What is a fixed price broadband deal?
A fixed-price broadband deal is a broadband package that won’t go up in price during your contract.
They’re offered by providers that have committed to no in-contract price rises for their customers - something that most of the bigger brands do not do.
With a fixed-price deal, the monthly price you choose when you’re signing up is the same monthly price you’ll pay for the entire length of your contract. There’s no inflation-linked bill increase, or any T&Cs that lock you into a price rise every year.
Why aren’t all broadband contracts fixed price?
Most broadband deals are advertised with a monthly price that you have to pay for a period of 12 months, 18 months or 24 months. Some deals are available on a 30-day (or ‘no contract’) basis, but most people choose a contract.
You’d expect that means you pay a set monthly rate for length of time you signed up for. However, that's not the case - most broadband providers will still increase your monthly price once per year in line with the inflation rate.
These ‘inflation-linked’ price rises are attached to either the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Retail Price Index (RPI) rate announced at the beginning of each year. But most of these providers also add their own price increase on top of this rate too - usually between 3-4%.
That means this year, with a CPI rate of 4% in January 2024, providers like BT, Plusnet, Vodafone and EE increased prices by around of 7.9% from April 2024.
And on top of all that, because these price rises are included in the providers’ T&Cs, you can’t leave your contract for free if your price goes up. You’ll either have to wait until your contract expires or pay some potentially expensive exit fees to leave early.