The broadband price mess: Why can't we have fixed deals?

Dan Howdle • June 2nd, 2025

Ever signed up for broadband thinking you’d pay one price, only to see your bill jump a few months later? You’re not alone. Broadband deals in the UK have always come with prices that go up year after year — even when you're still in contract. It’s not just annoying, it’s confusing too. And that's especially the case, ironically, since Ofcom has insisted on showing the next two years of price rises next to the headline advertised price. Without a calculator, it's harder than ever to know what you're going to be paying a year or two from now.

In an effort to keep things simpler and to keep providers more honest, we seem to have forgotten what's best for the customer and have a system that confuses most and please nobody. Other utilities, credit cards, mortgages and everything else work on a fixed-price contract basis – vastly superior to what we have in the broadband world? So why don't we do that for broadband too?

What’s going on with broadband prices today?

Let’s say you see a broadband deal online for £25 a month. You sign up thinking that’s what you’ll be paying. But then, six months later, your bill goes up — maybe by a couple of pounds, maybe more. What happened? You knew this was coming because it was advertised that way, right? Probably not. It was six months ago. And how long is your contract? If it's 18 months, say, will you see your bill rise once? Or Twice? Well, what month did you take it out?

Broadband providers now, by decree of Ofcom, have to build price rises into their contracts. That's why the pricing you now see includes supplementary information about how much your bill will go up, and when. It means the main, advertised price you see isn’t really the price you’ll pay for very long, and when your bill goes up will depend entirely on when you took out the contract and across how many price rise periods said contract extends. Here's a set of examples showing why the current system is as clear as mud, specially since some providers aren't even playing ball and showing them.

If this is confusing to you, you're not alone. Even we have to whip the calculator out to understand what it is we're going to be paying at any given time. And here’s the thing — that small print is easy to miss. It’ll be no wonder under the new system when plenty of folk feel misled or caught out.

Wouldn’t it be easier if broadband prices just stayed the same from start to finish? You know, like just about every other contract the average household signs up to?

How did we end up here?

A few years ago, broadband prices looked simple — but they weren’t. Companies used to advertise one price, then add extras like line rental on top. So what you thought was a £20 deal could easily turn out to be more like £30 a month once everything was included.

To stop this, the rules were changed. Providers had to start showing the full price, with line rental included. That was a good step – kept things simple. But providers have historically, and continue to do their best to work around whatever rule is laid out in order to tell the customer the bare minimum of anything they think they don't want to hear.

Up until very recently, that meant not informing new customers of annual price rises, and instead putting that into the small print of their contract. Obviously, most people aren't going to read their broadband contract (even though they probably should), and so providers found a good way to not tell their customers that the pricing they see right now won't be what they'll be paying for very long. Sneaky.

As usual, Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, took a couple of years to catch up with providers and, seeing that they were hiding price rise information, finally decreed not that pricing should be fixed – oh no, that would have been far too simple and consumer friendly – but that price rises must be advertised, to the penny, along with the headline price of the broadband package.

You can see the problems, can't you? Who can easily calculate the total cost of their contract with that thrown into the mix? Not many of us. And who can remember how much their bill is going up and when if that happens eight months down the line?

While it's clear to see why we have the rules we now have, it's incredible that Ofcom is so blind to how confusing it's become. Is it really more honest to add such complexity to broadband pricing that barely anyone knows what they'll be paying and when?

Instead of fixing the system, we’ve ended up with something that’s just plain messy. What we should be doing is fixing pricing for the duration of the contract. You know – like other utilities and financial services always have.

Everything else stays fixed — so why not broadband?

Most of the things you pay for each month stay the same for the length of your deal. Your mortgage doesn’t go up halfway through. Your home insurance stays put. Even your council tax lays out exactly what you'll be paying for the coming, year-long fixed term. So why does broadband get a free pass to bump prices up whenever they like?

So here’s the big question: if banks, energy suppliers and mobile networks can stick to a price, why can’t broadband companies do the same?

Truth is, they could. But right now, they don’t want to. And as long as Ofcom keeps on deeming the best reply to provider pricing shenanigans to be to layer on information rather than streamline and simplify, things are only going to get worse.

What other countries do better

The UK isn’t the only place with broadband, of course. And when you look at how it works in other countries, it makes our system look even more confusing.

In France, broadband prices are usually fixed. You pay the same amount each month, and that’s it. No hidden extras, no mid-contract surprises. What you see is what you pay. Germany is similar. Contracts there are clearer, and the rules make it harder for providers to sneak in extra charges. People know what they’re signing up for — and that matters. Spain goes even further. The rules there are designed to protect people, not just companies. That means fairer pricing, better contract terms, and more trust in what you’re buying.

So if France, Germany and Spain can do a better job, why can’t we? France especially has the right idea – offering fixed price contracts across the board, while Spain offers what the UK used to: a system whereby providers are free to raise prices, but customers are also free to cancel. As is often the case, if you want a stark contrast as to how awful our current system is, how bad it's gotten, just look to Europe.

Time to fix the mess

Let’s be honest — broadband pricing in the UK has become way too tricky. It shouldn’t take a maths degree or a magnifying glass to work out what your bill’s going to be. The rules that were meant to make things clearer have just added layers of confusion. Instead of making it easier to choose a deal, they’ve made it harder to trust what you’re signing up for.

So here’s a simple idea: if you sign up for an 18-month contract, the price should stay the same for all 18 months. No extra charges. No mid-contract rises. Just one price, from start to finish. Simple. Fair. Clear. That’s all we’re asking for.

Ofcom has found itself stuck up a blind ally here. The behaviour of providers in terms of burying price rise information in contracts has led us here, but the solution was never to pile that information on top. The solution is, and always has been one, fair, simple price for the length of the contract. Instead we have the worst of all worlds.