In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

Well actually after doing some searching I found out that Vodafone are offering 1000/120 for £36 a month with £85 voucher, which is basically the equivalent of £32.46!

I did specify a *good quality* Openreach-based provider

If you're lucky and it works, then fine, but search the forums for examples of people who have had hell from Vodafone.

Also, "Price locked until April 2025" is a really odious way of saying "Price will rise in April 2025"

Who gave the "average monthly cost" of 32.46? It's wrong. It is calculated assuming that the price does not rise at all:
(36*24-85)/24 = 32.46

However, that's not the case - it increases by £3 every April. If that figure was supplied by Vodafone then they need to be reported to ASA and/or Ofcom. If it came from a price comparison site then they ought to know better.

I calculate the average cost as:
(36*4+39*12+42*8-85)/24 = 35.96

Edited by candlerb (Sun 05-Jan-25 20:43:10)

Yes, indeed this is coming from price comparing websites namely MoneySuperMarket, BroadbandChoices and Broadband Genie they are factoring in the voucher as part of the total cost at the end of the contract and the monthly price equation.

Of-course you are right that if the price does not rise then the sum will be correct. From the price comparisons different ISPs are promising different things.

Some of them will show Price could change during your contract, No mid-contract price rises, and for Vodafone it will show Increases annually on 1 April by £3.00.

Looking at Onestream they claim "Annual Price Increase: Starting in 2026, your monthly price will increase by £2.75 every year on 1st April."

The important thing here is whether the price will only increase by £3 or whether there will be a much bigger increase during the mid contract?
This is what happened with me when I was with TalkTalk during the 24 month contract the price went up from £21.75 for 80/20 to £23, £28 and eventually after the 24 months it jumped to £40 without any notice. I found this in my bill history there were no warnings whatsoever. I tried to haggle with them on the phone and they said they can only do £28pm for 18 months if I re-contract and no cheaper than that.

This is when I looked into social tariffs over 2 years ago and found BT Home Essentials 2 offering 80/20 for £20 a month with Digital Voice included for free.

At that time I received a letter that Community Fibre was coming soon and I was thinking that if I tie myself in a contract with FTTC then I may be charged early exit fee. But social tariffs do not punish you for early exit fee or price hike.

Funny thing is that a few days later I received a letter by post from TalkTalk offering me the price match to £20 a month if I cancel BT within 14 days! Of-course I was never going to agree to do that. They had the opportunity to keep me as a customer before that and they refused.

Here I am for 2 years and 6 months with BT and they have only charged me £20 every month. Social tariff deals don't price hike or include the April cost increases. I have been very happy with the service no drop-outs for over 170 days (connection up-time), this is the best service I have ever had!

For most people including myself gigabit speeds are a bonus to have but more importantly is having a service that is reliable and isn't too expensive! I didn't have that reliability when I was on ADSL EO Line. Openreach FTTP at one point was showing as a plan in 2018 but my management refused wayleave and it then reverted to FTTC and I got upgraded in October 2019.

Many of us still don't have a choice what service we will get while some will downright not agree to give wayleave for a single FTTP provider at all or even install the service even if wayleave isn't the problem like in rural areas.

I still count myself as lucky to have FTTC, Community Fibre and now VM via nexfibre. But Virgin Media is not something I would consider as a second Altnet unless nexfibre promises better wholesale packages.