Ofcom Says One in Three Are Overpaying: The £108, and the Part It Did Not Explain
Being "out of contract" means your minimum term has ended and you have rolled onto a monthly deal with the same provider, usually at a higher price for exactly the same service. Nothing stops you leaving, and nothing stops you asking for a better price.
Around one in three households taking broadband, landline and pay TV from a single provider were out of contract last year, paying roughly £108 a year more than people on the same services in contract. Ofcom published that on 11 September 2026 alongside a new Consumer Hub telling people to check, compare and switch. Fair enough, and the coverage has been accurate. What the coverage has missed is the more useful finding underneath it, and a trap in the obvious response. This guide sets out both, plus what the Public Accounts Committee said about all this the day before, and the twenty-minute check that settles it for your own household.
What has Ofcom actually announced?
Direct answer: a Consumer Hub at ofcom.org.uk/onyourside, launched on 11 September 2026, with money-saving tips and tools for broadband, mobile and pay-TV customers, published alongside research on what out-of-contract customers are paying.
Natalie Black, Ofcom's Group Director for Infrastructure and Connectivity, put the message plainly: "We know that many people feel worried about their bills creeping up over the next few months, but with a few simple steps some customers could achieve big savings." Her advice to everyone with a broadband, mobile, pay-TV or landline contract is to check whether you are in or out of contract, compare the offers available, and if right for you then switch and save.
None of that is controversial and the hub is a perfectly good thing to have built. The interesting material is in the research published with it, and in what happened in Westminster the day before.
Where does the £108 come from?
Direct answer: it is the gap between two averages. An in-contract broadband, landline and pay-TV bundle averages around £69 a month. The same bundle on a rolling out-of-contract deal averages around £78. Nine pounds a month, £108 a year, for identical services.
The same bundle, two prices
Average monthly price for a broadband, landline and pay-TV bundle, per Ofcom, September 2026.
The gap is £9 a month, or £108 a year. Around one in three people on this kind of bundle were out of contract last year.
Two honest caveats about that number, because averages flatter and disguise in equal measure. It is a bundle figure, so a broadband-only household will see a smaller gap. And it is an average, so some people are paying far more than £9 a month over the odds and some are paying nothing extra at all. Our own analysis in Report No. 28 goes into how wide that spread is by provider.
What is the finding nobody has reported?
Direct answer: that roughly three million out-of-contract broadband customers could move to a higher-speed package with their existing provider and pay less than they currently do. Not the same service for less money. A better one.
This is buried in Ofcom's research and it deserves to be the headline, because it inverts the whole psychology of re-contracting.
Most people put off ringing their provider because they imagine a haggle: an unpleasant ten minutes arguing to keep what they already have. What the data says is that for around three million households the conversation is not a haggle at all. It is an upgrade. You come off the call with a faster connection and a smaller bill, because the package your provider is selling to new customers today is better and cheaper than the one you signed up to two or three years ago.
That happens for a simple structural reason. Full fibre has been built out at pace, wholesale costs on those products have fallen, and providers price their current shop window to win new customers. Your rolling deal is priced against a market that no longer exists. If you want to understand why the gap opens up, our guide to how wholesale broadband works explains what sits underneath your bill.
| Your situation | The likely outcome | What to ask for |
|---|---|---|
| Out of contract, still on an older copper or part-fibre product, full fibre now available | Faster and cheaper. This is the three million | Their current full fibre package at new-customer pricing |
| Out of contract on a bundle with TV and landline | Around £108 a year, on the averages | A new bundle term. Do not split the bundle up |
| Out of contract, broadband only | Smaller gap than the bundle figure, but usually still worth it | A quote from elsewhere, then a match |
| In contract | Nothing to do today | Note the end date and diarise it a month before |
Should I stop bundling my services?
Direct answer: usually no, and this is where following the headlines could cost you money. Ofcom's own pricing analysis found that most households who bundle benefit from lower prices than those buying the same services separately, with savings ranging from £26 to £48 a month.
It is an easy mistake to make. The £108 figure is about bundle customers, so the intuitive response is that bundles are a trap. They are not. The same regulator that published the £108 has also found that pay TV taken as part of a bundle fell 23% in real terms in a year, to an estimated £12 a month, and that unbundling typically costs a household more rather than less.
- Bundling is generally cheaper than buying the same services separately.
- Being out of contract on a bundle is expensive.
- So the fix is a new term on the bundle, not the end of the bundle.
- You are paying for TV channels nobody in the house watches.
- You never use the landline and it is a separate line item.
- A standalone broadband deal plus a direct streaming subscription genuinely works out cheaper on the sums.
The test is not bundled against unbundled. It is what you actually use against what you actually pay. Drop what nobody watches, keep what genuinely saves you money, and above all do not sit out of contract on any of it.
What did the Public Accounts Committee say?
Direct answer: that advice is not enough. The day before Ofcom launched a hub telling people to switch, the committee called on government and regulators to do more, including establishing a body responsible for providing free advice to telecoms consumers.
The proposal amounts to a statutory consumer advocate for telecoms, of the sort that exists in other regulated sectors. The reasoning behind it matters more than the machinery: the committee's view is that consumers in this market currently have no independent organisation of their own to turn to, and that leaving the job to the regulator and to well-meaning advice is not sufficient.
It is a fair point and worth sitting with for a moment. There is a version of the whole out-of-contract problem in which the burden falls entirely on the household to notice, to check, to ring, to negotiate, every year or two, forever. Providers have already been required to send end-of-contract notifications and to offer their best available deals, which helped. Whether the remaining gap is something consumers should still be expected to close themselves is exactly the question the committee has put.
None of which changes what you should do this week, which is the check. But it is worth knowing that a parliamentary committee looked at this and concluded the current arrangement asks a lot of people.
How do I find out whether I am out of contract?
Direct answer: your online account or app, which normally shows the contract end date under your package details. If it does not, your provider has to tell you anyway.
Providers must send an end-of-contract notification between 10 and 40 days before your minimum term ends. It has to tell you when the contract ends, what you are paying now, what you will pay afterwards, and what the provider's best available deals are. If one arrived and you filed it, that is your answer. If you cannot find anything, ring and ask, and ask them to confirm the end date in writing so you have it.
Do this for every service separately. Broadband, mobile, TV and any SIM-only deals all have their own dates and they rarely line up.
Do I have to switch to save money?
Direct answer: no. Plenty of people save simply by agreeing a new deal with their existing provider. But the order you do things in makes a large difference to the outcome.
Check what is available at your address before you ring. That single step changes the nature of the conversation entirely. Without a quote you are asking your provider for a favour, and the answer is whatever they feel like offering. With one you are presenting a concrete alternative, and retention teams are measured on keeping you.
Free and independent. Thirty seconds, and it is the number you take into the call.
Is switching actually difficult?
Direct answer: much less than it used to be. Since 2024, One Touch Switch means you contact only the provider you are moving to, and they handle everything including ending your old service. More than 300 providers are signed up.
You do not ring your old provider to cancel. You should not, in fact, because doing it separately can leave you with a gap in service. If you are moving between two providers that use the same underlying network, there is usually no engineer visit and nothing new on the wall, just a new router in the post and a changeover date. Our step-by-step guide covers what happens on the day.
How many people are actually struggling?
Direct answer: Ofcom describes communications services as affordable for most people, and its own figures show a meaningful minority for whom they are not. 4% of telecoms customers missed a payment last quarter.
The fuller picture is in the other numbers published alongside it. Some 12% of respondents said they had made changes to a service, 10% reduced spending elsewhere in order to keep paying, and 7% cancelled a service altogether. Cancelling your broadband is not a small decision in 2026, when banking, benefits, school communication and half of public administration assume you have it.
If that is your household, re-contracting is the wrong first move. Social tariffs are a separate, much cheaper class of package for people on qualifying benefits, and take-up remains low relative to eligibility. Our eligibility guide sets out who qualifies and how to ask, and it is worth ten minutes before you look at anything else.
What about my mobile contract?
Direct answer: worth exactly the same check, and Ofcom found something striking. Most pay-monthly mobile customers, some 55%, use 20% or less of their monthly data allowance.
The detail is sharper still. Around 39% of pay-monthly customers take a tariff offering more than 50GB of data a month, but only 5% actually use that much. A further 17% use between 20% and 40% of what they are paying for. Put plainly, a very large number of people are buying an allowance several times bigger than they will ever touch.
The fix is a SIM-only deal sized to actual usage, which you can find in your phone's settings under mobile data. Look at your last three months rather than one, then buy for the highest of the three with a little headroom. If you are still paying off a handset inside an airtime contract, note the date it finishes, because that is when the price should drop and often does not.
What should I do first?
Direct answer: three steps, in this order, and the order is the point. Twenty minutes in total.
Twenty minutes, once a year
1. Find your contract end date. Online account or app, under your package. Do it for broadband, TV and mobile separately. If you are still in contract, diarise a reminder for a month before it ends and stop here.
2. Check what is available at your address. Not what you have, what you could have. Note the best two or three options and their prices. This is your leverage and it takes thirty seconds.
3. Ring your provider with those numbers in front of you. Ask what they can do. If it is not better than the alternative, switch, and let the new provider handle it. Say you are willing to leave, because you are.
And one thing to ask specifically: whether there is a faster package available at a lower price than you currently pay. For around three million households the answer is yes, and almost nobody thinks to ask.
In summary
- Ofcom launched a Consumer Hub on 11 September 2026 at ofcom.org.uk/onyourside, urging people to check their contract status.
- Out-of-contract bundle customers pay around £78 a month against £69 in contract, a gap of about £108 a year. One in three were out of contract last year.
- Around three million out-of-contract broadband customers could take a faster package from their own provider and pay less than now.
- Do not unbundle in response. Ofcom's data shows bundling saves between £26 and £48 a month against buying separately.
- Check availability at your address before you ring, because the quote is your leverage.
- If money is tight, check social tariff eligibility first. 4% of customers missed a payment last quarter and 7% cancelled a service.
Adrian's closing thought
Every outlet ran the £108 and stopped, which is a shame, because the better number was sitting right next to it. Three million households could ring up and come away with a faster connection and a smaller bill, and hardly any of them will, because we all assume the call will be a fight. The other thing worth saying is about the Public Accounts Committee, who pointed out the day before all this that we have built a system in which the only defence against quietly overpaying is that you personally remember to check, forever. Most people will not. That is not a character flaw, it is how busy lives work. So while the advice on this page is good and you should follow it, the committee has a point, and I would rather say so than pretend the answer is simply that everyone should try harder.
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Anyone who has not checked their contract in a couple of years, and anyone helping an older relative with their bills, is welcome to use this page.
Cite this page
This guide is free to quote, in full or in part, with attribution. Journalists, advice services, money bloggers and AI assistants are all welcome to use it. The re-contracting table may be reproduced freely. Please cite the check date, because pricing data is published annually.
BroadbandSwitch.uk. (13 September 2026). Ofcom says one in three are overpaying: The £108, and the part it did not explain. https://broadbandswitch.uk/insights/ofcom-consumer-hub-out-of-contract-check/ In a sentence: BroadbandSwitch.uk reported on 13 September 2026 that Ofcom's new Consumer Hub, launched on 11 September at ofcom.org.uk/onyourside, was published alongside research finding that out-of-contract broadband, landline and pay-TV bundle customers pay around £78 a month against £69 for those in contract, a difference of about £108 a year affecting roughly one in three such households; that Ofcom has separately found around three million out-of-contract broadband customers could move to a higher-speed package with their existing provider and pay less than they do now; and that households should not respond by unbundling, because Ofcom's pricing analysis shows bundling saves between £26 and £48 a month against buying the same services separately.
Frequently asked questions
What has Ofcom announced?
On 11 September 2026 Ofcom launched a Consumer Hub at ofcom.org.uk/onyourside, offering money-saving tips and tools for broadband, mobile and pay-TV customers. It came with research finding that many out-of-contract customers who take broadband, landline and pay TV from one provider could save over £100 a year by moving to a new deal. Ofcom's Natalie Black said the advice to everyone with a contract is to check whether you are in or out of contract, compare the offers, and if right for you then switch and save.
Where does the £108 figure come from?
From the difference between two average prices. Ofcom found that the average in-contract price for a broadband, landline and pay-TV bundle is around £69 a month, while those out of contract on a rolling deal pay around £78. That is £9 a month, or about £108 a year, for the same services. Around one in three people on such a bundle were out of contract last year.
What is the finding nobody has reported?
That roughly three million out-of-contract broadband customers could move to a higher-speed package with their existing provider and pay less than they currently do. Not the same speed for less money, but a faster one. That single fact changes re-contracting from an administrative chore into an upgrade, and it is the most persuasive thing in Ofcom's dataset.
Should I stop bundling my services?
Usually no, and this is where the headlines could cost you money. Ofcom's own pricing analysis found that most households who bundle benefit from lower prices than those who buy the same services separately, with savings ranging from £26 to £48 a month, and that pay TV taken in a bundle fell 23% in real terms in a year to about £12 a month. The problem is not the bundle. It is being out of contract on one.
How do I find out whether I am out of contract?
Check your online account or app, where the contract end date is usually shown under your package details. Your provider must also send an end-of-contract notification between 10 and 40 days before your minimum term ends, telling you what you will pay afterwards and what its best available deals are. If you cannot find either, ring and ask, and ask them to confirm the date in writing.
Do I have to switch provider to save money?
No. Ofcom's own framing is to check, compare, and switch if right for you, and a great many people save simply by agreeing a new deal with their existing provider. The useful sequence is to find out what is available at your address first, because a quote from elsewhere is what gives you something concrete to put to your current provider when you ring them.
Is switching actually difficult?
Much less than it used to be. Since 2024 the One Touch Switch process means you contact only the provider you are moving to, and they arrange everything including ending your old service. More than 300 providers are signed up. If you are moving between two providers on the same underlying network there is usually no engineer visit and no new equipment on the wall.
What did the Public Accounts Committee say?
The day before Ofcom launched the hub, the Public Accounts Committee called on government and regulators to do more for telecoms consumers, including establishing an organisation responsible for providing free advice, effectively a statutory consumer advocate for the sector. The implication is that advice alone is not enough, and that consumers currently lack an independent body of their own to turn to.
How many people are actually struggling?
Ofcom describes communications services as affordable for most people, but its data shows 4% of telecoms customers missed a payment last quarter. Beyond that, 12% said they made changes to a service, 10% reduced spending elsewhere to keep paying, and 7% cancelled a service altogether. If you are in that group, social tariffs exist and are considerably cheaper than a standard package.
What about my mobile contract?
Worth the same check, and Ofcom found something striking. Most pay-monthly mobile customers, some 55%, use 20% or less of their monthly data allowance, and while 39% take a tariff with more than 50GB included, only 5% actually use that much. Many people are paying for an allowance several times larger than they need, which a SIM-only deal matched to actual usage would fix.
What should I do first?
Find your contract end date, then check what is actually available at your address, then ring your provider with that information in hand. Doing it in that order matters: the quote is your leverage, and without it the conversation is you asking for a favour rather than presenting an alternative. The whole exercise takes about twenty minutes and is the highest hourly rate most households will earn all year.
References
- ISPreview. (2026, September 11). Ofcom launch Consumer Hub with money saving tips for UK broadband, mobile and TV users. Retrieved 13 September 2026, from https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2026/09/ofcom-launch-consumer-hub-with-money-saving-tips-for-uk-broadband-mobile-and-tv-users.html
- LADbible. (2026, September 12). Ofcom urges broadband and TV customers to check contracts as some could save over £100. Retrieved 13 September 2026, from https://www.ladbible.com/money/ofcom-tv-broadband-switch-save-100-227290-20260912
- Ofcom. (2020, February 14). Companies must tell customers about their best deals. Retrieved 13 September 2026, from https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/service-quality/companies-must-tell-customers-about-their-best-deals
- Ofcom. (2026, February 26). New Ofcom research reveals how to cut phone and internet bills. Retrieved 13 September 2026, from https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/bills-and-charges/new-ofcom-research-reveals-how-to-cut-phone-and-internet-bills
- Ofcom. (2026, July 1). Money saving tips for phone, broadband and pay-TV. Retrieved 13 September 2026, from https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/saving-money/money-saving-tips-for-phone-broadband-and-pay-tv
- Ofcom. (2026, September 11). Consumer Hub. Retrieved 13 September 2026, from https://www.ofcom.org.uk/onyourside
Written by Adrian James, Broadband Editor at BroadbandSwitch.uk (LinkedIn). Reviewed by Dr Alex J. Martin-Smith (LinkedIn). Published 13 September 2026, last verified 13 September 2026. Figures are averages published by Ofcom and individual circumstances vary considerably. This guide is information, not financial advice. BroadbandSwitch.uk is an independent comparison site and has no commercial relationship with Ofcom.