The router's usage page says we used 412 GB last month. I know because on Sunday evening I realised our broadband contract has just under five months left and I couldn't have told you one fact about how we use it. So I went and looked.
What the notice should tell us
The contract is 24 months from the day the service was switched on, Wednesday 19 February 2025, which puts the end in the third week of February 2027. Under Ofcom's rules the provider has to send an end-of-contract notice between 10 and 40 days before that date, so we should expect one somewhere between the second week of January and the second week of February. It has to say when the commitment ends, what we pay now, what we would pay if we do nothing, and the best deals the provider currently offers. I've put a reminder on 10 January that says "notice?", because a letter that can arrive in a window of about a month is one I want to be waiting for.
We pay £34.99 now. The £3 rise each April was written into the contract in pounds and pence, so April 2026 held no surprises, and the next one (to £37.99) would land in April 2027, after the contract ends. What we'd pay after the end date, if we did nothing, is the number I most want the notice to say out loud.
What we actually use
Two adults, two working-from-home days of video calls, streaming most evenings, a laptop each, Matt's desktop and two phones. The router counts about 400 GB a month, give or take. The plan is 500 Mbps. When I plugged a cable into the wall in the box room last August I measured 480, and I have never once needed it. A video call wants a few Mbps and a film in 4K about 25. With both of us streaming and me on a call, we'd be well under 100.
The busiest day last month was a Sunday at 31 GB, when Matt's desktop updated itself and we watched two films back to back. A quiet Monday is more like 6. Even our worst day doesn't come near what the line can carry.
So the question for next year isn't speed. 500 Mbps was what the page offered for our postcode in January 2025 and the slower tiers weren't much cheaper, so I took the fast one. That isn't a disaster, but I would like to find out what "enough" costs rather than keep buying "more".
What we'll compare in January
I'm not going to tell you who is cheapest, because this is a diary and not a comparison site. This is the checklist Matt and I have agreed:
- The monthly price including every rise, and whether the rises are written in pounds and pence.
- The contract length, 12 or 24 months, and what leaving early would cost.
- Speeds well below 500 Mbps, and what the price does as the speed drops.
- Which networks reach our street. We're on Openreach full fibre now, and Ofcom's checker will show whether anyone else has dug here.
- What happens to the router, and whether switching between providers on the same network needs an engineer. We hope not.
- The start date. I want the new service live a few days before the old one ends so there's no gap, with the new provider handling the cancellation.
The router belongs to the provider, so the box and the cables will have to go back at the end, and I've asked Matt to find the packaging in the loft before the end date rather than after. I remember 13 days on a phone hotspot in February 2025 and I am not doing that again. Social tariffs exist for people on certain benefits. We aren't eligible, but Citizens Advice lists them for anyone who might be. Whether I ring our own provider first, as I did with the home insurance, I'll decide after the notice arrives.
Whether we really need 500 Mbps, I don't know. In January I'll find out what I'm willing to pay for enough.
