Broadband Only or a Bundle: Which Is Better Value?

At renewal, or when you move home, you have a choice: keep paying for broadband with TV, a phone line or a mobile plan on the same contract, or drop back to broadband only and buy anything else separately. This guide gives you a clear rule, the evidence from the regulator, and a worked comparison over 24 months using real November 2026 prices.

Prices were checked on 31 October and 1 November 2026 at a sample UK address and on providers’ own pages. Yours will depend on your postcode, rewards have end dates and prices change, so check again before you decide.

The short answer

Choose a bundle when you would pay for the extra services anyway and the bundle costs less than buying them separately over the whole contract. Choose broadband only when you rarely use the landline, watch mostly on streaming apps, or already have a cheap mobile deal. The way to tell is to add up the 24-month cost of both options, including price rises and rewards, rather than comparing monthly headline prices.

The Office of Communications (Ofcom) found in research published on 26 February 2026 that households that bundle save “from £26 to £48 a month” compared with buying the same services separately. That is a market-wide finding. Your own saving depends on which services you would actually buy.

Choose broadband only if…

• You stream rather than watch live TV. Netflix costs from £7.99 a month (Standard with adverts) and NOW Entertainment £7.99 a month, with no 24-month TV contract.
• You rarely or never use the landline. Plusnet now sells broadband only, and Vodafone lets you choose a plan without a landline. On full fibre you don’t need a phone line for broadband at all.
• You already have a cheap SIM only deal. giffgaff’s 18-month SIM only plans start at £10 a month for 25GB, which is hard for a broadband provider’s mobile discount to beat.
• You want to change services often. Standalone streaming memberships can be dropped when you stop watching. A bundle ties every part to the same contract.

Choose a bundle if…

• You want pay TV or live sport. Ofcom’s research found pay TV bundled with broadband and a landline averaged £12 a month, down 23% in real terms.
• You want a home phone anyway. Some providers include the line at little or no extra cost. Sky says all its broadband includes landline rental and pay-as-you-talk calls as standard, and Virgin Media’s broadband and phone deals include weekend calls.
• The add-on costs only a few pounds. Where Virgin Media’s network reaches, its M125 Broadband + Flex TV bundle cost £28.99 a month, just £2 more than its M125 broadband and phone deal at £26.99, with the same speed and the same £4 annual rises. Over 24 months the gap is £48.
• The bundle carries a reward. Sky’s TV bundles on the November 2026 list came with an £80 reward.

When a bundle saves money

What Ofcom’s research found

Ofcom’s report “New Ofcom research reveals how to cut phone and internet bills” (26 February 2026) found that buying services together saves households “from £26 to £48 a month” compared with buying them separately. It also found that pay TV bundled with broadband and landline averaged £12 a month, down 23% in real terms.

Read that figure carefully. It compares buying the same set of services two ways. If a bundle includes things you wouldn’t otherwise pay for, such as a TV package you barely watch, the saving isn’t real for you. Ofcom’s own consumer guides, including “Money saving tips for phone, broadband and pay-TV” and “Choose the right broadband for your needs”, are worth reading alongside it.

TV, sport and mobile add-ons that are cheaper bundled

TV. The cheapest TV bundles we found in November 2026, at the sample address:

Package	Speed	Monthly price	Price rises	Reward	24-month total
Sky Stream, Essential TV, Netflix & Full Fibre Gigafast	900Mbps	£35	variable, “hikes are likely each spring”	£80	£840
Sky Stream, Essential TV, Netflix & Full Fibre 75	75Mbps	£35	variable	£80	£840
Virgin Media M125 Broadband + Flex	132Mbps	£28.99	£32.99 from 1 Apr 2027, £36.99 from 1 Apr 2028	none	£799.76

Sky’s two bundles cost the same, so at that address there is no reason to pick the slower Full Fibre 75 version. Both Sky totals assume no mid-contract rise, which is unlikely.

Sport. If live sport is the reason for a bundle, the standalone benchmark is NOW All Sky Sports at £34.99 a month. At our sample address, Sky’s own bundle of Essential TV, Netflix, Gigafast and Sky Sports cost £55 a month, where Gigafast alone cost £29. Built separately that’s £63.99, so the sports bundle saved £8.99 a month, before Sky’s variable mid-contract rises.

Mobile. Vodafone, EE, Virgin Media O2 and Sky all sell mobile plans alongside broadband. Only EE prices one outright: EE One with 150Mbps full fibre and an unlimited SIM is from £41.99 a month plus £30 activation. Bought separately, Plusnet’s 145Mbps full fibre (£21.99 at the same address) plus giffgaff’s unlimited SIM (£25) is £46.99, so EE One starts £5 a month cheaper before Plusnet’s £125 reward. Virgin Media O2’s Volt adds perks (a speed boost, double O2 data, the WiFi Guarantee) rather than a discount, and Sky Mobile shows no broadband discount. Vodafone markets combined broadband and mobile deals as Vodafone Together but didn’t publish a combined price we could check. Treat any mobile bundle as worth having only if it beats broadband plus a SIM only plan, as shown below.

When broadband only is the better deal

Streaming instead of a TV package

If most of what you watch is on streaming apps, a TV package may be paying for channels you don’t use. Netflix’s UK prices, checked on Netflix’s own help page on 31 October 2026, are £7.99 a month for Standard with adverts, £13.99 for Standard and £20.99 for Premium.

An extra member costs £5.99 a month with adverts or £6.99 without. NOW’s memberships cost £7.99 a month for Entertainment (or £4.99 a month for the first six months on the Saver plan, then £7.99), £9.99 for Cinema and £34.99 for All Sky Sports.

The advantage is flexibility as much as price. Because these are priced month by month, you can keep Netflix all year and add NOW Cinema or All Sky Sports only for the months you want them.

SIM only instead of a mobile bundle

If you own your handset, SIM only is usually the cheapest way to buy mobile data. giffgaff’s 18-month plans cost:

Data	Monthly price
25GB	£10
50GB	£12
100GB	£15
Unlimited	£25

giffgaff says plans bought before the end of 2026 have no mid-contract price rises. Sky Full Fibre Gigafast at £29 a month plus giffgaff’s 25GB plan comes to £39 a month for broadband and mobile. A provider’s mobile bundle has to beat that, after its own price rises, before it saves you anything.

How to compare the real cost

Worked example over 24 months (table)

This compares Sky’s Essential TV and Netflix bundle with building the same kind of service yourself from Sky broadband, NOW Entertainment and Netflix. Prices are from November 2026, at the sample address and on NOW’s and Netflix’s own sites.

Bundle vs separate services, 24 months, November 2026

Option	What you get	Per month	24-month total	Reward
Bundle	Sky Stream, Essential TV, Netflix & Full Fibre Gigafast (900Mbps)	£35	£840	£80
Separate, cheaper Netflix	Sky Full Fibre Gigafast £29 + NOW Entertainment £7.99 + Netflix Standard with adverts £7.99	£44.98	£1,079.52	£120 on the broadband
Separate, ad-free Netflix	Sky Full Fibre Gigafast £29 + NOW Entertainment £7.99 + Netflix Standard £13.99	£50.98	£1,223.52	£120 on the broadband

Sky’s Essential TV includes Netflix Standard with Ads, so the like-for-like row is the £44.98 one. On those prices the bundle is £9.98 a month cheaper: £239.52 over 24 months before rewards. Count the rewards (£80 on the bundle, £120 on Gigafast alone) and the gap narrows to £199.52 (£760 against £959.52).

Two more caveats: NOW Entertainment and Sky’s Essential TV are not identical channel line-ups, and Sky’s “broadband only” Gigafast deal still includes line rental, because all Sky broadband does.

All rows assume Sky’s prices stay flat for 24 months. They are variable mid-contract, so both the bundle and the separate Sky broadband will probably cost more. NOW’s Saver plan would cut the separate options by £18 if you took it for the first six months.

Broadband and mobile: bundle vs broadband only plus a SIM only plan, 24 months

The same test works for mobile. Here EE One, which combines 150Mbps full fibre with an unlimited SIM, is set against 150Mbps broadband from Vodafone plus giffgaff’s unlimited SIM only plan. Both assume a contract starting in November 2026 and include each provider’s scheduled rises.

Option	What you get	First month	Scheduled rises	24-month total
Bundle	EE One: 150Mbps EE Full Fibre + unlimited No Frills SIM	£41.99 plus £30 activation	£48.49 in March 2027, £54.99 in March 2028	£1,219.76
Broadband only + SIM only	Vodafone Full Fibre 150 + giffgaff unlimited 18-month SIM only	£45.50	Vodafone £24 from April 2027, £27.50 from April 2028; giffgaff no mid-contract rises on plans bought before the end of 2026	£1,183

The bundle is cheaper in the first month, £41.99 against £45.50, but its rises are steeper, so over 24 months the separate option comes out £36.76 cheaper. Two caveats: giffgaff’s plan runs for 18 months, so the last six months assume its price stays at £25, and set-up or router fees from Vodafone aren’t included.

This is the kind of check behind Ofcom’s finding that bundling saves households “from £26 to £48 a month” on average: it can, but test it against your own deals.

Price rises, set-up fees and exit fees

Price rises change the answer more than most people expect. On the deals in this guide:

• BT and Virgin Media add a fixed £4 a month each spring. On a 24-month contract starting in November 2026, that adds £104 to the cost over the contract compared with paying the headline price throughout.
• Sky prices are variable mid-contract, and the rise isn’t known in advance. Sky hasn’t published a figure. Under Ofcom rules, if a provider raises a price by an amount the contract doesn’t set out, it must give you at least 30 days’ notice and then 30 days to leave without an exit fee.
• giffgaff SIM only plans bought before the end of 2026 have no mid-contract rises.
• NOW and Netflix monthly memberships are not tied to a 24-month broadband contract, so a rise on one doesn’t lock you into the others.

Set-up costs vary by provider: NOW’s terms allow for £9.95 router delivery plus a £10 activation fee (its current deals show £0 for both), and EE lists activation fees of £0 to £30 and postage of up to £12. Leaving a bundle early usually means an early termination fee, so the best time to rethink a bundle is when your contract ends.

Under Ofcom’s rules, contracts usually run 12, 18 or 24 months, and leaving early can mean an exit fee, also called an early termination charge. Your provider must tell you 10 to 40 days before the end what you’ll pay afterwards and its best deals, and eligible customers can move to a social tariff without a penalty even mid-contract.

Ofcom’s “Telecoms price rises” guidance and its list of Ofcom-accredited price comparison sites are the places to check before you switch.

If you decide to keep a phone line, compare our current broadband and phone deals. If you want to drop it, see which providers sell broadband with no phone line. And for an overview of every combination, from home phone to TV and mobile, see the types of broadband bundle we cover.

The rule holds whichever way you go: price each service you would really use, add up 24 months including rises, and take the cheaper total.