{"id":7576,"date":"2015-04-08T02:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T02:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=7576"},"modified":"2015-03-17T16:33:39","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T16:33:39","slug":"which-is-really-the-cheapest-phone-and-broadband-isp-packages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2015\/04\/which-is-really-the-cheapest-phone-and-broadband-isp-packages.html","title":{"rendered":"Which is Really the Cheapest UK Phone and Unlimited Broadband ISP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Consumers are extremely sensitive to price and many base their choice of ISP on what they save in comparison to an existing package. But often the headline special offers won’t give you the full picture and as a result you could end up paying more than expected. We take a closer look at the price you pay for the “cheapest<\/em>” packages.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unfortunately one of the problems with examining and comparing deals from several ISPs is the enormous variation between package specifications, coverage, usage allowances and value-added features. As a result we’ve opted to centralise our comparison around those services that are available to most of the United Kingdom and which also offer an unlimited usage allowance. The cost of line rental and calls, where required, will also be factored.<\/p>\n

In consideration of the above we have selected four standard broadband (sub-24Mbps) and four superfast broadband (24Mbps+) packages from different ISPs for our comparison, which excluding first year discounts should be among the markets cheapest. In addition, we will also examine the impact of current discounts on service price.<\/p>\n

But before all that we want to touch on two very important aspects of service cost and delivery, specifically special offers and phone line rental.<\/p>\n

Special Offers – Swings and Roundabouts<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Spend even a small period of your time observing this market and you’ll quickly notice that the big ISPs have all developed a musical chairs approach to special offers. In fact not a single week seems to go buy when one package or another doesn’t exhibit some form of half-price discount, bonus shopping voucher or other twist in order to entice consumers and keep their offers in the public spotlight.<\/p>\n

The trick here is that most of these discounts rotate in such a way that the underlying value proposition of a package doesn’t change too aggressively from month to month. For example, during one week an ISP might offer a free connection (example saving of \u00a350), but the next week that connection fee might change to \u00a325 (instead of the normal \u00a350) and then they’ll add a shopping voucher worth \u00a325.<\/p>\n

Another popular example is the way in which an ISP might in one week make a big show of offering “6 months free service<\/em>” and then the following month they’ll claim to go one better by offering “12 months of half-price service<\/em>” for the same package. Put another way, most reductions are merely variations on the same rough level of discount.<\/p>\n

Admittedly it’s not always like this and sometimes, often seasonally, you’ll see bigger discounts than usual and this is frequently driven by competition between rivals. For example Sky Broadband<\/a>, in an effort to combat BT<\/a>’s offer of free BTSport TV content with discounted broadband, has recently taken to offering major reductions (e.g. one or two years\u2019 worth of free unlimited broadband) with certain bundles and packages.<\/p>\n

Clearly it’s an aggressively competitive market out there, but also one where the true (normal) cost of a package is often lost in a sea of almost endlessly rotating discounts.<\/p>\n

A Question of Line Rental <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Of course it’s virtually impossible to talk about the price of broadband without also having to cost that age old bugbear of line rental<\/strong>, which is usually but not always a separate cost to that of your broadband service. It’s all very well an ISP claiming to offer 6 or 12 months “free broadband<\/em>“, but a lot of what the provider may lose from such promotions can be reclaimed by keeping the price of phone line rental high.<\/p>\n

A quick glance at some of the biggest ISPs today reveals that monthly line rental, at least on ISPs that make use of BTOpenreach’s national network, tends to stay about the same no matter who you pick. In fact it’s the one area that, year after year and without fail, consistently seems to rise in price above the level of inflation.<\/p>\n

Example Line Rental Prices (Per Month \u2013 Data from Feb 2015)<\/strong><\/p>\n

BT<\/a> – Standard Rental: \u00a316.99 | Pre-Paid Rental (Monthly Equivalent): \u00a314.15<\/p>\n

Sky Broadband<\/a> – Standard Rental: \u00a316.40 | Pre-Paid Rental: None<\/p>\n

TalkTalk<\/a> – Standard Rental: \u00a316.70 | Pre-Paid Rental: \u00a315.03<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The above ISPs typically operate off BT<\/a>’s national UK telecoms platform and in most cases the base cost of wholesale line rental<\/strong> actually comes out at around \u00a310 per month, which funnily enough has held fairly steady over the years while ISP charges have increased. Naturally ISPs need to add a profit margin on top and there are also variations in what services get included, but clearly there’s more to line rental than first meets the eye.<\/p>\n

For example, TalkTalk<\/a>’s line rental gives you free calls to other TalkTalk<\/a> customers, but otherwise their phone charges are all pay-as-you-go style standard rates. By comparison BT and Sky both give you free UK weekend<\/strong> calls for the same price and standard rates at all other times. So TalkTalk’s broadband might normally be the cheapest of the three, but they make savings elsewhere and thus which ISP choice is going to save you the most money might also depend upon how you use the services they provide (i.e. free calls are more valuable to some than others).<\/p>\n

The above is also one of the reasons why you can usually only get the best headline discounts by purchasing a broadband and phone service together (bundle) from the same ISP, which thus makes it easier for the provider to control their costs, platform and continuity of service.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere some providers, such as cable and pure fibre optic (FTTH<\/a>\/P) ISPs, will claim to offer a truly standalone broadband service without the need for a phone line. But take this with a pinch of salt because you’ll still have a physical line entering your home and the subscription fee needs to reflect the cost of maintaining that, which more often than not means paying more than you think.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For example, at the time of writing Virgin Media<\/a>’s entry-level 50Mbps broadband (\u00a317.50) + phone service (\u00a316.99) costs a total of \u00a334.49 per month before any discounts (\u00a331.17 if you take their pre-paid line rental). But you can have this package as a standalone option too, yet the price isn’t as simple as paying the \u00a317.50 for broadband alone, nope, instead it costs \u00a328.50 per month. So yes, you do save, but it’s rarely to the level that you may anticipate by simply extracting the cost of phone line rental.<\/p>\n

In fact a lot of the true standalone broadband options cost upwards of \u00a330 per month so, like it or not, there’s still a line or even a wireless signal that needs paying for somewhere. The real cost is always reflected in the total you pay in order to receive a service, regardless of whether the package claims to offer a phone solution or not. In short, the price of broadband provision should never be considered in isolation of other mandatory costs.<\/p>\n

One small caveat to this is that not all ISPs force you to take their phone service, which means that broadband and phone services can often still be chopped and changed between different providers. This is one reason why the advertising watchdog cannot simply force providers to give a single price for both.<\/p>\n

Summary of the UK’s Cheapest Broadband ISPs<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

As we said earlier, our selection of nationally available packages is based upon the perceived cheapest “unlimited<\/em>” services – excluding first year discounts – and this is done so that we can compare similar packages on as close to a like-for-like cost basis as possible. The table below also assumes that customers are using the cheapest payment (e.g. Direct Debit) and billing methods. Each package also includes a free wireless router as standard.<\/p>\n

Obviously the downside of this approach is that we miss out on some providers, with\u00a0a few\u00a0like the Phone Co-op, Post Office and Utility Warehouse etc. all coming very close to making the grade for our ‘standard broadband’ selections. Tesco’s Broadband and Phone has also been excluded because their customers have recently been sold to TalkTalk and this has created some uncertainty over their future. Likewise we aren’t looking at TV bundles, not least because it’s incredibly difficult to compare their values.<\/p>\n

Other Points to Note for our Table(s)<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. The total cost fields always assume that a customer has opted for annual pre-paid line rental, which where available would normally be the cheapest option. In order to show the monthly cost equivalent we simply divided this by twelve months.<\/p>\n

2. There may be extra charges if you also need a new line installed (these can range from around \u00a325 to \u00a3125), which aren’t fully reflected below.<\/p>\n

3. The voucher \/ bill credit values are applied separately in a second ‘Total Cost’ field to show their raw impact on price, which is done because the value of different voucher types can be hard to compare (e.g. if you don’t live near to a Sainsbury’s store then a related \u00a350 voucher may have less appeal).<\/p>\n

4. We selected the cheapest discounts by checking over a period of 2-3 months to find the best offers made for each ISP. But remember, discounts tend to repeat, so even if an offer is over by now then it’ll probably come back again later. Check the Total Year 2 Costs field to see pricing that excludes discounts (special offers usually only apply\u00a0during the first year).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now for the comparison and let’s start with the standard broadband providers..<\/p>\n

Standard Broadband (Prices Correct at Feb 2015)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\nSky Broadband<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nFuel Broadband<\/strong><\/td>\nDirect Save Telecom<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTalkTalk<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Top download speed<\/td>\n17Mbps<\/td>\n16Mbps<\/td>\n17Mbps<\/td>\n17Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Top upload speed<\/td>\n1Mbps (Est.)<\/td>\n1Mbps (Est.)<\/td>\n1Mbps (Est.)<\/td>\n1Mbps (Est.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Included UK Calls<\/td>\nWeekend<\/td>\nEvening, Weekend<\/td>\nEvening, Weekend<\/td>\nStandard Call Charges<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Line Rental<\/td>\n\u00a316.40<\/td>\n\u00a315.00<\/td>\n\u00a316.75<\/td>\n\u00a316.70<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pre-Paid Line Rental (Annual)<\/td>\n\u00a3192.80<\/td>\n\u00a3180.00<\/td>\n\u00a3132.00<\/td>\n\u00a3180.36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Contract<\/td>\n12 Months<\/td>\n12 Months<\/td>\n24 Months<\/td>\n18 Months<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Setup \/ Connection Fee<\/td>\n\u00a30.00<\/td>\n\u00a320.00<\/td>\n\u00a324.95<\/td>\n\u00a30.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Router Deliver Charge<\/td>\n\u00a36.95<\/td>\n\u00a37.95<\/td>\n\u00a38.95<\/td>\n\u00a36.75<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Monthly Cost (Broadband)<\/td>\n\u00a37.50<\/td>\n\u00a34.00<\/td>\n\u00a31.95<\/td>\n\u00a33.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Monthly Cost (Broadband + Pre-Paid Line Rental)<\/td>\n\u00a323.57<\/td>\n\u00a319.00<\/td>\n\u00a312.95<\/td>\n\u00a318.53<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Year 1 Total Cost + Discounts*<\/td>\n\u00a3199.75<\/td>\n\u00a3187.95<\/td>\n\u00a3189.30<\/td>\n\u00a3187.11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Year 2 Total Cost (No Discounts)<\/td>\n\u00a3282.80<\/td>\n\u00a3228.00<\/td>\n\u00a3155.40<\/td>\n\u00a3222.36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total Cost – First 2 Years<\/td>\n\u00a3482.55<\/td>\n\u00a3415.95<\/td>\n\u00a3344.70<\/td>\n\u00a3409.47<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total Cost – First 2 Years + Voucher Applied<\/td>\n\u00a3382.55<\/td>\n\u00a3415.95<\/td>\n\u00a3344.70<\/td>\n\u00a3334.47<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other\u00a0Discounts (Applied Above)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FREE Setup \/ Connection<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Included Voucher\u00a0\/ Credit<\/td>\n\u00a3100.00<\/td>\n\u00a30.00<\/td>\n\u00a30.00<\/td>\n\u00a375.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Excluding the impact of vouchers, on the surface it’s\u00a0fairly clear to see that Direct Save Telecom<\/a> does appear to hold the cheapest crown for standard broadband and that’s largely thanks to their low monthly service charge and cheap pre-paid line rental. But this only applies if you stick with them for two years, which is enforced by the 24 month contract.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile\u00a0TalkTalk\u00a0just managed to edge out\u00a0their rivals to\u00a0take the\u00a0cheapest\u00a0crown for the first year, which is due to their\u00a0initial discounts. However if you consider TalkTalk’s \u00a375 Lover2shop voucher then they also claim the crown for cheapest over the full two years.<\/p>\n

But there is one discount that TalkTalk also offers, which we haven’t factored above because it’s\u00a0too niche. The\u00a0ISPs Speedy Payment Discount<\/strong>\u00a0cuts the price by 10% per month, although it doesn’t apply to pre-paid line rental or other separate payments (mobile services etc.) and you have to action it manually before your billing date. Never the less this would reinforce their claim to the cheapest crown.<\/p>\n

Summary of the Key Discounts Used Above\u00a0(Feb 2015)<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Sky offers 12 months free service and a \u00a3100 Marks & Spencers voucher with free setup.<\/em>
\n * Fuel Broadband offered 12 months free service with free setup.<\/em>
\n * No major discounts with Direct Save Telecom<\/a>, just generally low pricing and pre-paid line rental.<\/em>
\n * TalkTalk offered 12 months free service, free setup and a \u00a375 Love2shop voucher.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note:\u00a0In order to do the total year 1 costs we also include the router delivery fee, setup charges (unless free) and then\u00a0subtracted the primary discounts (except vouchers). Also some ISPs, like Sky and Fuel, don’t do cheaper pre-paid line rental anymore.<\/p>\n

Superfast\u00a0Broadband (Prices Correct at Feb 2015)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\nVirgin Media<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\nPlusNet<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\nDirect Save Telecom<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\nTalkTalk<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Top download speed<\/td>\n50Mbps<\/td>\n38Mbps<\/td>\n38Mbps<\/td>\n38Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Top upload speed<\/td>\n3Mbps<\/td>\n19.5Mbps<\/td>\n9.5Mbps<\/td>\n2Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Included UK Calls<\/td>\nWeekend<\/td>\nEvening, Weekend<\/td>\nWeekend<\/td>\nStandard Call Charges<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Line Rental<\/td>\n\u00a316.99<\/td>\n\u00a315.95<\/td>\n\u00a316.75<\/td>\n\u00a316.70<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pre-Paid Line Rental (Annual)<\/td>\n\u00a3164.00<\/td>\n\u00a3155.88<\/td>\n\u00a3132.00<\/td>\n\u00a3180.36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Contract Term<\/td>\n18 Months<\/td>\n18 Months<\/td>\n18 Months<\/td>\n18 Months<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Setup \/ Connection Fee<\/td>\n\u00a349.95<\/td>\n\u00a350.00<\/td>\n\u00a324.95<\/td>\n\u00a350.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Router Deliver Charge<\/td>\n\u00a30.00<\/td>\n\u00a35.99<\/td>\n\u00a38.95<\/td>\n\u00a36.75<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Monthly Cost (Broadband)<\/td>\n\u00a317.50<\/td>\n\u00a314.99<\/td>\n\u00a314.75<\/td>\n\u00a313.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Monthly Cost (Broadband + Pre-Paid Line Rental)<\/td>\n\u00a331.17<\/td>\n\u00a327.98<\/td>\n\u00a325.75<\/td>\n\u00a328.53<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Year 1 Total Cost + Discounts*<\/td>\n\u00a3269.00<\/td>\n\u00a3274.31<\/td>\n\u00a3298.65<\/td>\n\u00a3247.11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Year 2 Total Cost (No Discounts)<\/td>\n\u00a3374.00<\/td>\n\u00a3335.76<\/td>\n\u00a3309.00<\/td>\n\u00a3342.36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total Cost – First 2 Years<\/td>\n\u00a3643.00<\/td>\n\u00a3610.07<\/td>\n\u00a3607.65<\/td>\n\u00a3589.47<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total Cost – First 2 Years + Voucher Applied<\/td>\n\u00a3618.00<\/td>\n\u00a3560.07<\/td>\n\u00a3607.65<\/td>\n\u00a3514.47<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other Discounts (Applied Above)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FREE Setup \/ Connection<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Included Voucher \/ Credit<\/td>\n\u00a325.00<\/td>\n\u00a350.00<\/td>\n\u00a30.00<\/td>\n\u00a375.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

On the surface you’d expect that Direct Save Telecom might walk away with this one due to their cheap pre-paid line rental and monthly cost combination, yet the cheapest in the first year was actually TalkTalk thanks to their \u00a35 per month “better than half-price<\/em>” promotion.<\/p>\n

But DST’s attractive standard prices\u00a0make them the cheapest for the second year of service, although TalkTalk quickly regains the crown if you factor in their \u00a375 Love2shop voucher as a direct cost reduction and PlusNet<\/a> also best DST with their \u00a350 cashback offer. Lest we not forget the potential impact of TalkTalk’s Speedy Payment Discount.<\/p>\n

Summary of the Key Discounts Used Above\u00a0(Feb 2015)<\/strong><\/p>\n

* TalkTalk’s “better than half price fibre” deal reduced the total cost from \u00a313.50 to just \u00a35 per month for the first 12 months and offered free setup, plus a \u00a375 Love2shop voucher.
\n* Virgin Media<\/a> reduced their broadband from \u00a317.50 to \u00a38.75 per month for the first 12 months and offered a free setup, plus \u00a325 account credit.
\n* PlusNet<\/a> reduced their fibre package from \u00a314.99 to \u00a33.75 per month for the first 6 months\u00a0with free activation, plus \u00a350 cashback.
\n* Direct Save Telecom offered the first 3 months of service for free.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Ultimately\u00a0the difficulty with discerning which ISP is actually\u00a0the cheapest\u00a0depends upon how long you stay with them and what special offers you accepted at the point of sale. As\u00a0we’ve explained above, vouchers and\u00a0other discounts\u00a0change like the wind and this means that the cheapest crown will often swap hands.<\/p>\n

Obviously this makes it difficult for us to write an article that proclaims a single winner for each type of broadband because by the time you read this the deals will have changed again, possibly several times over. On the other hand we can say that Direct Save Telecom appears to have the lowest standard monthly charges, but TalkTalk and some of their other big rivals\u00a0are often able to steal the crown back through various first year discounts.<\/p>\n

On top of that there’s the question of value added extras, which is not something that can\u00a0be easily quantified via a simple mathematical comparison. TalkTalk’s offerings might often\u00a0deliver a\u00a0cheaper package, at least in the first year,\u00a0but then you don’t get\u00a0free calls and in that sense even their pre-paid line rental seems overpriced.\u00a0But then\u00a0most people prefer to use their mobiles for calling, so would they care about TalkTalk’s charges for evening and weekend calls? Perhaps not.<\/p>\n

Likewise if we could easily put\u00a0a consumer cost value\u00a0on\u00a0BT’s FREE TV sport content then perhaps BT should have been included above, but equally not everybody likes Football and Rugby etc. The same goes for those WiFi<\/a> hotspots offered by Sky, Virgin and BT, not to mention the differences between bundled routers (e.g. Sky and PlusNet<\/a> have\u00a0weak kit) or the impact of service speeds. The list goes on.<\/p>\n

At this point it’s important to reflect that the proportion of people who actually migrate between ISPs in any given year is around 1 in 10 (Ofcom<\/a>), which means that at the end of a contract a happy customer\u00a0is more likely to\u00a0continue with\u00a0the service than move, thus the normal pricing beyond year one\u00a0is where a lot of ISPs make their money and what may impact you the most over\u00a0a longer term.<\/p>\n

In the end\u00a0this choice often\u00a0comes down to individual\u00a0circumstances and requirements, not to mention a bit of luck with timing your order to coincide with a good discount so as to extract the maximum value. In that sense you should pay attention to vouchers, monthly rental discounts and setup charges\u00a0because these often have the\u00a0biggest short-term impact.<\/p>\n

However there’s no such thing as a free lunch and the less you pay, the less you get. An ISP that struggles to make a good profit may also suffer problems in other areas, such as with customer support and service quality due to lack of investment. In that sense choosing an ISP through a simple judgement of price alone may not be the wisest approach. The best ISPs<\/a> are usually smaller and charge a lot more than the cheap as chips big boys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consumers are extremely sensitive to price and many base their choice of ISP on what they save in comparison to an existing package. But often the headline special offers won’t give you the full picture and as a result you could end up paying more than expected. We take a closer look at the price […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[474,53,427,84,66,74,475],"class_list":["post-7576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial_article","tag-bt","tag-direct-save-telecom","tag-fuel-broadband","tag-plusnet","tag-sky-broadband","tag-talktalk","tag-virgin-media"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"yoast_head":"\nWhich is Really the Cheapest UK Phone and Unlimited Broadband ISP - ISPreview UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Consumers are extremely sensitive to price and many base their choice of ISP on what they save in comparison to an existing package. But often the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2015\/04\/which-is-really-the-cheapest-phone-and-broadband-isp-packages.html\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2015\/04\/which-is-really-the-cheapest-phone-and-broadband-isp-packages.html\/2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Which is Really the Cheapest UK Phone and Unlimited Broadband ISP - ISPreview UK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Consumers are extremely sensitive to price and many base their choice of ISP on what they save in comparison to an existing package. 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