Introduction and methodology
There are various definitions of broadband affordability. In the UK, Ofcom stated that ‘A good or service is considered to be affordable for a consumer if they are able to purchase it without suffering undue hardship’.[1]
Ofcom’s Communications Affordability Tracker found that in July 2024, 24% of UK households ‘struggled to afford their communication services’[2].
We have developed our own broadband affordability tracker in the UK, which is based on residential fixed broadband tariffs marketed by retail ISPs. The aim is to identify the lowest available broadband subscription (‘entry level tariff’) that consumers can access in every postcode irrespective of broadband technology[3]. Our analysis also shows average entry level tariffs in every LSOA (England and Wales), Data Zone (Scotland) and Super Data Zone (Northern Ireland). (For brevity, we will refer to LSOAs, DZs and SDZs as ‘small areas’.) This is the fourth update in the series analysing broadband tariffs marketed in November 2024. It is following our September 2023, January 2024 and June 2024 analyses.
Where more than one ISP offers the same monthly subscription in a postcode, we take into account one-off charges and bandwidth, selecting broadband tariffs with lower one-off charges and higher speeds.
Many of these tariffs come with a minimum commitment of 12, 18 or 24 months. This reflects the reality that most households will sign up for a fixed term contract to get a better deal. One-off charges (for installation, activation and/or equipment) are not included in our calculations but they are contained in our dataset, as they can add to the cost of broadband. Installation of broadband services tends to bear especially high cost in rural areas though some consumers can get the cost subsidised by the Government under the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
Where special offers are available - for example, a number of months at a lower price or free of charge, we calculate the average monthly subscription, taking the offers and discounts into account[4]. We do not take into account the mid-contract price rises, though not all ISPs will be imposing them. This is something to look into in the future.
In this update, we identified the lowest available broadband tariffs in an area based on the presence of ISPs in every UK postcode as of October 2024. In turn this was based on the ThinkPoint broadband availability dataset containing data from 1.7 million postcodes[5].
We excluded social tariffs from this analysis as they are available to limited groups of population, and their awareness and take-up is relatively low. In July 2024, only 33% ‘of eligible decision makers were aware of a [fixed] broadband social tariff’ (Communications Affordability Tracker, Ofcom).
Entry level broadband tariff and what consumers get for it
As of November 2024, the lowest available broadband subscription at the postcode level varied from £12.50 to £37.50 (FTTP based in both cases). The £12.50 tariff was advertised by Community Fibre as ‘Essential’ and came with 35Mbps symmetrical speeds on a 12 months contract. It was available in 50,589 postcodes, mainly in London. At the other end of the spectrum, the cheapest broadband available in two postcodes was £37.50 from Connexin. Its FTTP package included 250Mbps symmetrical speeds on a 24 months contract.
UK-wide detailed pricing data at the postcode level is available as part of our UK Broadband Mapping service, and it can be updated monthly upon request. Beyond this point, in this analysis we will mainly refer to the pricing at the small area level (LSOAs / DZs / SDZs).
At the ‘small area’ level across the UK, entry level broadband subscriptions varied from £12.50 to £29.99 a month (Table 1). As at the postcode level, the cheapest option was a £12.50 ‘Essential’ broadband from Community Fibre. Kijoma followed with a £13.99 FWA tariff offering 40/2Mbps speeds and 20GB data cap. At the most expensive end, in two areas the cheapest broadband available was supplied by BT at £29.99 a month. It was and ADSL service with a £31.99 activation charge. (Some of the other tariffs also have hefty activation / installation charges, although they can be eligible for government subsidy through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.) BT’s FTTC and FTTP services were also priced at £29.99, along with Highland Broadband’s FTTP plan.
BT’s ADSL service was also the most expensive in terms of bandwidth and price ratio – £10 per Mbps compared to the cheapest at £0.02 per Mbps from the likes of Tove Valley and WeFibre.
Table 1. Lowest price broadband providers across LSOAs, DZs and SDZs (‘small areas’), November 2024.
* Data cap applies
The largest shift we saw this time was the cheaper broadband tariffs becoming available in many more ‘small areas’. In November 2024, the entry level tariffs at the lower end of the price range (£10 - £14.99) were available in 11.9% of ‘small areas’, as opposed to 3.6% we recorded in September 2023. Similarly, the cheapest broadband subscription was in the £20.00-£24.99 range in 66.3% of ‘small areas’, compared to 31.6% of areas we recorded a year ago. At the higher end, in November 2024 the cheapest broadband tariffs available varied between £25.00 and £30.00 in 11.2% of ‘small areas’, compared to 56.8% in September 2023. ‘Black Friday’ deals advertised in November could partly explain such a stark difference.
Figure 1. Cheapest broadband tariff distribution across ‘small areas’. Source: Point Topic.
The geographical distribution of the monthly pricing can be seen in the map below. In England and Scotland, the cheapest broadband tariffs tended to be available around large urban areas, where there is more competition as well as demand. In Northern Ireland, the pattern was reversed due to the wide presence of Virgin Media O2 in many urban areas, though the difference in pricing between areas within the country was small in any case.
Figure 2. Cheapest broadband subscriptions at the 'small area' level, November 2024. Source: Point Topic.
Differently from our September 2023 analysis when FTTC was the most prevalent technology, FTTP is dominating as the entry level platform (40% of all UK postcodes), as Openreach and altnets continue with fibre rollout. However, we can still see a significant number of areas where the cheapest broadband plans available are on Docsis 3.1 and FTTC platforms (27% and 23% of postcodes respectively). FWA as the lowest subscription broadband dominates many more areas than a year ago. This time it is especially apparent in the Southwest, Southeast, parts of Wales and the Midlands.
Figure 3. Entry level subscription broadband technology at the ‘small area’ level, November 2024. Source: Point Topic.
Along with its broad availability, on average FTTP continued to be among the cheapest entry level options for consumers (£22.40), undercut only by FWA (£18.82) (Table 2). Docsis3.1 based entry level broadband plans came a close third compared to FTTP (£22.99). FTTC, Gfast and especially ADSL were at the higher end, albeit the latter was the cheapest (and often the only) option in just 2% of UK postcodes.
Table 2. Geographical distribution and pricing offered on cheapest broadband subscriptions, November 2024.
Entry level tariffs come with a range of downstream bandwidth – the geographical distribution is visible in the map below. Compared to September 2023, the largest uptick in the entry level speeds took place in Scotland, parts of Wales, Southwest, Northeast and East of England as FTTP became more widely available across the UK.
Figure 4. Downstream speeds on entry level subscriptions at the small area level, November 2024. Source: Point Topic.
Compared to September 2023, the percentage of ‘small areas’ in the 100-199Mbps bandwidth range more than doubled – from 24.6% to 50.6% as the broader availability of FTTP had its effect (Figure 5). On the other hand, the download speeds in the under 100Mbps range (more typical of FTTC and FWA) were available in 45.1% of ‘small areas’ in November 2024, compared to 72.2% in September 2023. In 145 ‘small areas’, the cheapest broadband plans offered 500-1000Mbps download speeds, up from 57 areas in September last year.
Figure 5. Percentage distribution of ‘small areas’ by downstream speeds available with cheapest broadband subscriptions. Source: Point Topic.
The level of competition at the small area level varies significantly across the UK, as shown in the map below. Predictably, the general trend is that consumers in large urban areas with high population density are still enjoying much higher availability of competing ISPs. Compared to September 2023, the maximum number of ISPs in some areas increased from 9 to 10 in Scotland and from 9 to 13 in England.
Figure 6. The number of ISPs at ‘small area’ level, November 2024. Source: Point Topic.
However, the correlation between the lowest broadband subscription available and the level of competition (number of ISPs selling the service) continues to be weak. It is -0.195 at the postcode level and -0.125 the ‘small area’ level (November 2024).
Concluding thoughts
The quality of the entry level broadband plans that consumers can access in different areas of the UK continues to be variable. Depending on where they live, the cheapest broadband available to households in some areas is an FTTP-based service with 35/35Mps speeds for £12.50 a month, or an ADSL connection with 3/1Mbps speeds for £29.99 a month.
However, compared to September 2023, there is a noticeable shift towards cheaper broadband subscriptions and higher bandwidth available in many more areas of the UK. While pricing may have been affected by the ‘Black Friday’ offers advertised in November this year, the much broader availability of FTTP did lead to the boost in entry level speeds offered to consumers.
Nevertheless, the digital ‘deprivation’ is still evident, especially in ‘less attractive’ areas where competition is lacking and where consumers have to pay more for ‘decent’ broadband, if it is available at all.
Meanwhile affordable broadband access is becoming a ‘human right’ and an essential utility in many areas of life, from finding employment and pursuing further education, to running a small business and accessing healthcare. At the same time, inflation continues to affect the cost of living, making consumers think twice about their spending priorities. With 24% of the UK households struggling to afford their communication services in July 2024, broadband is becoming an unaffordable ‘luxury’ in some homes.
Get in touch
The complete dataset used to produce this analysis is part of our UK Broadband Mapping at postcode level and UK Plus services. For more information see https://www.point-topic.com/uk-mapping and https://www.point-topic.com/ukplus
To find out more you can contact us on 020 3301 3303 or e-mail oliver.johnson@point-topic.com
[1] Affordability of Communications Services, Ofcom, July 2021.
[3] We excluded mobile, satellite and (public) Wifi technologies.
[4] One could argue the ‘black Friday’ prices tend to be lower in November, so this should be taken into account when looking at the figures in this update.
[5] We acknowledge this is not a complete record, and some smaller ISPs may have been missed. Nevertheless, our analysis is based on over 100 broadband providers, including all the largest ISPs, serving a significant proportion of the UK broadband market.