Broadband mid-contract price rises now in pounds and pence
Ofcom's new rules require providers to state any in-contract price rises as a single £-per-month figure at the point of sale, rather than as a CPI-linked formula.
By Money Guide editorial team
Published:
Ofcom's reforms requiring broadband, mobile and pay-TV providers to express any in-contract price rises as a single £-per-month figure are now in force across the major providers.
Typical increases under the new rules are around £3 a month for broadband and £1.80 a month for mobile, applied once a year. The change replaces the previous practice of linking rises to CPI plus a margin (commonly CPI plus 3.9%), which Ofcom found had become impossible for many customers to understand or compare.
The new rules do not stop providers raising prices — they require the increase to be clear up front and to be a fixed amount. Customers who are out of contract are unaffected: they can switch under Ofcom's One Touch Switch process in a single call to the new provider.
Social tariffs (BT Home Essentials, Sky Basics, Vodafone Voxi for Now and others) remain unaffected by mid-contract increases.