Families waste millions on unused broadband

An engineer working on a traditional green street cabinet for broadband (BT/PA) (PA Media)

Consumers could be wasting millions of pounds on unnecessarily high broadband capacity according to a survey from the Post Office and Freeview.

The Vision and Value Report found that over two-thirds of Britons don't use all their broadband capacity and could be better off with a lower grade and cheaper deal. The majority (77 per cent) reported that they mainly used their connection for surfing the web, emailing and social networking – activities that only require speeds of 5Mbps (megabites per second) – yet the average speed people are paying for is 29Mbps.

The report also revealed that that despite 13.7 million homes paying for extra TV channels, three quarters of viewing hours are spent watching free-to-air channels. "While TV and broadband bundles can be tempting, this report shows they provide far more than the average person needs and millions are paying for services they never use.

"Consumers need to carefully align what they need with what suppliers are offering. With so many deals on the market, reviewing them all may seem a daunting prospect, however, the savings could be considerable," said Hugh Stacey, the head of Post Office HomePhone and Broadband.

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