ISPreview has today published our biannual UK summary of fixed broadband coverage for H2 2024, which found that “full fibre” (FTTP) ISP networks have grown to reach 73.53% of premises (up from 67.68% in H1) and 85.87% are within reach of “gigabit” speeds (up from 83.39%). Continue on to see details for England, Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland.

Just to recap. Virtually all the new gigabit-capable (1000Mbps+ or 1Gbps+) connectivity added during 2024 has come from Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based networks via Openreach (BT), Nexfibre (Virgin Media), Hyperoptic, CityFibre, Netomnia (YouFibre), KCOM, Gigaclear and many other alternative networks (Summary of Full Fibre Builds).

The reason why “gigabit” coverage is currently still higher than FTTP is down to the 14.3 million premises covered by Virgin Media’s older Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network, which uses gigabit-capable DOCSIS 3.1 technology (there’s a lot of FTTP overbuild with this in urban areas).

In addition, most of the progress on gigabit-capable builds during 2024 is still down to commercial investment in FTTP (commercial builds have already delivered the first 80%+ of gigabit cover), often with only a little support from the Government’s various voucher schemes. But the £5bn Project Gigabit scheme and its subsidised rollouts are starting to have an impact on this, albeit focused on the hardest to reach premises (e.g. rural) that typically take longer to cover.

H2 2024 Broadband Coverage Figures

Listed below is the latest independent modelling from Thinkbroadband for early January 2025 (H2 – 2024). We should point out that the figure for ‘Under 10Mbps‘ doesn’t reflect 4G mobile coverage (we only look at fixed line broadband), which plays a part in the official Universal Service Obligation (USO) but isn’t included in TBB’s mapping. Sadly, it’s incredibly difficult to do an accurate model for mobile coverage, especially in terms of a specific performance level.

Fixed Broadband Network Availability H2 – 2024

NOTE: It’s very important to remember that Government / political coverage targets, like the previous “85%” for gigabit by 2025, reflect a national average, which can of course be better or worse for some areas (e.g. some counties may achieve higher coverage, while others could be well below that).

Take note that each region (Scotland, Wales etc.) may also have its own policy and targets, which will feed into the central UK coverage figure. Furthermore, it’s worth highlighting how much of an impact newer alternative networks (altnets) are having on all this – excluding coverage by Openreach, KCOM (Hull) and Virgin Media.

Rival altnets were found to have covered 39.38% of the UK with FTTP by the end of H2 2024 (up from 35.28% in H1). This breaks down as 41.50% in England (up from 37.16%), just 16.89% in Wales (up from 14.23%), 32.05% in Scotland (up from 29.71%) and 39.29% in Northern Ireland (up from 34.44%). But the overall coverage improvement delivered from this will be reduced due to overbuild between so many networks, particularly in urban areas.

As stated earlier, this data is an estimate and should be taken with a pinch of salt, not least because it won’t always reflect the very latest real-world position. But it’s still one of the best and most up-to-date gauges that we have for checking against official claims (Ofcom’s own data tends to be several months behind that of TBB’s).

Solutions for Slow Broadband Areas

Finally, those still stuck in sub-10Mbps speed areas will, at least for now, be left with little option but to try harnessing the flawed 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) via BT (UK-wide) or KCOM (Hull-only). Many of those who have pursued the USO say they were offered a mobile broadband (4G or 5G) connection via EE, but those considered delivered under the USO itself usually get full fibre (FTTP) lines.

However, the reality is that some people will find they live in areas where not even the USO can cover the colossal upgrade costs of getting FTTP (here and here). The government are currently still examining support options for remote premises and are also preparing to review the broadband USO (here), which may bring some changes in the future, particularly with the new change in leadership (here).

Failing that, consumers could either try waiting to see if the problem gets resolved or consider exploring the option of a LEO satellite service (Starlink is good, if you can afford it). We would also recommend that consumers check via Three UK, Vodafone and O2 (VMO2) to see if any of those deliver better 4G or 5G mobile coverage than EE in your area (ideally by conducting your own tests, since official coverage maps are fairly useless) – see our guide to external antennas.

The new CEO of the Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), Paddy Paddison, which represents many of the UK’s alternative broadband operators, has today told ISPreview – as part of a new interview – that he’s optimistic about financial institutions supporting altnets again “over the next year” and wants to see more sharing (infrastructure, wholesale etc.) in the sector.

The past year or two have been more than a little bumpy for the markets many altnets. On the one hand, they’ve continued to drive positive competitive change and have built full fibre (FTTP) broadband lines to millions more premises (altnets now reach well over a third of UK premises) – Summary of UK Full Fibre Builds. Many consumers are thus already able to enjoy the benefits, which is often reflected by faster speeds and lower prices.

On the other hand, many altnets have also had to slow their deployments and make redundancies, while at the same time re-focusing toward efforts to grow customer take-up. This has been fuelled by a combination of issues, such as rising costs (build, leases, debt payments etc.), competition from rivals (e.g. overbuild, price discounts), the challenge of generating a viable level of take-up and the difficulty of securing fresh investment while interest rates remain high.

Despite the problems, INCA’s new CEO, who has only been in the job for a couple of months and is still a Non Executive Director of altnet ISP Wildanet (a company he helped to build), remains optimistic for the future and expects financial institutions to begin supporting altnets again. “I think that phase is nearly over and the institutions will begin supporting Altnets over the next year or so,” said Paddy Paddison.

Paddy also suggests that one of the “best things” altnets can do during the current period of uncertainty is to “cooperate with each other through infrastructure sharing, wholesale agreements and generally sharing best practice“. This might help to make their roll-outs more efficient and reduce some of the gripes people occasionally have around the deployment of excess poles or duplication of street works. INCA has established a number of projects to help facilitie this, which we cover in more detail below.

The full interview also explores the current challenges with market consolidation, the impact that the new government is having, Project Gigabit’s potential pivot to be more supportive of urban deployments (as opposed to today’s laser focus on rural builds), Openreach’s pricing of FTTP lines (i.e. future Equinox discounts after April 2026) and the need for Ofcom not to unfairly favour the incumbents over altnets etc.

The INCA Interview

1. I think it’s fair to say that, between high interest rates, rising build costs and tough competition, the past couple of years have been a bit of a rough period for alternative networks. At the same time, we’ve seen some larger players, like CityFibre, predicting mass consolidation, which they suggest could leave just a handful of networks standing at the end of it. But what do you expect the picture for altnets to be, come 2030, and where might that leave INCA?

Paddy Paddison said:

It’s true that the last year or so has been difficult with financial institutions being reluctant to lend to Altnets just at the moment that their initial equity funding was starting to run out. I think that phase is nearly over and the institutions will begin supporting Altnets over the next year or so.

In my new role I hear both ends of the expectations, from “there’ll only be three networks in the UK by the end of 2025” to “there will still be over 25 Altnets thriving”. Really, I think it will be somewhere in between. I was with CableTel in 1996 which in turn became NTL and saw firsthand the acquisitions that happened and the pace that some of them came through was amazing. However, I think there were a lot of lessons learnt during that period and no one wants to repeat the final result of an over leveraged operator that happened in the early 2000s. My personal view and the one I hope to get INCA members to agree to is that consolidation will occur at whatever pace the investment community feels gives them their best outcome.

While that’s happening, the best thing Altnets can do is cooperate with each other through infrastructure sharing, wholesale agreements and generally sharing best practice. It’s going to be my role to help those ideas ferment. In terms of where a reduced number of Altnets leaves INCA, well I suppose we will still be needed to be the voice of the independent sector even if there’s only two! I’m not one for looking to the gloomy side and think that for the medium-term INCA has a major role to play in ensuring that the Altnets get a fair playing field in both regulatory and competition issues.

2. The country recently welcomed a new government, which over the past few months has been sending some mixed signals. On the one hand we’ve seen various tax rises in the budget (increasing costs in certain areas), while on the other there’s been talk about making a “renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030” and unblocking planning.

How do you think the new government is doing, with respect to supporting altnets on this front, and what more would you like to see them do?

Paddy Paddison said:

A new government is always an interesting time, as it was when I came into the industry as Tony Blair’s government began its tenure. INCA is getting good engagement with the new government and certainly we feel that they understand that a good competitive market in telecoms and broadband is critical to their plans for growth.

The increase in Employer’s NI is certainly a difficult pill to swallow, especially with little time to make plans around it. Hopefully the government will offer incentives in other ways to ensure the continued investment in our sector isn’t eaten up through higher costs.

In terms of support for the industry and the gigabit goals I applaud Project Gigabit’s aims and what it has done so far. I do worry that the final part of the project may be given to the incumbent operator as a quick and easy way to ensure the money is pushed out the door before it gets withdrawn or spent elsewhere. That would be a mistake. Altnets that have won Project Gigabit projects are delivering on time and on budget, building high quality networks that will last a generation. I don’t want to see a repeat of Superfast programmes where the incumbent cherry picked the bits it wanted to do and then seemed to leave the rest undone. Don’t forget there are still premises in the UK with ADSL2 connections.

As for 5G coverage the government’s ambitions are sound and not wanting to cross into the mobile space I would suggest that they need to think more innovatively and in a more joined up way in how MNOs and Altnets can work together to help get coverage over the whole country.

3. Speaking of the new government, we’ve recently seen a lot of talk about some of the remaining funding for the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out potentially being directed to help fill in some of the slowspots and notspots for coverage that exist in urban areas (previously the scheme has been laser focused on rural areas).

The expectation is that this may be used to support an expanded Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS). What are INCA’s thoughts on this and do you think Project Gigabit’s funding should remain ring-fenced for use in poorly served rural areas?

Paddy Paddison said:

INCA feels that all parts of the UK should have gigabit connectivity, by fibre if possible, so providing support for urban areas is just as important as providing support for the rural areas. It’s almost been a forgotten problem by government and its gratifying to see left behind parts of the urban landscape being upgraded to the same connectivity as the rest of the UK. It is also important to recognise that some of the causes of urban notspots can’t be solved with money alone. Other barrier busting work such as more flexibility on street works permitting and ensuring landlords understand the importance of having fibre installed at their properties is still needed.

4. How Openreach, as an operator with significant market power (SMP), chooses to price their own FTTP broadband services – at wholesale – has often been a point of contention for altnets, particularly given the economic and competitive challenges of the current market.

In that sense, how does INCA view Katie Milligan’s (Openreach CCO) recent pledge not to initiate a further round of Equinox (3) discounts on FTTP “until at least 31st March 2026“ (here) and what do you think Ofcom needs to do, if anything?

Paddy Paddison said:

I think you should read that as Openreach will initiate Equinox 3 on the 1st April 2026 if the TAR allows them to do that. INCA’s position is that the Equinox programme is anti-competitive and OFCOM should be taking action to dissuade another round of increased anti-competitive behaviour by the incumbent. It does not help customer choice, it does not help the UK’s growth, and its intention is to retain ISP customers. The name ‘Equinox’ seems to be used ironically, as there is nothing equal about it. The argument that lower Openreach wholesale prices will benefit consumers is not evidenced by the price increases BT Retail has imposed on its hard pressed customers over the last few years.

Please click over to page 2 for the final part of this interview..

More than four thousand customers on CityFibre’s full fibre broadband network in the Northeast England city of York (Yorkshire and the Humber), which is used by lots of different ISPs (Vodafone, Zen Internet, iDNET, TalkTalk etc.), are this afternoon being affected by a major network outage.

The incident, which appears to have started at around 11am this morning, resulted in customers losing internet connectivity and appears as if it could be related to the failure of a core router. But at present it’s unclear why the router failed or when local services will return to normal. All of the operator’s resolver teams (FLM, ERS, and Magdalene) have been engaged to help restore the service.

We are expecting another update on the progress of this effort any minute.

UPDATE 2:38pm

One of CityFibre’s ISPs, iDNET, has just issued the following update: “Following the engineers visit a power issue was identified which has now been resolved. Any services affected should come back up shortly.” ISPreview understands from other sources that the power issue was caused by a tripped breaker at their Fibre Exchange (FEX).

The UK Government has published their annual New Year Honours List for 2025, which saw Ofcom’s Interim Group Director of Networks and Communications, David Peter Clarkson, being named a “Member of the Order of the British Empire” for his services to telecommunications.

The King’s New Year Honours list is said to recognise the achievements and public service of people across the UK, from all walks of life. Anyone can nominate someone for an honour, and nominees are then “checked by various government departments to make sure they’re suitable for an honour” (this may include checks by HMRC) and an honour’s committee will also review the nominations.

So far as we could see, the only other person to receive an award with a telecommunications connection this year was Karen Pitt, who is a Senior Telecoms Engineer Manager at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). She received a “Medal of the Order of the British Empire” for services to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Skills.

Customers in the South East of England who may be looking to sign-up with SpaceX’s popular Starlink service, which offers ultrafast broadband connectivity via a global mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), may have to wait a bit longer as the network in that area is now “at capacity“.

At present Starlink’s network has a staggering 6,906 satellites (c.2,800 are v2 Mini / GEN 2A) in orbit – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’re in the process of adding thousands more by the end of 2027. Customers in the UK typically pay from £75 a month for a 30-day term, plus £299 for hardware on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (inc. £19 postage), which promises latency times of 25-60ms, downloads of c. 25-100Mbps and uploads of c. 5-10Mbps.

However, from time-to-time parts of their network may reach a capacity limit, which means that Starlink’s standard fixed residential service is full and new activations are not possible unless more data capacity is introduced. This is done to avoid the impact of excess subscriptions causing a bigger detriment to service quality (performance / speeds) for existing customers.

The issue of capacity isn’t just a matter of how many satellites Starlink has in orbit and their capabilities (inc. any limitations of the chosen radio spectrum bands), but also of how many ground stations you have active in the same area and whether they have enough capacity to effectively feed current demand. Localised capacity issues often tend to reflect more of an issue with ground stations, which can take a little bit of time to rectify (usually a few weeks or months).

In this case, a large swathe of South East England, mostly reflecting the Greater London area and parts of several surrounding counties (see picture – top), has reached capacity (credits to Thinkbroadband for spotting this). This means that anybody putting in an order for the standard fixed residential service will be placed on a waiting list until the issue is resolved.

So far as we can recall, this is the first time that any significant part of the UK has reached one of Starlink’s capacity limits, although it’s perhaps not too surprising given that the service’s broadband speeds seem to have declined across the UK over the past six months (details here). Nevertheless, this should still be considered as a fairly routine part of how the service works, with various other patches of the world also dipping into and out of the company’s capacity limits over time.

Low-cost broadband ISP Plusnet (BT Group), which over the past few years has already lost many of its extra features (pay TV, home phone (on FTTP), mobile etc.), appears to have added yet another service to the digital dustbin after customers began complaining that they could no longer add a Static IP address to their accounts.

Concern about future support for the Static IP feature, which costs an extra £5 per month to add, first emerged over the summer after some customers reported to ISPreview that they were no longer able to add the service to their accounts. But on 20th August 2024 a spokesperson for the provider denied this and told ISPreview that they “don’t currently have any plans to remove this option” (customers were still able to manually request it).

However, regular readers will know that we don’t put much stock in statements that use a “no plans” style response, since that phrase is easily one of the most used and abused in the modern PR arsenal. Plans can and often do change, frequently at short notice. Sadly, it seems as if that has once again proven to be true.

Several of Plusnet’s customers recently contacted ISPreview to complain that the provider’s support staff were no longer allowing Static IP addresses to be requested, with those who attempted to do so being told that the feature had been discontinued. A related information page and the provider’s T&C’s also appear to have been updated to remove related references. Several related posts about this can be found on their community forum (here, here and here).

Sample Customer Complaint 1 (norliss)

“My full fibre service was activated earlier so I thought it I’d log in and buy a static IP address but the option was no longer there. I called up and was told this was no longer available. If this is the case it seems to have been dropped very suddenly and with no notice?”

Sample Customer Complaint 2 (salxyz)

“I’ve just called PN to enquire about getting a static IP address. Initially I was doing a bit of research and saw your could buy one for £5 from the add on section of your account, but this no longer seems to be the case. PN told me over the phone that static IP addresses are no longer being issued.”

Sample Customer Complaint 3 (Mark)

“Looks like Plusnet have removed the static IP option – it’s missing as an add on from everyone’s account and a few posts on the forum that when you call PN, response is that it’s no longer available. No mention yet what happens to existing IP’s – posts in last couple of days across the forum from people getting the same answer when they call.”

Yesterday, one of the provider’s community admins (JordanTA) finally confirmed the development: “The option for new static IPs was removed in October it looks like, those with existing static IPs will remain unaffected“. The fact that existing customers will continue to be supported is a positive sign, but it remains unclear how long that will last, although Plusnet’s own statement does slightly contradict their community admin with respect to the timeline.

A spokesperson for Plusnet told ISPreview:

“The Plusnet £5 Static IP option was withdrawn for new customers wishing to add it on to their account on the 18th December 2024 but remains in service for existing subscribers for the foreseeable future. Our guides remain on hand to support these customers with managing their Static IP service.”

Rochdale-base broadband ISP Zen Internet has revealed that they saw their busiest ever period for network traffic on 4th December 2024, when streaming of live Premier League Football caused usage on their network to peak at 17% higher than 2023’s record and 10% above the average for a typical December evening. This was a 4% increase over their previous record high in September 2024.

Reinforcing the football connection, October’s traffic figures also show that the largest peak for that month occurred on Tuesday 1st, another live Champions League night on Amazon Prime. In that case, Arsenal vs Paris St. Germain helped drive an 11.95% increase in traffic over the previous day.

In addition to football, several other major events also contributed to notable spikes in Zen’s network activity. For example, daytime traffic soared over 20% above average on 2nd November 2024 as floods in Valencia and Kemi Badenoch’s election as Conservative Party leader dominated the UK news cycle. The conflict in Gaza also produced a sharp rise on 9th July 2024, due to heightened engagement with news sites and social media.

Zen also indicates that 2024’s network patterns may be reflecting a “shift away from video games and gaming-related content as dominant traffic drivers“. Unlike in previous years, “no significant peaks” were attributed by Zen to game launches, “likely due to staggered release strategies prioritising pre-orders and phased rollouts“.

Zen CEO, Richard Tang, said:

“This trend of surging traffic during Amazon’s live football broadcasts underscores their widespread appeal. Matches available to Amazon Prime subscribers at no additional cost draw far larger audiences than traditional pay-per-view options, solidifying live sports as a major driver of network demand.

Conversely, England’s advance to the final of the European Championships (Euros) this summer barely moved the dial on Zen’s network statistics. It seems that most people still prefer to watch football on terrestrial channels when it’s possible to do so, even when streaming is also available.”

Zen’s review of its 2024 network usage also highlights a consistent growth in internet traffic throughout the 12-month period, reflecting the global trend of increased internet usage (Cloudflare found global internet traffic grew 17.2% in 2024), while it also marked surpassing 200,000 broadband subscribers in April 2024.

December’s average usage was also found to be 6.4% higher than November’s, which Zen said reflected the seasonal impact of longer nights and colder weather. Yet even summer saw significant increases, such as on 13th June, when Zen’s network usage exceeded 2023’s highest peak by 5.4%.

Similarly, Ofcom recently reported that the average monthly data usage is now 531GB (GigaBytes) per connection across “all technologies“, which rises to an average of 766GB when only looking at full-fibre connections. However, due to a change in the regulator’s methodology, we can’t compare this with the previous year’s results.

Finally, it’s worth remembering that broadband and mobile providers use sophisticated Content Delivery Networks (CDN) and systems to help manage the load from big online events, which caches popular content closer in the network to end-users (i.e. improves performance without adding network strain). This in turn lowers the provider’s impact on external links and helps to keep costs down. Demand for data is of course constantly rising and home broadband connections are forever getting faster, thus new peaks of usage are being set all the time by every ISP.

The Cumberland Council in England has praised the progress being made on local broadband upgrades in the rural region, which they say has so far helped to extend “superfast” (30Mbps+) networks to cover more than 95% of premises and “gigabit” (1000Mbps+) connectivity to 62%. But they also “anticipate” that gigabit cover will “exceed 99% of properties by 2026“.

Going from gigabit broadband coverage of 62% to 99%+ by 2026 would suggest quite a significant level of rapid build progress for such a rural county, although this is contingent upon over £400m of both commercial and publicly funded broadband deployment programmes being able to reach completion in a timely fashion. Such work is being undertaken by various fixed network providers, such as Openreach (BT), nexfibre (Virgin Media), Fibrus, B4RN and others.

Part of the above effort reflects the £108m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband rollout contract (Lot 28) for Cumbria (here and here), which was awarded to Fibrus in November 2022 and aims to cover 60,000 hard-to-reach premises “by 2026“. But we should insert a caveat that, when it comes to politics and build targets, the word “by” often means “by the end of“, rather than “before the start of“.

By comparison, the UK government is seeking to achieve “nationwide” (c.99%) coverage of gigabit-capable broadband ISP networks by 2030.

Cllr Chris Southward, Digital Champion, said:

“A huge amount of progress has been made in improving digital connectivity across the Cumberland area and it is great to see so many businesses and residents now reaping the benefits this brings.”

This is an exciting time in terms of the work being carried out to further improve connectivity and I would encourage everyone to check if they can improve the service to their premise and experience for themselves the difference it can make”.

Cumbria certainly has cause for such optimism, particularly since independent data from Thinkbroadband does show that gigabit broadband coverage in Cumberland increased from 37.4% in January 2024 to 60.2% in December 2024. This reflects an increase of 22.8 percentage points within the space of a year (or a growth rate of 60.96%), which, if maintained over the next two years, would enable them to reach their target.

The risk to this is that network deployments tend to slow down significantly, while often also getting disproportionately more expensive, as they reach into increasingly remote and rural communities. Suffice to say that there’s always the prospect for both commercial and publicly funded deployments, particularly in today’s heavily strained market, to fall short (i.e. take longer to reach their targets). Getting to the 60-75% mark is usually the easy part.

ISPreview has today taken a quick look back across the UK’s market for mobile network operators in order to identify both the cheapest unlimited 4G and 5G data (broadband) plans and examine how their pricing has changed since our last survey two years ago. But some people may be surprised to find that most operators are still charging a similar amount.

In this article we’ll focus on the cheapest Pay Monthly SIM-Only plans with unlimited data, which is partly because the alternative dedicated Mobile Broadband plans that are still being offered by some operators have not kept pace with regular SIM plans and thus often get shunned (i.e. you can usually just put a normal mobile SIM into a mobile broadband router or turn your Smartphone into a WiFi Hotspot [Tethering] without much trouble).

The next thing to be mindful of is that there are four primary Mobile Network Operators (MNO) in the UK market – EE (BT), O2 (Virgin Media), Three UK and Vodafone (the latter two are merging, but that process will take a few years). Most of these also supply their services to a large base of smaller Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) that inherent some of their parent’s performance and coverage limitations.

However, MVNOs don’t always gain immediate access to the latest features from their parents (e.g. 5G Standalone, Wi-Fi Calling etc.), which will vary and depends on the agreements they’ve signed. Suffice to say, it’s wise not to assume that taking out a contract with an MVNO provider will result in an identical service or performance to that of the primary mobile operator to which it is associated.

Finally, most mobile operators tend to attach a Fair Usage Policy (FUP) to their “unlimited data” plans, which typically provides a guideline for how much maximum data usage is allowable per month. Some examples of these can be found below. In addition, all operators will heavily restrict roaming data usage (i.e. when outside the UK), but that’s another story; we’re not looking at roaming today.

Examples of UK FUPs for Unlimited Data Plans (Oct 2024)

➤ EE

“We will consider usage above 600GB/month to be non-personal use and have the right to apply traffic management controls to deprioritise your mobile traffic during busy periods or to move you to a business plan.”

➤ O2

“Where you regularly tether to 12 or more devices, have used 650GB of data twice within a 6 month period, or have connected to a device other than an eligible device as stipulated in clause 3.3 of these Terms, then we may investigate your usage further to ascertain whether your Unlimited Data usage is for the permitted use. Where following such investigation we determine or reasonably suspect that your usage is for purposes other than the permitted use then we reserve the right to transfer you to a more suitable plan.”

➤ Vodafone

“Where Vodafone notices a Customer’s data usage exceeds 600GB per month twice or more in a 6-month period, Vodafone may investigate whether your use of the Service is inconsistent with this policy. Following such an investigation, if we determine or reasonably suspect that your usage is for purposes other than the permitted use then Vodafone reserve the right to transfer you to a more suitable plan or take other action in line with this policy.”

Take note that Three UK doesn’t appear to impose a hard or soft data cap, while some MVNOs may set their guideline amounts (soft caps) lower than those listed above or take a different approach. For example, 1p Mobile say that “data consumption is subject to a personal usage cap of 500GB” and Lyca Mobile uses a figure of 450GB.

However, the FUPs around all this might talk tough, but they’re usually fairly soft (flexible) and rarely ever enforced. This is perhaps because actually enforcing them might breach the advertising watchdog’s guidelines on ‘unlimited’ terminology. But you should still make sure to read your operator’s FUP and Acceptable Usage Policies (AUP) in order to be sure of what you’re getting.

Cheapest Unlimited Mobile Data Plans 2024 vs 2022

Firstly, it’s very important to underline that inflation (CPI and RPI) surged between 2022 and early 2024, which means that any operator choosing to maintain the same price as it had in 2022 will have technically been giving customers a real-terms price reduction. But some operators approach this differently, such as by introducing options for longer contract terms / options than they had before (e.g. giffgaff’s 18-month and iD Mobile’s 24-month terms).

Overall, and excluding the new additions (e.g. Sky Mobile, Talkmobile, 1p Mobile), most of the operators appear to be holding at roughly the same price point as they were in 2022. Naturally, though, there are some exceptions to this, such as the price rises seen on UW and price fall seen via EE etc. We also have to remember that Smarty’s standard price is listed as £20, but the package is frequently available for around £15 to £16 on a discount for new customers (largely unchanged from 2022).

In addition, some other mobile operators, such as Vodafone, often impose some degree of broadband speed cap on their cheapest unlimited plans, which makes such comparisons harder to value (e.g. Vodafone’s £30 plan limits downloads to 10Mbps and if you want uncapped speeds then it’s £36). EE similarly limits their ‘Unlimited Essential’ plan to 100Mbps, but that’s still pretty good on mobile, so we won’t quibble.

Speaking of things that make comparisons difficult, there’s also the challenge of how you value some of the included extras. For example, O2’s plans often offer 3 months of free Disney+ (or another selected streaming service) and include free EU roaming with a 25GB fair usage limit for data), while others may not include these or might add a much stricter data cap for roaming.

One other point to make is that some unlimited data plans DO NOT include the cost of sending MMS (picture) messages, which are – somewhat bizarrely in this modern digital age – still ridiculously expensive (e.g. 65p on Three UK). Sadly, many operators still don’t make this clear when you sign-up, thus you might only find out once you get hit by it. But most people already know to use internet messaging services for pictures, which avoids this issue (the growing adoption of RCS messaging also avoids the MMS charge)

Finally, there remains a big question mark over how the recently agreed merger between Vodafone and Three UK will impact all of this, although we won’t be able to fully assess this for a few more years because consumer prices will initially receive some protection (here).

On 17th January 2025 Ofcom will begin enforcing a ban on mid-contract price hikes that are linked to inflation and percentage changes (here), but this doesn’t extend to many existing broadband contracts. Consumers on bigger ISPs may thus find themselves being divided between two different pricing policies, and one is going to hurt your wallet more than the other.

Just to recap. Over the past few years most of the major ISPs have adopted a policy that sees them increasing the price their customers pay, each year, by around 4% plus the rate of annual inflation (CPI or RPI) – as published in a particular month (usually January or February) and then introduced to bills in March or April. In 2022 this resulted in average annual price hikes of around 9% (here), before rising to 14% in 2023 (here) and falling back to 7-8% in early 2024 (here).

However, many consumers found the policy confusing (e.g. a lot of people are not familiar with how “inflation” actually works or the meaning of terms like CPI or RPI), which resulted in Ofcom deciding to ban the practice. But this was more about forcing broadband, phone, pay TV and mobile providers to be more transparent, rather than completely stopping mid-contract price hikes.

Instead, the regulator told providers that, wherever they apply in-contract price rises, they must now “set these out clearly and up-front, in pounds and pence, when a customer signs up“.

Old vs New Approach to Mid-Contract Price Rises (Ofcom)

Since then the industry has partly responded in much the same way as it always does, by waiting to see what approach BT took (here) and then copying it. BT’s response was to introduce a flat £3 per year increase on broadband and a £1.50 increase on mobile. Such a policy is clearer, but it doesn’t scale well (i.e. those on lower priced entry-level services will be hit harder) and is thus unlikely to damped calls for an outright ban on mid-contract hikes.

The other caveat in all this is that the change usually only impacts re-contracting and new customers who join after the new pricing policy has been introduced (although some O2 are pushing it on to existing customers too – here). Put another way, existing customers will often still be held to the old inflationary-linked policies, until they upgrade/re-contract or switch provider. But this begs the question – given the recent falls in inflation, which approach will hit your pocket the most? Let’s take a look.

Comparing the Impact

In order to run this quick and admittedly over-simplified comparison between the old and new pricing policies, ISPreview has opted to use an example monthly price of £30. The examples we’re using below will mostly reflect major ISPs (and some random picks) that have, at the time of writing, clearly set out what their approach to mid-contract price rises will be post-17th January 2025. Some other providers may not announce this until that date.

In addition, we’re going to take the latest inflation figures, as published in November 2024, to help us get as close as possible to how we expect the old pricing policy (if it were to be continued into 2025) would compare with the new ones if it were applied in 2025. The results for our example broadband package are as follows. Remember, most of these annual-price hike policies are usually applied to bills around March or April.

Impact of Old (2024) vs New (2025) Price Hike Policies
(Broadband Packages)

BT

Previous Policy: CPI of 2.3% + 3.9% = 6.2%

New Policy: £3 per month extra

Result: A package costing £30 per month would, from introduction, now cost £33 per month (new policy) vs £31.86 (old policy).

Vodafone

Previous Policy: CPI of 2.3% + 3.9% = 6.2%

New Policy: £3 per month extra

Result: A package costing £30 per month would, from introduction, now cost £33 per month (new policy) vs £31.86 (old policy). This is identical to BT.

TalkTalk

Previous Policy: CPI of 2.3% + 3.7% = 6%

New Policy: £3 per month extra

Result: A package costing £30 per month would, from introduction, now cost £33 per month (new policy) vs £31.80 (old policy).

Virgin Media

Previous Policy: RPI of 3.4% + 3.9% = 7.3%

New Policy: £3.50 per month extra

Result: A package costing £30 per month would, from introduction, now cost £33.50 per month (new policy) vs £32.19 (old policy).

Sky Broadband

Previous Policy: Sky doesn’t have a set policy and increased prices by an average of 6.7% in 2024, which was not directly CPI/RPI linked.

New Policy: We don’t currently know how they plan to handle future changes for either existing or new customers.

CommunityFibre

Previous Policy: CPI of 2.3% + 2.9% = 5.2%

New Policy: £2 per month extra

Result: A package costing £30 per month would, from introduction, now cost £32 per month (new policy) vs £31.56 (old policy).

Broadly speaking, the old policy, if it were to be maintained into 2025 (usually impacting existing customers), would result in an annual increase in rental prices of between 5.2% to 7.3% (£1.56 to £2.19) extra per month on a package costing £30 per month. By comparison the new policy, on the same £30 package, results in an annual increase of between £2 to £3.50 extra per month (between 6.25% to 10.45% extra).

Clearly, most broadband consumers (i.e. those using the biggest ISPs) are going to pay more this year under the new, and admittedly clearer, pricing policy than the old one. In addition, those on the cheapest packages will suffer an even more disproportionate hit. But in fairness, some providers, like CommunityFibre, have chosen a smaller c.£2 increase that sits closer to the older policy in terms of its impact.

The comparative impact of this will of course vary a little depending upon the final CPI/RPI figures, while the chosen £ increase under the new policy could be said to reflect each provider’s attempt to de-risk the uncertainty around future inflation values when setting their pricing (i.e. Ofcom’s pursuit of greater clarity has come at a cost). Providers may yet choose to set a different £ increase for 2026 and beyond, so the gap between pricing policies could change in the future.

Otherwise, it’s worth highlighting that not all communication providers play the mid-contract hikes game. A good number of ISPs, particularly smaller players and many alternative networks, often adopt much more static pricing that rarely changes or at least won’t change during your minimum contract term.

Finally, it’s worth remembering that broadband providers are NOT immune to cost increases. Providers, much like consumers, are also suffering under the burden of rising supplier and lease costs, surging inflation, high energy prices, as well as the cost of adding all sorts of new services (e.g. FTTP) and catering for new regulations etc.

Consumer who are hit by mid-contract hikes like this could alternatively try haggling for a lower price when the notification drops (Retentions – Tips for Cutting Your Broadband Bill), although your mileage may vary (big providers will be more receptive). Meanwhile, those on benefits (Universal Credit etc.) also have the option of taking a cheaper Social Tariff – see our Quick Guide to UK Social Tariffs.

In addition, Ofcom’s new One Touch Switching (OTS) system has also made it much quicker and easier to switch providers, but just make sure you aren’t going to be penalised by any early contract termination or exit fees before doing so (this should not be an issue if you’re already out of contract).