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The cost of living crisis over the past year has hit Britons hard, particularly as broadband providers including BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk and Vodafone have announced that they are hiking prices by more than 14 percent in the coming weeks, including for customers in the middle of their contract. As families look to escape these soaring bills, millions of Sky and Virgin customers could potentially save up to £683 by making a broadband switch to a new provider.

Community Fibre (150Mbps)

£26.50 £20 View Deal

Community Fibre dubs itself as London’s fastest full fibre broadband provider. And prices for the service start from just £20 a month for the 150Mbps plan

Contract Length: 24 months | Extras: Free Router | Set-Up Cost: £9.95

Community Fibre (1Gbps)

£39.50 £27 View Deal

Alternatively, if you’re after Gigabit broadband than Community Fibre’s 1Gbps plan is available from £27 a month. All Community Fibre plans include a free Linksys router bundled in with it.

Contract Length: 24 months | Extras: Free Router | Set-Up Cost: £9.95

Community Fibre, which is hailed as the fastest broadband available in the UK, is offering customers affected by the above-inflation price hikes this April a cheaper alternative which could save them up to £683.

The only catch is that Community Fibre is only available in London, meaning that customers outside the city will have to shop for better deals elsewhere.

According to estimates, nearly seven million customers from Sky and Virgin Media in the capital could avoid the price hike by switching suppliers free of charge once they have been given a 30-day notice period to leave.

To entice more customers to switch, the ISP, which boasts fibre broadband speeds up to 3,000 Mbps, has unveiled two new promotions which could be hundreds of pounds cheaper than what you’re currently paying.

Martin Lewis issues warning on broadband inflation

Community Fibre has slashed the price of its 150 Mbps Fibre Broadband package from £26.50 per month to only £20 per month, along with a £50 Amazon voucher for a 24-month contract.

They note that this is a saving of £281 versus Sky’s 145 Mbps Ultra package, which costs £34.50 per month for an 18-month minimum contract. It is also £140 cheaper than Virgin Media’s M125 broadband package.

Meanwhile, the ISP is offering its 1,000 Mbps Fibre Broadband package at £27 per month for a two-year contract, coupled with a £100 Amazon voucher.

If you are on Sky’s Gigafast package, this deal saves you £683, and £524 versus Virgin Media’s Gig1Fibre broadband package.

As a quick guide, using a 150Mbps plan you’d be able to whizz a full HD movie to your TV in around 7 minutes. Switch to a 1,000Mbps plan and that same movie would take just 30 seconds to arrive on the big screen.

Even if you can’t switch to Community Fibre it’s vital to shop around before the price hikes kick as you could save some serious money and even get much faster speeds.

Lots of so-called ALT Networks are popping up all over country and many are offering massive discounts to entice customers. Some names to watch out for include Hyperoptic, Toob, Gigaclear, KCOM, Jurassic Fibre, Trooli and Fibrus.

Even if these names are not in your street it’s still worth giving your current supplier a call to see if you can switch deals and lower your price. The cheaper it is now the less it will go up by when the hikes hit in the coming weeks.

CONFIRMED BROADBAND & TV RISES

BT • 10.5% CPI + 3.9% = 14.4%

EE • 10.5% CPI + 3.9% = 14.4%

Plusnet • 10.5% CPI + 3.9% = 14.4%

Vodafone • 10.5% CPI + 3.9% = 14.4%

TalkTalk • 10.5% CPI + 3.7% = 14.2%

Shell Energy • 10.5% CPI + 3% = 13.5%

Virgin Media • Average 13.8%

Sky • 8.1%

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