Price
How to add up the contract
A monthly headline is not the cost of a broadband contract. The cost you can actually know is a short sum. This page is that sum. It uses letters, not a fake offer, so it cannot be mistaken for a deal at your address.
Reviewed 5 November 2026 · 6 min read · Independent · Not a price list
The sum, in letters
Let P be the monthly price during the opening period, and M the number of months that opening price lasts. Let Q be the monthly price after that, and T the minimum term in months. Let U be anything you pay upfront that is not inside those monthly prices: a setup fee, a delivery, a charge for an engineer that is not refunded. The known scheduled cost is M times P, plus (T minus M) times Q, plus U.
If a rise is stated in pounds and pence and falls inside the term, put the higher price only in the months it covers. Do not apply it to months still on P. If no rise has been stated, do not invent one and do not pretend inflation will be zero. Write “not stated” and keep the sum to what is known.
If the opening price lasts the whole term, M equals T and the second part is zero. If there is no upfront cost, U is zero. Write the zeros down. A blank is not a zero. A blank exit fee, in particular, is not a zero.
The exit fee sits beside the sum, not inside it as a discount
Let E be the early-termination charge on the service you already have, quoted by the provider you would leave. The cost of changing now is the new scheduled cost plus E, compared with the cost of staying until the old end date. If you do not know E, you do not know whether changing is cheaper. Ask. Unknown is not zero.
One Touch Switch does not cancel E. The new provider does not pay it unless the order says so in writing. A cashback promise that has not been paid is not a reduction in E. Put cashback in a separate note marked unpaid until it clears.
A fee larger than the difference between the two scheduled costs means staying is usually cheaper if money is the only question. Service, a house move, or a fault can still justify leaving. Those are reasons. They are not the same sentence as “I will save”.
A worked shape, not an offer
Suppose, only as arithmetic, that P is the opening price for 6 months, Q is the price for the other 18 months of a 24-month term, and U is a setup fee. You multiply, you add, and you have the scheduled cost of that imaginary contract. You then write E next to it. Nothing in that paragraph is a price any UK provider is charging. If a page on this site ever presents those letters as a live row, that page is wrong.
Do the same arithmetic with the figures on the order, the day you are asked to agree. Screenshot or save the page. Prices move. A sum you did last month is not a sum you can still buy.
Published offers on OneTouchSwitch, where the catalogue shows them, are still this exercise. They are not availability at the flat. They are not an order. The provider’s screen is the one that can take the money.
The usual ways the sum goes wrong
People divide a cashback voucher by the term and subtract it from P. The voucher may be conditional, delayed, or taxable as a gesture that never arrives. Leave it out until it is paid. People ignore a router delivery that is only free if the contract completes. Read U again.
People compare a broadband price with a bundle price that includes television or a mobile handset. Strip the line out. One Touch Switch moves the fixed broadband process. It does not move the handset plan or the pay-TV subscription. A bundle saving that dies when the line moves is not a property of the line.
People compare a full-fibre monthly price with a part-fibre monthly price and ignore that one of them cannot be installed. A price for a network that cannot reach the door is not a competitor. Cross it off before you multiply.
Questions
- Why not use a real monthly price in the example?
- Because readers treat examples as offers. The letters stay honest. Put your own figures in on the day.
- Do I add the exit fee into the monthly price?
- No. Keep it beside the sum. It is a one-off cost of leaving, not a feature of the new monthly price.
- What if the rise date is after the term ends?
- Leave it out of this contract’s sum. It describes a later life the contract has not sold you yet.
- Is upfront postage part of U?
- Yes, if you pay it and it is not returned. If it is refunded on activation, write the condition down and do not assume the refund.
- Does this method price energy as well?
- No. Energy has its own unit rate and standing charge. Do not fold the Ofgem cap into P.
- Where do I get P, Q, T and E?
- From the new provider’s order and from the provider you would leave. Not from a headline, and not from this page.