CONSUMERS who do not switch broadband provider could lose a total of £40m this year, new research has found.

An estimated 9.8m households are connected to the internet via broadband, according to Point Topic, a market-research company. About 1m of those signed up between January and March last year.

Most providers require you to sign a 12-month contract, so these people are now coming to the end of their lock-in period. When they do, comparison website Uswitch.com says they should change provider. If they don’t, they will almost certainly be paying more than they need for a broadband connection. Consumers can save an average of £180 a year by switching provider, according to Uswitch.

Broadband gives much quicker internet access than dial-up connections, and you can use your telephone at the same time as you are online. It has been used in offices for a number of years, but has only recently become widely available to private households.

Increased demand for broadband and competition among providers has driven down the cost of broadband over the past year. This time last year, the average price of broadband access at a speed of one megabyte (1Mb) a second was £30 a month. Now it is down to £19.37 on average, and can be as little as £9.99.

Jon Miller at Uswitch said: “Suppliers may upgrade customers automatically to a faster service for the same monthly fee, but they are unlikely to take into account their usage requirements, or alert them when they near the end of their contract. Many consumers will not require a faster service, so they should ensure that they pay only for what they need.”

If you use your connection to surf the web, send e-mails, download music and make use of the new internet phone services (voice over internet protocol, or Voip), 1Mb broadband access will be perfectly adequate. A 2Mb connection will speed up the time it takes for you to download.

If you want to watch television through your broadband connection, you will need an 8Mb package.

When comparing broadband deals, check if there are any restrictions on the amount you can download or upload each month, or the length of time you can spend online.

Pipex has one of the cheapest 2Mb deals at £14.99 a month, but there is a one gigabyte (1Gb) service restriction. This is not a problem if on the average day you send only a couple of e-mails, spend an hour surfing and download one song and a video clip. But if you use the internet more than this, the chances are you will exceed that limit. If so, you will be charged a penalty and may even have your internet service suspended.

The cheapest 2Mb deal with unlimited downloads is from Toucan, at £16.99 a month.

An increasing number of firms are launching bundles that include home telephone and digital television. For £14.99 a month Talk Talk is offering a 1Mb broadband connection, no download restrictions, plus home telephone with Talk 1. Phone calls with this package cost 2.7p a minute at peak times, to local and national numbers. If you call off-peak it will cost 5p for 70 minutes. Calls to other Talk Talk customers are free.

Toucan has a similar package for the same monthly fee. Its phone package, Toucan Talk 2-For-All, has free calls to UK landlines at weekends, and charges 2p a minute at any other time. Calls to other 2-For-All customers are free.