In February 2020, Ofcom introduced rules requiring phone, broadband and pay-TV providers to warn customers when their current contract is ending, and what they could save by signing up to a new deal. Ofcom says that its analysis of broadband contract renewals shows that these end-of-contract notifications have led to customers taking out better deals.

Plusnet saw the biggest increase (13%) in the number of customers taking out a new deal as a result of receiving one of these alerts. BT, EE and Virgin Media saw similar (10%) increases.

Ofcom also looked at the price customers pay after taking out a new contract. It found that some customers were able to save an average of more than £110 a year when taking out a new contract in response to an alert.

Customers of some providers actually paid a higher price on average after signing up to a new deal, which may reflect customers upgrading to a faster package.

The findings follow Ofcom’s research published in November 2021 that found the number of broadband customers who are out of contract fell from 8.7 million (40%) in 2019 to 7.4 million (35%) in 2020. To access the new research, click here.