BT, Sky, Virgin Media and Vodafone slammed for neglecting cheap broadband
Key Points
- BT and Sky scored C-, Virgin Media C and Vodafone C+ in thinkbroadband's August 2026 report
- Smaller networks B4RN, B4SH, Community Fibre and Hyperoptic all scored A
- BT and Sky took the lowest discoverability grade of the four largest providers
- All four signed the Telecoms Consumer Charter, which commits them to make social tariffs easy to find
- NOW and Wessex Internet finished bottom of the table on D+
Britain’s four largest broadband providers scored no better than C for their social tariffs in research published on Monday (24 August), while four smaller networks scored A.
thinkbroadband graded BT and Sky C-, Virgin Media C and Vodafone Broadband C+.
B4RN, B4SH, Community Fibre and Hyperoptic all took an A.
The study covered every provider on Ofcom’s social tariff list as of 5 May 2026, plus additional providers thinkbroadband lists itself. Researchers scored each one on discoverability, details published, download speed, price and eligibility.
BT and Sky both took an E for discoverability, the lowest grade awarded to any of the four. BT’s Home Essentials page states only that plans start from £16.50, and that line sits behind a drop-down section that is not visible when the page loads.
Virgin Media took an A for price on the back of Essential Broadband at £12.50 a month, and a C everywhere else. Vodafone finished highest of the four with B grades for discoverability and published detail.
“Even our own industry experts struggled to locate the information on several sites,” said Sebastien Lahtinen, director at thinkbroadband.
Charter gap
All four signed the Telecoms Consumer Charter, published by the Government on 11 February 2026. The voluntary scheme commits providers to ensure social tariffs are easy to find, signposted to eligible customers, and easy to understand and take up.
Signatories include BT Group, covering BT, EE and PlusNet, alongside Virgin Media O2, VodafoneThree, Sky, TalkTalk, KCOM, Community Fibre, WightFibre, Hyperoptic and Olilo.
B4RN and B4SH signed nothing and do not appear on Ofcom’s list. Both scored A, with B4RN selling a 1Gbps symmetric line for £15 a month to households on Council Tax Support.
NOW and Wessex Internet finished bottom of the table on D+.
