Broadband and phone deals: when a paid bundle actually earns its money

Digital Voice now comes free with most broadband-only packages from BT, Sky, Virgin Media, Vodafone and others, which means the phone line is no longer the product: only the call plan is. A paid bundle adds £6 to £10 a month for inclusive calls, and that only pays for itself above roughly 100 outbound landline minutes a month, so most UK households save £72 to £120 a year by unbundling. This page gives you the arithmetic rather than the sales pitch, the narrow profiles where a paid bundle genuinely wins, the care-device checks that matter before any switch, and live bundle deals at your postcode.

Adrian James, Broadband Editor at BroadbandSwitch.uk
Adrian James Broadband Editor · wrote this guide
Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith, Head of Editorial at BroadbandSwitch.uk
Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith Head of Editorial · reviewed it
First published . Last updated . Next review by . Prices and figures as published at 6 August 2026. How we rank deals · Corrections log
Straight to the bundles at your address

The live comparison further down is pre-filtered to broadband and phone packages, and the full check here puts them beside broadband-only with free Digital Voice, which is the comparison that decides it. Renewing an existing line? Check the 2026 copper line price rises first.

Independent and free. Or jump to the bundle deals below.
Your break-even: is the paid bundle worth it for you? Loaded with this page's own assumptions, 12p a minute against a £6 anytime-UK bundle. Change any of the three to match your provider's terms and your actual calling.
Your calling
The bundle
Enter your minutes Both monthly costs, the yearly gap and your personal break-even minute count appear here.
Runs in your browser and stores nothing. Estimate from your last three months of bills where you can, and remember that mobile and international destinations cost more than UK landline calls, which pulls the break-even lower. Method and worked table in the break-even section below.
  • £6 to £10typical paid phone premium per month
  • FreeDigital Voice with most UK broadband-only plans
  • ~100 min/mowhere an inclusive-calls bundle starts winning
  • 31 Jan 2027PSTN switch-off: every UK landline becomes IP
Four shifts, one shrinking product

Why the paid phone bundle audience is shrinking

Adding a landline for £6 to £10 a month made sense in 2010, when landlines were still the household default and Skype was the main alternative. Four shifts since have narrowed the product to a fraction of its old audience.

  • Mobile replaced most personal callsUK mobile ownership is near-universal with inclusive minutes standard on almost every tariff, so household calling now happens on mobile, WhatsApp, FaceTime and Teams rather than the landline.Shift one
  • Digital Voice arrives freeMajor providers include it at no extra cost with broadband-only: a phone number and calls through the router, which is the basic landline service most households actually need, without any bundle premium.Shift two
  • The PSTN switch-off ends the legacy bundleBy 31 January 2027 every UK landline moves off the analogue network to IP voice, so the paid bundle and Digital Voice converge with no underlying technology difference left to charge for.Shift three
  • What remains is the call plan, not the lineA modern bundle is really inclusive minutes, international destinations and mobile inclusions sitting on top of Digital Voice, worth paying for only when your calling pattern genuinely uses them.Shift four

The phone line as a service is disappearing. What is left is the call plan, and that only earns its premium when you make enough calls to fill it.

Four options, one of them free

UK call plan types compared

Four options now sit on top of Digital Voice or a paid bundle. The first is free with most broadband-only plans; the rest are add-ons worth considering only if your calling pattern needs them.

Four UK call plans compared: Digital Voice at £0 with most broadband, giving a number, free inbound and outbound at 9 to 15p a minute, suiting households under about 100 minutes; evenings and weekends inclusive at £3 to £5; anytime UK inclusive at £6 to £10; and anytime plus UK mobiles and set international destinations at £10 to £15.
Figure 1. The line is no longer the product: only the call plan is. Prices as published on this page, August 2026.
  • Digital Voice, pay per call · £0 with most broadbandA phone number, free inbound calls, and outbound charged per minute, typically 9 to 15p for UK landlines and more for mobiles and international. Best fit: most UK households making under around 100 outbound minutes a month.
  • Evenings and weekends inclusive · £3 to £5Inclusive UK landline calls Monday to Friday after 7pm and all weekend, with weekday daytime still charged per minute. Best fit: households who mainly ring relatives in the evening or at weekends.
  • Anytime UK inclusive · £6 to £10Inclusive UK landline calls any time, any day, with mobile calls usually still per minute unless the plan is upgraded. Best fit: heavy daytime callers, older relatives, sole traders working from home.
  • Anytime plus mobiles and international · £10 to £15Inclusive UK landline and UK mobile calls plus specific international destinations, often Ireland, Europe and the USA, sometimes Commonwealth countries. Best fit: households with regular international family contact or heavy mobile calling from the landline.

Unless your household fits one of the last three, free Digital Voice is the sensible default, and the break-even test below tells you which side of the line you are on.

Arithmetic, not sales patter

The break-even test: do you actually need a paid bundle?

The honest method: estimate your actual outbound landline minutes a month, multiply by the Digital Voice rate, and compare against the inclusive bundle. Use your last three months of bills where you have them, or estimate if you are starting fresh, and remember that only outbound counts because inbound is free.

Break-even chart: Digital Voice pay-per-call at 12p a minute rises from zero, crossing the flat £6 monthly bundle line at 50 minutes, with 50 to 100 minutes marked as roughly even, and the bundle saving £6 to £18 at 100 to 200 minutes and £42 or more beyond 400 minutes.
Figure 2. Where the lines cross, at 12p a minute against a £6 bundle. Worked example as published, August 2026.
  • Under 50 minutes£0 to £6 on pay-per-call against £6 for the bundle. Digital Voice wins.
  • 50 to 100 minutes£6 to £12 against £6. Roughly even, and Digital Voice is simpler with no bundle to administer.
  • 100 to 200 minutes£12 to £24 against £6. The paid bundle wins, saving £6 to £18 a month.
  • 200 to 400 minutes£24 to £48 against £6. The paid bundle wins, saving £18 to £42 a month.
  • 400 minutes and beyond£48 or more against £6. The paid bundle wins comfortably, saving £42 and up.

The lines cross at 50 minutes on these assumptions, and 50 to 100 reads as roughly even once you allow for the simplicity of having no bundle at all. Most UK households sit comfortably below 100 outbound minutes a month, which is why free Digital Voice usually wins. The example uses a 12p average; your real rate depends on the provider and the mix of destinations, and international or mobile calls cost more, which pulls the break-even lower. The calculator at the top of this page runs your own numbers.

Six honest profiles

When a paid phone bundle genuinely still helps

Six household types where the premium earns itself back in 2026. If none of these describes your home, the free option is almost certainly right.

  • Heavy daytime callers, 100+ minutesSole traders working from home, pensioners who ring landlines during the day, older relatives keeping regular phone contact. An anytime-UK bundle beats pay-per-call at these volumes.
  • Regular international callersFamily abroad and regular calls to Ireland, Europe, North America or specific Commonwealth destinations: international add-ons typically undercut pay-per-call by 60 to 80% for the destinations they cover.
  • Older relatives with complex calling needsLong daily calls from a familiar desktop handset, where predictable flat-rate billing matters more than squeezing the last few pounds out of pay-per-call.
  • Verified care alarm or telehealth householdsWhere a device is verified as needing a specific provider's phone service. Increasingly rare as devices move to Digital Voice compatibility, but still valid until the device is upgraded.
  • Specific business telephony needsHome businesses wanting a dedicated line, number porting, continuity SLAs or business-class call recording, features consumer Digital Voice does not carry. See business broadband.
  • Predictable-billing householdsSome homes value a flat monthly figure over per-call precision even when a measured bill would be lower, and that is a legitimate reason to pay the modest premium.
Both columns, honestly

Decision matrix: paid bundle or Digital Voice?

Assuming both are available at your address, these patterns reliably predict the right call.

  1. The bundle earns its premium whenYou make 100+ outbound landline minutes a month; you call international destinations regularly; you often ring UK mobiles from the landline; a care alarm or telehealth device is verified as needing a specific provider's phone service; you run a home business with porting, recording or SLA requirements; you value flat-rate billing over per-call optimisation; or an older household member prefers a consistent all-calls-included setup.
  2. Digital Voice covers you whenYou make fewer than 50 outbound minutes a month, so broadband-only deals are the shortlist; the household uses mobiles for personal calls and messaging apps for family; the landline is really for incoming calls, which are free; no connected device depends on a bundle-specific phone line; you have not made a landline call in three months, in which case switching without a landline is worth reading; or your provider includes free Digital Voice and the bundle's saving against the break-even calculation comes to under £3 a month.

Sitting between the two profiles? Start with Digital Voice and add a call plan later if your volume turns out to justify it, because most providers let you add one mid-contract while dropping one mid-contract is harder.

Five checks before you pay

What to check before committing to a phone bundle

  1. Estimate your actual monthly landline minutesThree months of bills, outbound only. Under 100 minutes almost always favours Digital Voice; above it, run the break-even numbers with your own mix of UK landline, mobile and international calls.
  2. Read the inclusive-minutes fair-use capMost anytime-inclusive bundles cut calls at 60 or 70 minutes, after which you redial and the timer resets. Continuous calling, caring for an elderly relative or long business consultations, can trip it repeatedly.
  3. Confirm the international destinations coveredInternational inclusive usually means 30 to 50 named countries rather than everywhere: Ireland, the EU, the USA and Canada are typically in, while many African, Asian and Middle Eastern destinations are not.
  4. Verify Digital Voice compatibility for connected devicesCare alarms, telehealth pendants, monitored alarms, fax machines and older cordless base stations, checked through the care alarm compatibility guide. This matters whichever option you pick, because the switch-off makes both IP-based.
  5. Check the phone contract length against the broadband oneSome providers fold the phone into the broadband contract, some run it separately, and early-termination fees usually apply to both components. Get the termination structure clear before signing: exit fees explained.
Applies either way

Care alarms and PSTN-dependent devices

This section matters whichever option you choose, because the 31 January 2027 switch-off moves every UK landline to IP voice and some legacy devices need checking first.

  • Care alarms and telehealth pendantsOlder models built for analogue PSTN may not work reliably over IP voice, bundled or free. Check with the manufacturer before any switch: many newer models are compatible, some need replacing.
  • Monitored security systemsAlarms that auto-dial a monitoring centre often use the analogue signalling protocol, which does not carry cleanly over IP. Confirm compatibility or the upgrade path with the security provider.
  • Fax machines and older handsetsFax over IP has variable success depending on provider configuration, and older cordless base stations may need a power source near the router, because Digital Voice equipment plugs into the router rather than a wall socket.

The power-cut point. Analogue lines kept working in a mains failure because the line itself was powered from the exchange; Digital Voice, bundled or free, depends on your router and therefore on mains power. Providers typically supply a battery backup unit to vulnerable customers, but it is worth requesting explicitly rather than assuming, and telling the provider about a care alarm so the household is flagged. The Digital Voice guide covers the detail, and the elderly relative guide the wider conversation.

Live · filtered to broadband and phone

Live broadband and phone deals at your postcode

Everything below is a UK broadband and phone package, with or without TV, each card carrying its monthly price, contract length, average speed and its stated April rise amounts in pounds and pence. Enter your postcode for availability at your address, then compare each against broadband-only with free Digital Voice using the break-even calculator, because that is the comparison that decides it.

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Paid phone bundles are a smaller share of the UK market than they were, and the full comparison shows broadband-only alternatives alongside, which combined with free Digital Voice cover most households' phone needs at a lower total cost.

Keep comparing

Related ways to compare

Common questions

Broadband and phone bundles, asked and answered

Do I still need a phone bundle if my broadband comes with Digital Voice?

For most UK households, no: Digital Voice gives you a number, free inbound calls and outbound charged per minute, so under 50 to 100 outbound landline minutes a month it costs less than adding a paid bundle. The break-even test on this page gives the exact threshold for your own rate and premium.

What is Digital Voice and how does it differ from a traditional landline?

It is phone service delivered over your broadband router rather than a separate copper line: you plug a standard handset into the router and use it as normal, over Voice over IP, at call quality generally indistinguishable from the old landline. The practical difference is power, because the router needs mains electricity, so calls stop in a power cut unless you have a battery backup unit.

Can I keep my phone number when moving to Digital Voice or a new bundle?

Usually yes: UK landline number porting is widely supported, you request the port during the switch, the new provider takes the number over, and it typically completes within a few days. Your existing handset usually works too, plugged into the router rather than the wall socket.

What happens during a power cut?

Both Digital Voice and modern paid bundles run through the router, so neither works in a mains failure without a battery backup unit. Providers typically offer these to vulnerable customers, including households with medical needs or elderly or disabled occupants, so request one explicitly when ordering. A mobile with signal remains a sensible backup for most households.

Are international calls cheaper on a paid bundle?

Significantly, but only for the destinations the bundle names: a typical international add-on at £10 to £15 a month covers 30 to 50 countries, usually Ireland, most of Europe, the USA and Canada, sometimes Commonwealth destinations. If your regular calls land inside that list the bundle can save £20 to £50 a month against pay-per-call; if they land outside it, messaging apps or a dedicated international calling service will serve you better.

Will my care alarm work on Digital Voice or a Digital Voice-based bundle?

It depends on the device: many newer care alarms and telehealth units are compatible, while older models built for analogue PSTN may not work reliably over IP, and the 31 January 2027 switch-off means every UK household meets this eventually. Always check with the manufacturer before switching, and tell your broadband provider about the alarm so the household is flagged as potentially vulnerable and offered a battery backup unit.

Is a bundle cheaper if I already have a landline?

Usually not by much: the bundle premium is typically £6 to £10 over broadband-only, so against old-style line rental at £18 to £20 a month it saves £8 to £14, but against broadband-only with free Digital Voice it costs the full £6 to £10 more unless your calling volume justifies the inclusive minutes. The comparison tool shows the actual prices at your postcode.

Are any social tariffs broadband-and-phone bundles?

Some are: BT and certain other providers include a basic phone service alongside broadband for eligible households on qualifying benefits, typically at £12 to £20 a month for both. If anyone in your household qualifies, check the social tariffs guide before committing to any standard paid bundle.

About this guide. Compiled by Adrian James and reviewed by Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith, with every price and figure stated as published at 6 August 2026, and the break-even calculator running on this page's own assumptions carried in its markup so tool and table cannot drift. Digital Voice availability, call plan inclusions, international destinations covered and care alarm compatibility all vary by provider and device, so verify in the provider's own terms and with device manufacturers before ordering, especially where vulnerable household members rely on a specific phone service. We earn commission when you order through the comparison, which never changes the price you pay: see how we rank deals, the editorial policy and the affiliate disclosure, or submit a correction and a human will read it.

References

Ready to settle it?

For most UK households, broadband-only with free Digital Voice is the sensible default and saves £72 to £120 a year. Want the full triple? Broadband, phone and TV. Or see every package type side by side at your address.

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