The month-13 number, August 2026: Sky 500 Mb €30 → €67.50. Eir 500 Mb €34.99 → €75.99 (1 Gb €85.99). Virgin 500 Mb €35 → €70 (1 Gb €80). Pure 500 Mb €35 → €50. Digiweb NBI 500 €34.95 → €49.95 at month 7 → €54.95. Three 5G €30 → €39.99 at month 25.
The one with no cliff: Vodafone. €25 for six months on 500 Mb, then €40 — and €40 is still the price at month 13, month 25 and month 37. That standing price is the whole reason it tops the ranking.
Every cliff, ranked by the size of the jump
One row per retailer, on the plan they actually advertise. “Runs for” is how long the intro price lasts — six months on Vodafone, GigaCube, Digiweb’s NBI 500 and Imagine’s fibre, the full 12 or 24 months elsewhere. “Then” is the price on the first bill after it ends. Year two assumes you stay and ignores April rises, which are a separate step covered on the April price rises page. Sorted so the biggest shock is at the top. One wrinkle: Digiweb’s NBI 500 has a middle step — €49.95 from month 7 — before the €54.95 shown.
| Retailer · plan | Intro | Runs for | Then | Jump | Cliff hits | Year 1 | Year 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sky 500 Mb Ultrafast Plus · 12 months | €30 | 12 months | €67.50 | +125% | Month 13 | €360 | €810 |
| Eir 500 Mb · 12 months | €34.99 | 12 months | €75.99 | +117% | Month 13 | €419.88 | €911.88 |
| Virgin Media 500 Mb · 12 months | €35 | 12 months | €70 | +100% | Month 13 | €420 | €840 |
| Vodafone 500 Mb full fibre · 24 months (€25 for 6 months) | €25 | 6 months | €40 | +60% | Month 7 | €390 | €480 |
| Vodafone GigaCube Unlimited 5G · 24 months (€25 for 6 months) | €25 | 6 months | €40 | +60% | Month 7 | €390 | €480 |
| Digiweb NBI Fibre 500 · 12 months (€34.95 for 6 months, then €49.95) | €34.95 | 6 months | €54.95 | +57% | Month 7 | €589.35 (incl. €49.95 setup) | €659.40 |
| Pure Telecom Pure Fibre 500 · 12 months | €35 | 12 months | €50 | +43% | Month 13 | €420 | €600 |
| Three Unlimited 5G · 24 months (€25 for existing Three/48 customers) | €30 | 24 months | €39.99 | +33% | Month 25 | €360 | €360 |
| Imagine Fibre Starter 500 (€45 for 6 months) | €45 | 6 months | €55 | +22% | Month 7 | €600 | €660 |
| Eir 5G Home 5G Broadband Unlimited · 12 months | €39.99 | 12 months | €44.99 | +13% | Month 13 | €479.88 | €539.88 |
| Starlink Residential 100 Mb | €35 | Rolling — no intro | €35 | None | — | €420 | €420 |
Three things jump out. The biggest cliffs belong to three of the four biggest brands by ComReg share — Eir, Virgin and Sky — because they can afford to buy customers at a loss for a year; Vodafone, the second-largest, is the exception. The Irish independents step up by €10–€20, not €35–€40. And the only fibre retailer whose year-two column equals its standing price from month seven is Vodafone, which is why “cheapest intro” and “cheapest after 12 months” are different questions with different winners (intro answer: cheapest broadband).
What each retailer charges at month 13
Vodafone: €40 standing, no cliff
Vodafone’s 500 Mb is €25 a month for six months on the 24-month term (€35 for six months on 12), then €40. The 1 Gb is €35 for six then €50. The step happens at month seven, inside the contract, and then nothing happens at the end of the contract — €40 is the standing price, not an intro. Year one on 500 Mb is €390, year two €480, year three €480. The only movement after that is the fixed €3.50 April rise (€4.50 with TV) on contracts signed since October 2024, which applies in term and is disclosed up front. That is a bill you can budget. Full detail in the Vodafone review.
Sky: €30 → €67.50, the steepest 500 Mb cliff
Sky’s Ultrafast Plus is €30 for 12 months, then “standard pricing applies thereafter (€67.50 per month)”. That is +125%, from €360 in year one to €810 in year two. The standard price is not frozen either: Sky put it up €3.50 on 1 April 2026 (from €64), and the offer wording only protects the €30 for the offer term. The 24-month version is €35 throughout, then the same €67.50 at month 25. The 1 Gb plan goes €40 → €70, 5 Gb €55 → €90. Sky is still often the cheapest year one on Open Eir, SIRO or NBI — it is just a 12-month product with a 12-month plan attached. See the Sky review and Sky vs Vodafone.
Eir: €75.99 / €85.99, then €4 every April
Eir’s small print reads “€34.99 a month, €75.99 thereafter” on 500 Mb and “€39.99 a month, €85.99 thereafter” on 1 Gb (5 Gb: €49.99 → €89.99). eir.ie is currently pushing those tiers on 24-month terms; the 12-month 500 Mb we track has the same thereafter, and the 12-month 1 Gb carries a €149.99 install. Then comes the part no other retailer matches: Eir has said broadband rises by a flat €4 each April from 2027, in or out of contract. A 500 Mb customer who signed in August 2026 and never moves is on €75.99 from the thereafter date, then €79.99 after April 2027, then €83.99. The April letter is a Contract Change Notification and can open a penalty-free exit — the mechanics are on the April page. Review: Eir broadband.
Virgin Media: €35 → €70 or €80
Virgin’s 500 Mb and 1 Gb are both €35 for 12 months; the thereafter is €70 on 500 Mb and €80 on 1 Gb, so the free gig upgrade costs €120 a year from month 13. The 24-month versions are €40 throughout, then the same €70/€80. Every tile says “Offer available to new broadband customers only”. Virgin advertises a price lock for the minimum term, which is genuinely useful — it just means the cliff is the whole story rather than half of it. Review: Virgin Media; head-to-head: Sky vs Virgin.
Pure Telecom: a €15–€30 step, no April letter
Pure’s 500 Mb is €35 then €50; the 1 Gb is €40 then €70; the 100 Mb is €30 then €40. So the step is €15 on the plan most people buy and €30 on the gig — real money, but €50 thereafter is €17.50 under Sky and €25.99 under Eir for the same Open Eir or SIRO line, and Pure is one of the retailers ComReg Compare flags for no built-in annual increase. Over 24 months on 500 Mb that is €1,020 against Sky’s €1,170. Review: Pure Telecom.
Digiweb: the two-step NBI ladder
Digiweb’s NBI Fibre 500 has three prices, not two: €34.95 for six months, €49.95 for the rest of year one, €54.95 from month 13 — plus a €49.95 activation fee. The HyperPulse NBI 1000 is cleaner: €44.95 then €54.95. SIRO Gigabit is €37.95 then €49.95 with a €29.95 setup. Digiweb prints “No CPI Increase” on these plans, so the ladder is the whole cost. Rural households comparing it with Sky on the same NBI line should look at month 13, where Digiweb is €12.55 cheaper. Review: Digiweb; Pure vs Digiweb.
5G home: smaller cliffs, but in-contract April steps
Three’s 24-month 5G is €30 (€25 if you already hold a Three or 48 SIM), then €39.99 at month 25, with a flat €3 every April inside the term. Vodafone GigaCube mirrors the fibre deal: €25 for six months, then €40, plus €2.50 each April. Eir 5G Home is €39.99 for 12 months then €44.99, with a €2.50 April rise from 2027. None of these is a €35-a-month shock, but all three move twice — at the offer end and every April. Compare them on Three 5G vs GigaCube vs Eir 5G. Imagine’s 5G home plans are rolling with no intro, and its Fibre Starter 500 is €45 for six months then €55 — with a price freeze to December 2030 on named tariffs. Starlink is €35/€55/€75 rolling, so there is no month 13.
The loyalty penalty: why the best price is for strangers
Every one of those intro prices is a new-customer price, and most retailers say so in writing. Virgin: “Offer available to new broadband customers only.” Pure Telecom: “Offers are available to new customers only.” Eir’s August 2026 bill credit is for “new eir residential broadband customers”. Sky’s offers are “available to new and existing Sky TV customers who sign up for” broadband — being a Sky TV customer is fine, being an existing Sky Broadband customer on month 13 is not who the €30 is for. The standard tariff is the price the company expects to earn from people who stay.
What existing customers actually get offered is less public, because it lives behind the login. Virgin has a “My Offers” area in the account (“Sign in to unlock more”) and an upgrade hub; there is no published renewal price. Sky routes it through the cancellations team — the people who, in February 2026, were confirming to new customers that the €3.50 standard-price rise did not touch their offer. Eir’s loyalty offers, going by askaboutmoney reports, have typically landed above the out-of-contract rate the customer was already paying (one example: €49.99 out of contract, offered €53.99 then €57.99 on a new 24-month term). The pattern across all three is the same: a renewal discount off the standard price, rarely the headline intro, and usually with a fresh minimum term attached.
So the loyalty penalty is not a rumour. On Sky 500 Mb it is €37.50 a month, €450 a year. On Eir it is €41 a month before the April €4. On Virgin it is €35–€45. The two ways to avoid it are to switch at the end of the term or to buy a plan that has no cliff in the first place. Haggling is a third, weaker option, and we have a separate page on exactly what to say: broadband retention offers.
End of Contract Notices: what your provider must send
Since 9 June 2023 the EU (Electronic Communications Code) Regulations 2022 have required every Irish provider to send two things before your minimum term ends. An End of Contract Notice, telling you the term is ending, that you can cancel, and how. And Best Tariff Advice, naming the provider’s own best tariff or bundle for your usage. Separately, best tariff information has to go out at least once a year to everyone, including customers who have been rolling month to month for years.
ComReg investigated Eir, Virgin Media, Three, Vodafone and Sky from September 2024 and found Sky was the only one not sending the notices. It went to the High Court in June 2025, and in February 2026 the court ordered Sky Ireland to send end-of-contract notices, best-tariff advice and the annual best-tariff information. If you are a Sky customer whose term ends from now on, expect the letter — and if it does not arrive, that is a complaint ComReg will take.
Two limits. First, the regulation sets no fixed number of days on ComReg’s public page; forum reports of Eir sending the notice around 40 days before term end and ComReg’s own guidance point to “at least a month” as the working assumption. Second, the Best Tariff Advice is the provider’s best tariff, not the market’s. Eir’s best tariff for you is still an Eir tariff. The notice is your prompt to compare, not the comparison.
Keep the notice. It states your minimum-term end date, which is the date after which no early-termination fee applies. Order the new provider so the switch lands on or after that date, and the old contract simply ends.
What to do in months 10, 11 and 12
| When | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Month 10 | Find the minimum-term end date on your first bill or in the account. Check the Eircode for what else can be sold to the house today — SIRO or NBI may have arrived since you signed. Shortlist two retailers and write down their month-13 price, not just the intro. | Switches on wholesale fibre can take 10 working days or more to book; cable-to-fibre moves need an engineer. Starting at month 10 means you are never choosing under pressure. |
| Month 11 | Watch for the End of Contract Notice and Best Tariff Advice. Ring or chat once and ask for the new-customer price — one call, with the rival’s figure in front of you (what to say). If you are on a hiker, check whether an April letter is also due. | This is when the provider is required to tell you the term is ending. If the renewal offer is not within a few euro of the competitor’s intro, the answer is the competitor. |
| Month 12 | Place the order with the new retailer, timed to activate on or just after the end date. Let them manage the switch (how to switch). Do not cancel the direct debit; return the old router if asked. | A switch that lands a week early can trigger the remaining-term fee; a week late is one month at the thereafter price. Month 12 is the sweet spot between both. |
| Month 13+ | If you missed it, you are out of contract and free to leave any time without a fee. Order today. Diary the new contract’s end date the day it starts. | Every month on a thereafter tariff is €20–€41 of loyalty penalty. Nobody at the retailer is going to stop it for you. |
Three years: stay, switch annually, or take the standing price
Take a household on an Open Eir or SIRO street that can get Sky, Pure, Eir and Vodafone, and wants 500 Mb. August 2026 prices, April rises left out so the cliffs are doing all the work.
| Strategy | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Three-year total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stay on Sky — €30 for 12 months, then €67.50 and never ring | €360 | €810 | €810 | €1,980 |
| Switch annually — Sky €30, then Pure €35, then Eir €34.99 on the 12-month 500 Mb | €360 | €420 | €419.88 | €1,199.88 |
| Vodafone standing price — €25 for 6 months, then €40, 24-month term and never move | €390 | €480 | €480 | €1,350 |
Staying costs €780 more than switching over three years, and €630 more than the Vodafone do-nothing option. The annual switcher wins on paper but does three installs, three routers and three customer-service queues, and it depends on each retailer still treating you as new — Sky’s wording is about signing up for broadband, and whether a returning customer qualifies after a year away is something to confirm on the phone, not assume. Add the April rises back in and the gap narrows a little: Vodafone’s €3.50 steps add roughly €30 in year two and €70 in year three, Sky’s standard price has moved €3.50 already, and Eir’s €4 from April 2027 applies to the year-three Eir leg. The order does not change.
The honest summary: if you will switch every year, buy the cheapest 12-month intro and set a reminder for month 10. If you know you will not, buy the plan whose month-13 price you can live with — Vodafone €40, Pure €50 — and stop reading the adverts. What you should never do is the thing most households do, which is sign the €30 and pay the €67.50. Start from the best broadband in Ireland ranking, which scores year-two cost, or the current deals if a 12-month intro is the plan. For the 2026 annual rises themselves — who moved, by how much, when the letters went out — see broadband price rises 2026.
