3.5 million UK people have switched broadband via One Touch Switching
Two years have passed since UK fixed broadband and phone providers began using Ofcom’s new One Touch Switch (OTS) process, which was designed to make it easier and quicker to change ISP. The latest data supplied to ISPreview shows that 3,481,323 consumers have now switched provider using this process (up from 1.62m in the first year).
The OTS system, which went live on 12th September 2024 via a central messaging platform (Hub) that is run by the industry-funded The One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo), is a Gaining Provider Led (GPL) process where the customer contacts their new (“gaining“) ISP to start and manage the process on their behalf.
However, regular readers may recall that this system had a bit of a bumpy start, due in part to TOTSCo’s platform initially being in somewhat of a beta state and a number of ISPs failing to fully support it at launch. Nevertheless, various improvements have been made since then (more are coming), and in June 2026 the regulator, Ofcom, closed their related enforcement programme (here).
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Despite the improvements, the process does still sometimes suffer from problems, such as with matching customer details between providers during a switch (TOTSCo’s Hub still has a match rate of c.64%, rising to 83% for the biggest two ISPs) and the fact that a very small number of providers are not always fully adhering to the OTS process. But Ofcom now seems generally pleased with its performance.
Overall 1.86 million broadband and phone switches took place over the past year using the OTS process, which is up from 1.62m the year before and represents a total of just a hair under 3.5m across the first two years of operation.
Paul Bradbury, CEO of TOTSCo, told ISPreview:
“Reaching more than three million completed switches as we mark two years of One Touch Switch is a milestone the whole industry can be proud of. It reflects the enormous amount of collaboration across industry to establish a simpler switching process for consumers and a service that is now firmly embedded in the UK telecoms market.
Our focus now is on building on that success, continuing to work with providers to improve performance, while also using the experience and proven infrastructure developed for One Touch Switch to support the industry’s move towards Business Switching.”
The hub has more recently begun to expand into helping business ISPs and related packages to support switching.
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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Bear in mind there are about 30 million residences in this country and everyone’s contract must have now expired in the 2 years since OTS started. This suggests that even making allowance for customers using other means to switch no more than 15% are switching.
That is roughly consistent with the figures of c.9-14% that we’ve seen Ofcom’s official switching tracker reports mention pre-OTS. But I think it’s notable that switching increased in the past year, so it will be interesting to see if that continues through 2026 or achieves more of a plateau, or even a slight fall. I’d probably bet on the plateau, but we’ll see.
I think a lot of people still don’t know the system exists and won’t switch because they think they have to handle it all.
Maybe that’ll increase over time.
FTTP via Openreach and alt-nets is likely to have increased switching in this period. Openreach based ISP customers have more chance of an alternate underlying network, or when moving off WLR to OR based FTTP they could be more likely to search the market for the best deal. Add in the well reported TalkTalk struggles which may have driven more switching away from them, you have a heady mix of factors to increase switching overall. I’d agree with Mark it may calm down now alt-nets have slowed their builds and WLR withdrawal ends in just over 4 months.
And they have made a pretty penny for something that should be free….
I said it before, and I will say it again: most people have no choice but to use it when changing ISPS, so the number of people who have used it, are using it or are going to use it is irrelevant. What is relevant will be the number of complaints.
After octover 2026, “One Touch Switching” to VodafoneThree* will become very attractive to customers of other ISPs looking to switch providers:
1) “VodafoneThree announced the launch of two major new products for october 2026, including the provider’s first pay TV product for UK customers with a home broadband, 5G Broadband or mobile plan and “SuperMobile“, which promises to give you up to 4x faster data speeds via their 5G+ (Standalone) network for an additional cost”!!! *
* Source: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2026/09/vodafone-uk-launch-pay-tv-and-5g-supermobile-broadband-service.html
Are you on commission?
No thanks, even if I could, would not touch Vodarubbish with a barge pole as such. Just a shame that Three is now part of them, as Smarty is now part of them. Awful company, naff customer service and overpriced.
I would change from Smarty, but the price is good and to be honest, the other networks are more or less the same.
I certainly would not use Vodafone for my home broadband.
I used OTS earlier this year for my broadband and landline. Worked perfectly.
Same network?
It can’t be worse than what was available before, my neighbour was changing from BT to Sky, and I had an email from Plusnet saying they are sorry to lose me. Somehow my address got mixed up with my next-door neighbour’s.
@Ad47uk Nope, I went from Virgin Media HFC to CityFibre.
The Virgin kept running for a day or so after CityFibre was installed so for that time I was rocking two networks at once!
Used OTS for the first time a couple of months ago to switch from Fibrus to Plusnet, it seemed to go well enough but then Fibrus continued to bill me and each ISP blamed the other for not completing the process properly. Got it sorted in the end but I thought this was one of the specific reasons the system was set up , to prevent double billing. Fibrus have their own network so I suspect this may have caused the problem.
We are planning to get a 2nd broadband circuit as a backup and/or replacement for VM. As we want no downtime, I will specifically ask the provider to ensure that they do not place the order through OTS.
I wonder how that will go? I have a feeling it will not be fun to find out.
Should be able to order as a new line. You have to put in details of your existing ISP during the OTS process (ISP name/account number) – without those they won’t be able to match anyway.
When you sign up for a new provider and they ask you if you already have broadband, just say no. They won’t bother asking you for your current ISP’s account details, which they need to actually match you on the database.