No Contract Broadband Plans

There’s nothing out of the ordinary about contracts in the communications world. As anyone who’s gotten a mobile phone on a plan knows all too well, the contract is part of the reason the provider is able to provide the service in the first place. If you sign up for a broadband service that costs your provider money to connect, the only way they’re going to make that initial fee back is either by passing the cost directly on to you, or making it back over time.

All fair enough, but it doesn’t take into account the way real life works. Unlike a mobile phone contract, a broadband connection is tied to the one address. If you move house, you’re going to have no choice but to finish that contract early. And with such a large percentage of the population renting, a 2-year contract can be hard to feel good about when your lease is only for 12 months.

In the end, most providers will let you out of the contract at no penalty… if you agree to a new contract at the address you’re going to. You could end up stuck with the one provider for years, unable to switch to a better priced competitor without paying a hefty penalty.

Even though finding a great-value broadband plan without a lock-in contract is easier than ever, it does pay to compare prices on providers’ web sites to see if there’s a difference in price or key features between the no-contract Broadband plan and the equivalent plan on a contract. As time goes on, such differences are becoming more and more rare, but they’re often still there in some form.

Some may offer an incentive to agree to a contract – such as with Aussie Broadband’s offer of a free NBN-ready Wi-Fi modem (yours to keep) if you go on a 24-month contract. In other cases, you’ll simply pay a little more, like with Belong internet and the $5/month price premium for no-contract plans (or as they’d prefer to put it, agree to a contract and save money!)