Study Claims 60 Percent of UK Broadband Users are Out of Contract
New research from Broadband Genie and OnePoll, which surveyed a total of 3,997 broadband bill payers in the UK between July and November 2024, has revealed that 60% of respondents are out-of-contract – varying between a peak of 64% for those aged 65+ and a low of 55% for those aged 18-24. But many of these could be paying extra by failing to switch ISP.
However, when asked why such people hadn’t switched ISP, some 45% of over-65s and a “large proportion in other age groups” (sadly we didn’t get the full results) said it was because they “like their provider“, which seems like a fair enough reason.
The survey assumes that those out-of-contract will be “overpaying“. But while this may be true for the majority of respondents, which will be using one of the biggest providers where variable discounts for new and re-contracting customers are common, there will be others with smaller ISPs – and those on monthly terms from the start – where pricing is kept flat and annual hikes don’t occur.
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The other issue is that not all of us choose an ISP based purely on price. Some providers provide features and levels of service or support that others do not, which can also be a consideration. So while it’s good to switch and the regulator’s One Touch Switching (OTS) process has made that a lot easier, it’s important to remember that it’s not always about the savings you can make.
Percentage of bill payers out of contract by age
| Age category | % out of contract |
| 18 – 24 | 55% |
| 25 – 34 | 57% |
| 35 – 44 | 60% |
| 45 – 54 | 61% |
| 55 – 64 | 61% |
| 65+ | 64% |
| Average | 60% |
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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As the old saying goes, “a fool and his/her money is soon parted” Surprised to see such a big percentage of younger customers, not keeping track of their broadband contracts!
What sanctimonious claptrap! Do you know why some of us refuse to lock into a two contract?
No surprise, one of my brothers was out of contract with BT and did not realise it until looking at his bills, he is certainly no fool, Fibre Scriber, just someone who has a full life and makes the most of it, so always doing something.
Strangely enough, I had an email from Zzoomm, yesterday saying I can recontract for the same price or drop to a slower/higher speed. Don’t need anything higher than 500 and going to 200Mb/s for £2 a month less is not really worth it, so I will stay as I am.
So 500Mb/s both ways for £34.95 for another year.
Sometimes people get stuck in everyday life and forget about things, I set a reminder on my phone to tell me about contracts, not that I have many these days.
@Ad47uk: With your dislike of BT/Openreach, I would have thought you would have recommended your brother to move to another supplier, maybe he’s to busy to listen, or really just likes being with BT.
@Fibre Scriber.
My sister-in-law set it all up when she was alive and done it before I knew. When asked, she said mainly because of emails that are linked with BT. I know it is possible to keep the email addresses if you pay for them.
It is easier for my brother to stay with BT, and they have done a pretty good deal, also got rid of the Wifi discs, mesh things, as they are not needed now. Reduced the speed to around 150Mb/s from the 500 he had. I would have liked him to go to Zzoomm, but it means messing around for him, and he is such a busy person in his retirement, archery and allotment, taking grandkids to places, he would have to be in to have it installed.
I would like my other brother to go for Zzoomm as well, but they don’t offer any social tariffs, also, he is still not happy about the mess they made when installing fibre in the city, he is not wrong in some cases, but I have seen Openreach doing no better in some places. Just glad they Nexfibre have changed their mind. I think he would go crazy.
I am happy with the service, it works well, I see no reason to go to the hassle of changing as long as they give me a good service for a decent price.
The main problem with Zzoom as I have said before is their awful Icotera router, they must have a deal with them. It is a ugly white box with Wifi that is not great, thankfully, easy enough to stick another router in place.
The base line is a lot of people don’t want hassle and although consumers can save money by ping ponging between suppliers every 18 or 24 months it can be off putting.
In addition some consumers may have become dependant on proprietary or ISP owned WIFI add-ons which complicate any change. Moving to FTTP is an ideal opportunity but again most will convert with their existing supplier.
Some of the bigger companies like BT do not necessarily bump you to their standard pricing. In my experience they just let you continue on the existing price plus their annual inflation hike. This erodes the value for money but its not a single hike.
My experience of BT is that moving from FTTC to FTTP actually reduced the monthly cost from £50/m to £34. The annual increases will bring it up again overtime but not in one hit.
As always most advertising is exaggerated with savings quoted against a rivals standard pricing not their current offer price and I assume this report is doing the same.
Consumers really should be looking at the new customer adverts, compare with the current bill and ring their current supplier to have a conversation. It is simply that they do not and as we know loyalty is rarely rewarded.
Best deals currently are obtained if you keep to simple FTTP and decline speeds or add-ons you don’t need or utilise an aggressively priced Altnet like Hay! (Even if the routing is somewhat strange).
Those on BT would be better going to Plusnet than EE who in my view have confusing advertising and tie you into hidden long term cost/dependency. If you want a “landline” stick with the big boys BT Consumer, Sky, VM etc. These views are for the average consumer not those technically knowledgeable.
I also think that with the constant news of low price altnets going either out of business or being absorbed into other isp providers people just want stability so tend to stick with their current isp and like the saying goes if it ain’t broke don’t fix it after all internet access is just another utility, isn’t it?
I’m in contract with Zen currently because I moved house, but when the deal expires I will become one of them. I specifically avoid using companies like Sky and Virgin who force you to go through the performative dance routine of pretending to leave to get a fair price.
I hate that having to phone them to get a good deal, at least Zzoomm emailed me, telling me my contract was ending, which I did not think I had and gave me the chance with staying on the price I am on.
Bt did not even email my brother to say his contract have ended.
Plusnet used to email me at the end of the contract or close to it and gave me choices.
I’m out of contract with Sky. And they are charging a fortune compared to their competitors. But won’t price match. Despite being a customer for over 20+ years.
I have 5 other Broadband providers that have overbuilt on my estate. BT have just dug up our roads to lay new fibre, last year we had Virgin with their nexgen fibre, 2 months ago CityFibre dug up the road and installed new cabs at the top and bottom of the hill and next week we have BRSK digging up the road to lay their fibre and installing their cabs next to the City Fibre ones. We have an area of the estate where Zen came in and still have exposed fibre.
The entire way this company have framed their survey seems to be a bit ridiculous and shows a complete lack of understanding in the value of services. If the majority of people are out of contract then that is extremely good. Those people must be (relativity) happy with their service, are not tied in so can upgrade to higher speeds or FTTP when needed or available and don’t have to put up with the disruption (and cost to the providers) of churning.
The question that needs to be answered is why so many people need to churn between providers? Is it poor service, over inflation price rises or a failure by the provider to invest in better connectivity. This answers none of those questions.
It is not so much of moving between providers, at the end of the day if the provider is giving a good service then stay, the whole point of a contract is to get a good price, sadly in this day and age, even a contract don’t do that with many as we have this sticking prices up in contracts thing that our useless government and Ofcom allows.
Broadband from the larger companies or less the same, and have been for years, since we had FTTC. What is the difference between Sky broadband and BT, Talk Talk, Vodafone or any other service. They all use the same infrastructure, differing on their own servers and stuff.
We don’t get things like traffic shaping these days, like we did with ADSL.
so the only difference for consumers is the price they pay and what extras are offered and with FTTP, speed is now what you want to pay, not how far away you are from a cabinet or the exchange.
Even Talk Talk is as good as another these days broadband wise, Customer service is still naff, but the service works okay
I’ve got an elderly relative still on Now’s ADSL2 service, they need inclusive calls which is hard to get now or expensive. None of the comparisson sites work for it. Most just say no packages available when you include calls and they all hide how much the separate call packages are unless you dig through T&C documents or get really far along the order process. It’s an issues and contributes to isolating the elderly. I’m currently investigating the BT Social Tarriffs, MSE says calls aren’t included but some sites say they are so I need to find out, but still not everyone can get these tarriffs.
Not surprised. My brother-in-law joined NOW broadband on a one year contract. The paperwork address was incorrect and after telling them they said they had changed. However, when attempting to search for a new provider this summer I find I am unable to choose a new supplier as the address they all have for his postcode is incorrect. What makes matters worse is that he changed from Sky, which owns NOW broadband, but cannot change back to them as they also have the wrong address for his postcode.
Now here’s the fun bit. He had an email from Sky regarding an overpayment and they have now sent him a cheque to recompense, this has arrived at the correct address for the postcode. How does that happen?
We have contacted Royal Mail re this, they suggest the telecoms/broadband companies need to update their postcodes. Yet they all blame each other and refuse to carry out an update.