BT Broadband: Prices, the Digital Voice Switch and What BT Has Signed

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BT's cheapest advertised broadband is £28.99 a month on a 24-month term, and that buys Fibre 1 at an average 50Mbps download and 10Mbps up. Full Fibre 300 is £30.99, Full Fibre 500 £33.99 and Full Fibre 900 £35.99, and activation is £0 on all six packages when you order online. Prices checked on 16 October 2026 against BT's own deals pages.

One thing every BT customer needs before they order, and it is not a criticism. The analogue telephone network is, in BT's own words, “being retired and switched off at the end of January 2027”. Over three million UK households have already moved to a digital landline that runs through the broadband hub, and BT Group's trading update of 23 July 2026 calls the year ahead “the final year of the legacy landline network”. Customers are contacted at least four weeks before their own switch, and BT offers vulnerable customers free engineer visits and back-up power where it is needed.

BT is the oldest name in the trade and still one of the biggest: British Telecommunications was incorporated on 1 April 1984, and BT Group's Consumer division booked £2,331m of adjusted revenue in the three months to 30 June 2026 on broadband churn of 1.1%. Two things follow from that size and are worth knowing before you compare it with a smaller network. BT is one of only ten providers that have signed Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme, and one of nine residential signatories to Ofcom's broadband speeds code of practice. On both counts it sits in the group that has signed up rather than the group that has not.

The six packages, and the gap between £28.99 and what the average customer pays

BT advertises three Full Fibre packages and three part-fibre ones, all on 24 months. Full Fibre 300 is £30.99 a month for an average 300Mbps down and 49Mbps up; Full Fibre 500 is £33.99 for 500Mbps and 73Mbps; Full Fibre 900 is £35.99 for 900Mbps and 110Mbps. On the part-fibre side, Fibre Essential is £28.99 for an average 35–36Mbps, Fibre 1 is £28.99 for 50Mbps and Fibre 2 is £30.99 for 74Mbps.

Two of those prices are worth pausing on. Fibre Essential and Fibre 1 cost exactly the same £28.99, and Fibre 1 is the faster of the two, so there is no reason to take Fibre Essential where Fibre 1 is available. And the step from Fibre 2 at £30.99 to Full Fibre 300 at the same £30.99 quadruples the download speed and more than doubles the upload. Where the full fibre is there, the part-fibre tiers are priced out of contention by BT itself.

Against those advertised prices, set the figure BT reports to its shareholders. Consumer broadband ARPU was £40.90 in the three months to 30 June 2026, down 2% on the year. That is £11.91 a month above the cheapest advertised price, because the reported average is taken across a base that includes older packages, bundled television, calling plans and customers two March rises into their term. The advertised entry price is a genuine price; it is not what the average BT household pays.

What happens to the phone line at the end of January 2027

BT is retiring the public switched telephone network, and its own switchover page gives the deadline as the end of January 2027. Calls move to Voice over IP, which means the handset plugs into the broadband hub rather than the wall socket. Over three million UK households have already been moved. BT says it contacts customers at least four weeks before their switch and asks them to wait to be contacted but to act promptly when they are; depending on the set-up, that can mean confirming an option, re-plugging the phone into the hub, or booking a free in-home engineer visit. The helpline for it is 0330 1234 150.

The analogue network carries more than voice calls, and BT names some of what else is hanging off it: alarm systems, traffic lights and cash machines. Its advice is to check with the manufacturer or provider that any connected equipment will work on a digital line, and to replace anything that will not. For customers registered as vulnerable, BT offers enhanced protection including free engineer visits and back-up power where needed, and describes supporting customers with additional needs as its top priority through 2026. Its own page does not mention telecare pendants or alarms specifically, which is the one place a reader with an elderly relative will want more than it currently gives them — that is a question for the helpline rather than a gap to guess at.

A digital landline depends on mains power and a working broadband line, which an analogue one did not. That is the trade in one sentence, and it is why the back-up power offer and the four weeks' notice matter more than the technology does.

Two voluntary codes most providers have not signed, and BT has

Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme pays without the customer having to ask. The rates, which rise annually with inflation, are £10.34 for each calendar day a service is not repaired, £32.31 for a missed engineer appointment and £6.46 for each calendar day a new service starts late. Repair compensation starts once the fault has gone unfixed for two full working days from the day it was reported; an appointment counts as missed if the engineer does not attend or the booking is cancelled on less than 24 hours' notice; and credits are due within 30 calendar days. Faults caused by equipment in the home, or by the customer blocking the repair, are excluded.

The scheme is voluntary and exactly ten providers have joined it: BT, EE, Hyperoptic, Plusnet, Sky including NOW Broadband, TalkTalk, Utility Warehouse, Virgin Media, Vodafone and Zen Internet. On a page about a smaller network, the absence of that scheme is the strongest criticism available. Here it runs the other way, and it is the single most valuable thing BT's size buys a household.

The second code covers speeds. BT is a signatory to both the residential and the business broadband speeds codes, which were updated in September 2022 and apply to purchases made from 21 December 2022. Under them BT has to give a minimum guaranteed download speed before the sale, publish a peak-time estimate for the 8–10pm window, and release the customer from the contract without an exit fee if a shortfall on its own network is not fixed within 30 days. Since 21 December 2022 that release covers the whole bundle — anything linked to the broadband financially, contractually or technically, so a television package or calling plan bought with it goes too. BT's own business guidance adds the practical threshold: the speed has to sit below the guarantee for at least three successive days, and the clock is 30 calendar days from the customer getting in touch.

Where BT lands in the figures nobody at BT chooses

Ofcom counts complaints it receives and publishes them per 100,000 customers. For January to March 2026, published on 23 July 2026, fixed broadband reads: Plusnet 4, Sky 5, EE 6, Virgin Media 6, BT 7, Vodafone 8 and TalkTalk Group 10, against an industry average of 6. On landline the same quarter gives Sky, Utility Warehouse, Virgin Media and Vodafone 2, EE 3, BT 4, TalkTalk 6 and Plusnet 7, against an average of 3. BT is mid-table on broadband and slightly worse than average on both. The wider picture is better than either number suggests: six complaints per 100,000 is a record low for the industry against a peak of 40 in 2011.

Which? surveyed 5,235 broadband customers in January 2026 and scored BT at 65%. The top of that table is Zen Internet on 84%, then Hyperoptic 77%, Community Fibre 72% and Plusnet 71%; below BT sit Sky on 62%, TalkTalk and Virgin Media on 59% and NOW Broadband on 54%. BT shares its 65% with Utility Warehouse and is one point behind EE, its own stablemate.

For market context, Ofcom's Connected Nations update of 13 May 2026, on January 2026 data, puts full fibre past 24.9 million residential premises — 82% of the UK's 30.5 million homes, up 1.2 million in six months. Take-up is 12.4 million connections, 47% of the premises that can get it. Gigabit-capable coverage reaches 89%, or 27.1 million premises, up from 87% in July 2025. The number of premises that cannot get decent broadband from a fixed or fixed wireless network has fallen to 39,000 from 44,000 in July 2025.

The engineer who installs it works for a different company

BT retails the line; Openreach builds and fixes it. Openreach Limited was incorporated on 24 March 2017 (company number 10690039, registered at 6 Gracechurch Street, London EC3V 0AT) and describes itself as a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Group and a legally separate, independently governed business, with more than 23,000 people. The separation followed Ofcom's 2017 Digital Communications Review, after which BT gave voluntary commitments to make Openreach a distinct company with its own staff, management, purpose and strategy. Openreach itself dates from 2006 and the undertakings behind it from September 2005.

In practice that means the appointment, the installation and the repair are Openreach's work, done to the same terms for every one of the hundreds of providers that buy from it — though the company cannot settle on how many: its own page says 688 communications providers in one place and 690-plus in another.

BT Group's own numbers give the build its scale. At 30 June 2026 Openreach's full fibre footprint reached 23.4 million premises, up 514,000 in the quarter, against a target of 25 million by December 2026, with 9.4 million premises connected after 574,000 net additions and a take-up rate of 40%. Openreach lost 192,000 broadband lines in the quarter and BT still expects about 800,000 for the year, which is the competitive pressure behind every price on the deals page. BT's own retail full fibre base is 4.8 million, of which 4.5 million are Consumer connections — 54% of its broadband base.

Three BT documents that do not agree with each other

The first is about speed, and it matters because the minimum guaranteed figure is the number that triggers the right to exit. BT's deals page gives a guaranteed minimum download of 25Mbps for Fibre 1 and 34Mbps for Fibre 2. Its own broadband speed-test page gives 43Mbps for both. Those cannot both be right, and the guarantee that counts is the one printed on the order confirmation, which a reader cannot see until after they have ordered. No guaranteed minimum is quoted here for Fibre 1 or Fibre 2 because BT's own two pages disagree — ask for the figure in writing before the cooling-off period runs out. The three Full Fibre guarantees and Fibre Essential's agree across both pages: 150Mbps on Full Fibre 300, 425Mbps on Full Fibre 500, 700Mbps on Full Fibre 900 and 32Mbps on Fibre Essential.

The second is about the annual rise. BT's prices page and its deal listings both use pounds and pence: broadband goes up £4 a month each 31 March, so Fibre 1 at £28.99 becomes £32.99 on 31 March 2027 and £36.99 on 31 March 2028. But BT's own charges guide, still live and effective from 10 November 2023, lists early termination charges among the items that rise each March by CPI plus 3.9%. That is the mechanism the pounds-and-pence regime replaced for products bought on or after 10 April 2024, so the figure is consistent with older contracts and misleading for a new one. A reader who goes looking for what leaving early costs finds the wrong pricing model.

The third is smaller and easier to fix. A BT registered-interest page advertises Superfast Fibre at £26.99 a month, described as BT's lowest-ever fibre price with the first three months free, and then tells the visitor that “these offers are currently unavailable” and to check back in a week. The cheapest price a reader can actually buy on 16 October 2026 is £28.99.

Charges that live in the tariff guide rather than on the sales page

Equipment is loaned, not sold, and has to be back within 60 days of the agreement ending. Not returning it costs £43 for a BT Smart Hub, £50 for a Smart Hub 2, £30 for each Complete Wi-Fi disc and £63 for a Hybrid Connect device. Return it within two years of being charged and BT credits an amount reflecting its condition, allowing for reasonable wear and tear. A Home Tech Expert visit is a one-off £40 and the Broadband Installation Service £50; restoring a service suspended for non-payment is £12 for outgoing calls or £18 for a full suspension, per occasion. Excess construction charges are not fixed at all and sit in the BT Price List.

The residential terms in force from 15 October 2026 set the rest. There is a 14-day cooling-off period running from the latest of equipment delivery, service start or receipt of the order confirmation, and 30 days' notice to end a service after that. Moving home needs 14 days' notice, BT will normally carry the service to the new UK address, and — this is the clause that separates a national network from a small one — no early termination charge is due if BT cannot provide a service at the new address. Liability is capped at £100,000 for physical property damage caused by negligence, £1,000 per affected phone line and £5,000 of total compensation in any 12-month period, with no cap for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

One figure is missing throughout, and it is the one a reader most wants. The terms say the early termination charge is the total of the charges you would have paid for the rest of the minimum term, less the costs BT saves by your leaving. Neither the terms nor the charges guide puts a pounds figure or a worked example against that, so the only way to know what leaving costs is to ask.

The Wi-Fi guarantee deserves the same scepticism. BT promises “a reliable Wi-Fi connection in every room” with Complete Wi-Fi, sends one extender with a new Smart Hub and up to two more, and runs diagnostics and an engineer visit if it is not working. If there is still no reliable connection, the remedy is a one-off £100 credit on the next bill. There is no speed attached to the word reliable anywhere in the terms, the guarantee expressly does not cover broadband faults, and it does not apply at all if the connection runs through Hybrid Connect rather than the Smart Hub. A guarantee with no measurable threshold is a goodwill payment with a name.

Home Essentials, and the one BT price that does not move in March

BT's social tariff is Home Essentials and it is priced well below the open market. The plans are Unlimited Broadband at £15 a month for an average 16Mbps where fibre is unavailable, a no-income plan at £16 for an average 36Mbps fibre, a Fibre Essential plan at £21 for the same 36Mbps, a Fibre 2 plan at £24 for an average 67Mbps, and a calls-only plan at £10. The £15 and £16 plans and the £10 plan include unlimited anytime calls to UK mobiles and 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 numbers, excluding the Channel Islands.

All of them run for 12 months and you can leave or switch at any time with no cancellation or early termination charge — against 24 months on every open-market package. Better still, the package price itself is not subject to the £4 March rise; only out-of-bundle charges go up, by 5%, and television by £2 if you have it. A Home Essentials customer on £21 therefore pays £21 for the whole term while a Fibre Essential customer on £28.99 is heading for £36.99.

Five benefits qualify: Universal Credit for all claimants, Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit), Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance and income-related Employment and Support Allowance. Contribution-based-only JSA and ESA claimants do not qualify, and where someone receives both, the income-based amount has to be the higher. The benefit recipient must be the BT account holder, the eligibility check needs a surname, date of birth and National Insurance number, and BT re-checks every 12 months. That last point is worth planning for: eligibility is not granted once.

Figures were taken from each provider's own published terms on 16 October 2026. Variable rates can change at any time — confirm the current rate with the provider before applying.