Yes, in this context it means with a short notice contract , but what about PAYG mobiles & dial-up?

In reply to a post by yarwell:

several ISPs offer monthly phone line rental - IDnet, Zen, Plusnet (LOL) "Plusnet Broadband Phone has a minimum period of 1 month"

As has been said, PlusNet Broadband Phone is VOIP. However they have PlusNet Talk, which is PSTN phone just like all the others. (And I haven't seen any mention by the OP of phone line rental anyway).

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 09-Aug-13 22:09:13)

all have contracts, signed or not, explicit or implied. Otherwise what obligation is there to provide a service or pay for it ?

PAYG mobile for examlpe - http://www.vodafone.co.uk/about-this-site/terms-and-... may call it "an agreement" but it's a legally binding contract. "This agreement is under English law" etc

Expanding on what you say, the exchange of goods and/or services for money forms a de facto contract. Without a contract, Terms & Conditions could not exist.

I would be kinda tempted to try one of these "no contract" services and then decline to pay anything, after all there's no contract requiring me to do so Dumb Britain.

Hehe !

Or even for a consideration!

The point I was making with PAYG is that there is no obligation to pay anything, but, yes, once having paid something, either by top-up or by dialling a chargeable #, then there is an obligation on the supplier to supply their services in return. Therefore the contract exists from the get-go to cover this eventuality.

Yes, I agree that in all these cases a contract always exists. Indeed it always bugs me here when users say they are 'out of contract' when all they mean is that they have exceeded the Min. Period of the contract and are now just subject to short notice.

No doubt the 'no contract' contracts you to pay the month in advance. You don't pay you get no service for the next month.

P.S.: Why are we worrying about 1 month contracts? THe OP only wanted a contract below 18 m. PN would now satisfy him with a 12m contract despite his parents being forced into 18m in the past.

ADSL24 offer 1 month contracts but not on that list