Ofcom pricing trends for 2024 released

Ofcom has released its annual pricing trends report which shows that the average prices of broadband bundles (with broadband and landline) have generally fallen over the last year. Headline figures see that ultrafast bundles have fallen by nearly 9% in real terms (adjusted for inflation) whilst superfast bundles fell by 7%. 

The report indicates that out-of-contract customers could make large savings of 18% (dual-play) and 16% (triple). There are an estimated 1/3rd of bundled customers who are currently on dual and triple-play deals that are now out of contract and could be able to make savings. 

Mobile prices have also fallen in real terms – this is around 5% lower for an average person’s use, and 23% lower than in 2019. A top tip that comes out of this pricing analysis for mobile is to buy your handset and mobile plan separately. Customers on SIM-only save around 25% or £200 compared with those that take a bundled package. 

Social tariff take-up is also strong and growing, with over 500,000 customers now using one of these packages for their broadband or mobile, a 33% increase since September 2023. Although the data from Ofcom shows that there are still many eligible customers who are unaware (69%).

Today’s report shows that mobile and broadband services in the UK remain competitively priced and generally compare favourably to other countries. With significant savings to be had, especially for the fastest packages, it’s important as ever for customers to shop around.

It’s also encouraging to see more people taking advantage of the wider range of social tariffs now available, but with many more eligible customers unaware, there’s still a job for communications providers to do to further promote this vital support.

Natalie Black CBE, Ofcom’s Group Director, Networks and Telecoms

Ofcom have also undertaken an international comparison, and this ranked the UK third out of six countries for residential communications pricing. The benchmark looks at France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US. Italy fared best in the landline, and fixed broadband (joint first) pricing and also in dual-play pricing, but France topped out in mobile where the UK came second. The UK did come best in the weighted average price for fixed broadband however, and joint first overall in this category.

The full Ofcom report is available to peruse here.