Guides

Everything you need to understand Britain's independent fibre networks, written straight, no jargon.

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Broadband setup fee

Free activation stopped being the default in 2026, and the charge does not appear on the number every deal is sold on. What a setup fee pays for, what a provider has to show you before you commit, and why the deal with nothing to pay upfront is not automatically the cheaper one.

10 September 2026Read the guide →

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Switching back to Openreach

The deal is cheaper and the hesitation is never really about the price. It is about the door out. Leaving is allowed and mostly handled for you, and the part nobody mentions is that what you would be going back to is not necessarily what you left.

9 September 2026Read the guide →

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Switching broadband and TV

One Touch Switch moves your broadband and your landline across. It does not touch the television, which is how a household ends up with a dark box on the wall, or an old bill still running for a service they assumed had ended. What survives depends entirely on how the pictures reach the screen.

8 September 2026Read the guide →

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Can you keep your email address?

The address ends in the name of the company you are about to leave, and twenty years of banking, bills and family sit behind it. Your landline number is protected by the switching rules. Your email is not, which makes this the switching cost almost nobody prices in before they stall on it.

7 September 2026Read the guide →

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Business broadband at home

It runs over the same fibre, often at the same speed, and costs more. The part nobody mentions is that the automatic compensation scheme is written for residential customers, so the package sold on better fault handling is the one that drops your right to be paid when a fault is not handled.

6 September 2026Read the guide →

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Unlimited broadband

The word sits on nearly every full fibre package and almost nobody reads what is underneath it. It turns out to be regulated rather than decorative, which makes the fair usage clause far less frightening than the terms nobody thinks to check.

5 September 2026Read the guide →

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Can I keep my landline number?

Thirty years of everyone knowing how to reach you, riding on a contract you are about to end. Keeping the number is a right rather than a favour, and the thing most likely to lose it is a tidy-minded call to cancel the old service first.

4 September 2026Read the guide →

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Cannot pay the broadband bill? Ask for this

The bill lands, the money is not there, and the instinct is to say nothing. Almost everything that helps here only becomes available once you have told your provider, so this is what Ofcom expects them to do and the five things worth asking for by name.

3 September 2026Read the guide →

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No fibre coming? What you can still do

The fibre stops at the end of the village and your house sits past it. There is a legal right to request a decent connection that most households in this position have never been told about, and it is worth knowing what it covers before you settle for waiting.

2 September 2026Read the guide →

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Your network just got bought. Now what?

A letter arrives saying your provider is now part of a larger group and that nothing is changing. Usually that is true, and the fibre in the street carries on regardless. What the letter can quietly change is your price, and that is the version worth reading properly.

1 September 2026Read the guide →

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The 14 days that start earlier than you think

Almost everyone believes the fourteen days run from the day the broadband goes live. They run from the day after you ordered, which is why the window is often gone before the engineer arrives. When the clock starts, what you can still be billed for, and how to cancel so that it counts.

31 August 2026Read the guide →

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What the speed guarantee promises

Almost everyone has heard there is a way out of the contract if the speed is bad, and almost nobody can find the figure it depends on. What your minimum guaranteed speed is, where to find it, how the 30 days work, and the point where the protection runs out.

30 August 2026Read the guide →

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How much upload speed do you need?

Every package is sold on the download figure. The upload figure is the one that decides whether your video call holds together, and on a lot of lines it is a fraction of the number on the advert. What it is, how much you need, and where the protection runs out.

29 August 2026Read the guide →

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What is a VoIP home phone?

It arrives as a letter with a date on it and no box to tick saying no thanks. What a phone over broadband actually is, the one thing it stops doing when the power goes, and the two calls worth making before your turn comes round.

28 August 2026Read the guide →

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Will they credit check you?

The sign-up form asks for three years of addresses and suddenly it is the only part of the page you can see. What a provider is really checking, whether the search leaves a mark on your file, and the three things a refusal usually turns into rather than a flat no.

27 August 2026Read the guide →

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Can a wifi dongle replace broadband?

It arrives in the post and works the same afternoon, with nobody to ask and nothing dug up outside. What that genuinely buys you, the two protections it quietly drops, and the point where a cable in the ground wins.

26 August 2026Read the guide →

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Is it an outage or just you?

The lights are wrong and nothing loads, and from inside the house there is no way to tell whether the street is down or only your line. The four things that separate the two, where to look that actually reads the network, and the reporting step that decides whether you are owed anything.

25 August 2026Read the guide →

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Changing your wifi password

Ten minutes on almost any network, and the changing is never the hard part. Which of the two passwords on the router you are actually meant to touch, what drops off the network the second you save, and why the sticker password is a weaker argument than it used to be.

24 August 2026Read the guide →

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Broadband for pensioners

There is no pensioner tariff, and no provider has to offer one. What there is instead is a copper switch-off that lands hardest on the households where the landline is simply the phone, and a set of rules written so they are not caught out by it.

23 August 2026Read the guide →

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Broadband complaints

There is a free, independent adjudicator sitting behind every provider in the country, and yours is unlikely to mention it. What counts as a complaint, the six week rule that replaced the eight week one this April, and what a deadlock letter actually gets you.

22 August 2026Read the guide →

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Do internet boosters work?

The first thing most people buy for a dead room, and the wrong purchase about half the time. What a booster can and cannot do, why the cheap ones can make a nearby room worse, and how to tell in ten minutes whether kit is the answer at all.

21 August 2026Read the guide →

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Student broadband

A nine month tenancy, a twelve month contract, five housemates and one name on the bill. What the rules actually guarantee you, who carries the debt when somebody stops paying, and how to avoid paying for an empty house all summer.

20 August 2026Read the guide →

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New build broadband

One provider listed, or none at all, on a house that was finished last month. What the building regulations oblige a developer to install, why gigabit-ready is not the same as connected, and the questions worth asking before you exchange.

19 August 2026Read the guide →

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Broadband exit fees

The charge that keeps people with a provider they stopped liking a year ago, and it is usually smaller than the fear of it. How the number is worked out, the cap Ofcom puts on it, and the four situations where it comes to nothing at all.

18 August 2026Read the guide →

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Broadband installation day

Somebody arrives with a ladder and a drill, and a fair amount of what happens next depends on decisions you get asked to make on the spot. What the engineer is there to do, what they need from you, and where you stand when the job cannot be finished.

17 August 2026Read the guide →

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Out of contract broadband

The discount runs out, the price steps up, and nothing announces it on the bill. What your provider is obliged to tell you before that happens, what the gap actually costs, and why the few weeks either side of your contract ending are the only time you hold any leverage.

16 August 2026Read the guide →

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Broadband for gaming

Upgrading the package is the first thing people try and the least likely to help. What ping, jitter and packet loss actually do to a game, how to measure your own, and the order worth fixing things in.

15 August 2026Read the guide →

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Slow broadband: wifi or line?

Almost every speed complaint is one of two completely different problems, and the fix for one does nothing for the other. How to tell them apart in ten minutes, how to test in a way your provider will accept, and when a slow line lets you leave early.

14 August 2026Read the guide →