Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to frequently asked questions about broadband.co.uk

At broadband.co.uk it's our mission to give you all the information you need to make informed decisions on your choice of broadband provider.

We've gathered together a list of frequently asked questions to help you understand a bit more about us and how we work.

Where does your information come from?

We get our information either from the suppliers themselves who in many cases will send us details of when their packages will change in advance, in other cases we pull the information from the providers own published materials.

In all cases we check details for all fixed line providers at least once every two weeks, often more frequently. Mobile broadband providers are checked on at least a monthly basis, and also often more frequently than this.

Are you impartial?

We are completely impartial and independently owned.

How do you fund the site?

So that we can provide this website free of charge we fund the site in a number of ways:

  • Display adverts – these are the Skyscraper and Banner adverts you may see on some pages.
  • Commissions – some providers will pay us a commission for sales that come from visitors who came to them via this site. However we don't have this arrangement with all the providers listed. We never base any recommendations or listings on commissions.
  • Sponsored ads – sometimes a provider may sponsor pages on the site, in this case any mention of the provider will clearly use the word “Sponsored” so you can be aware of any commercial agreement. If a provider sponsors any part of the site all the information on that page will still be provided in an impartial manner.

Are there any limitations to the comparisons on the site?

The broadband market in the UK is extremely diverse and crosses over a number of other telecoms products such as phone and television amongst others. In order to handle this complexity in a way that is useful to you the consumer we've built our comparison engine to work in the following way:

  • We are primarily a broadband comparison service, but where practical we do include information on bundles of services that contain broadband, however we cannot guarantee to include all bundle options that may be available from all suppliers.
  • When working out prices where there is a choice of payment methods for a supplier we always display the price using the cheapest payment method.
  • For any pay as you go product (such as pay as you go mobile broadband) when working out first year costs we assume the purchase of one top up per month.
  • The price of line rental is included in all packages where broadband and phone must be purchased together. There may be exceptions - such as broadband-only, where you will need to pay a different company for land line provision - and if so, we will make it clear that this is the case.
  • We mainly display deals for new customers only. There are a few exceptions which are clearly labelled for existing customers, otherwise there may be deals available for existing customers that can be explored by contacting your provider.

How do you decide which broadband products to show first?

Our comparison results initially show broadband products ordered from the cheapest to most expensive. We define this based on their total first year cost.

We calculate first year cost by taking the price for the first 12 months of broadband service, plus any initial upfront equipment, delivery, installation or activation charges. For example, a product that is £20 a month for 6 months then £30 per month for the rest of the year would be £300 first year cost. If there was a £9.99 installation cost, that would be £309.99 total first year cost. In results tables this would be displayed rounded to £310, but the More Info details would show the unrounded figure.

Costs of optional features like calling charges and television service on demand rentals would be in addition to the quoted first year cost. You may also be charged more for charges if you have unusual requirements like having a new telephone line installed or opting out of using Direct Debit payments.

We have opted not to deduct the value of reward and cashback offers from our first year cost totals, this is because rewards often need to be manually claimed or have restrictions in how they may be used. There may also be free gift or tech bundle offers that are difficult to make like-for-like comparisons between.

We recommend considering rewards and cashback as a bonus - and as a potential incentive to scroll a little way down the results before deciding which products to investigate.

In most cases, you can also apply different sorts and filters to our broadband comparison tables by clicking the various headings or tabs. In these cases first year cost is still applied as a secondary sort. So, for example, when sorting by contract length, if two rows both have the same length, the cheapest will appear first.

What 'Monthly Cost' means in the broadband comparison tables?

Monthly Cost explained

'Monthly Cost' is what you will pay for your package for each calendar month for the duration of your initial contract. It does not include any other costs such as line rental or setup fees.

Selection of broadband providers

What providers do we list?

We aim to include as wide a selection of internet providers and deals as possible, but we do not include every provider on the market. For example, we may reject a provider where there is a high cancellation rate. Some providers may choose not to work with price comparison sites.

Comprehensive list of providers on broadband.co.uk:

6G Internet, BT, Community Fibre, Direct Save, EE, Everyday Communications, Gigaclear Broadband, Hyperoptic, Italk, John Lewis, NOW, Plusnet, Shell Energy Broadband, Sky, TalkTalk, Three, Toople, Trooli, Virgin Media, Vodafone, XLN Telecom, YouFibre Broadband

I've read that your price comparison is approved by Ofcom, what does this mean?

You can find out all about our Ofcom accreditation elsewhere on this site.

How can I contact you to offer feedback or make a complaint?

We've provided details of how to contact us and given our complaints policy elsewhere on this site.