You just order one and cancel the other?
Is it really that hard?
I’ve been out of contract for a while, but my provider currently still charges the same monthly price when your contract ends, and it is currently still competitive with other providers.
Only 7 Million?