Broadband and mobile price hikes 2024: Now Broadband announces £36 a year rises
Most Now Broadband customers will see their bills increase by £36 a year (£3 a month) from Friday 5 July, as the provider has become the latest to announce price hikes for 2024. Other major broadband, mobile and pay TV providers have already implemented their price rises for this year. See our table below on what's happening and who's affected.
This comes amid ongoing campaigning from MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) and its founder Martin Lewis to end above-inflation, mid-contract rises. See below for more detail on Martin and MSE's campaign.
Remember, if you're out of contract, you don't have to accept any price hikes – to compare deals and find out how much you could save by switching, use our Broadband Unbundled and Cheap Mobile Finder tools.
Broadband and mobile price rises: firm-by-firm
We've summarised the increases in the table below.
Provider | Price rise | From |
|---|---|---|
BT (i) | ||
Broadband, landline, mobile and TV users (barring exclusions below) | 7.9% | 31 March 2024 |
Landline-only and Home Phone Saver users | 4% | 31 March 2024 |
Users on Home Essentials and Basic (which are plans for those receiving benefits) | No price rise | N/A |
EE (i) | ||
Broadband, landline and mobile users (barring exclusions below) | 7.9% | 31 March 2024 |
Pay-as-you-go users and EE Mobile Basics users (Basics is a plan for those receiving benefits) | No price rise | N/A |
iD Mobile | ||
Pay-monthly users who purchased or upgraded on or after 1 February 2024 | No price rise | N/A |
Pay-monthly users who purchased or upgraded between or on 1 November 2022 and 31 January 2024 | 7.9% | 1 April 2024 |
Pay-monthly users who purchased or upgraded between or on 1 May 2022 and 31 October 2022 | 4.9% | 1 April 2024 |
Pay-monthly users who purchased or upgraded before 1 May 2022 | No price rise | N/A |
Sim-only users | No price rise | N/A |
Now | ||
Broadband and landline users (barring exclusions below) | £36 a year (£3 a month) | 5 July 2024 |
Now Broadband Basics customers (this is a plan for those receiving benefits) | No price rise | N/A |
Now Full Fibre 100 customers | No price rise | N/A |
TV-only customers | None announced so far | N/A |
O2 | ||
Pay-monthly and Sim-only users with mobiles, tablets and/or smartwatches who took out a deal or upgraded on or from 25 March 2021 | 8.8% If you're on plan that includes a handset, the device part of your contract WON'T rise – so your overall increase will be less than this | 1 April 2024 |
Pay-monthly and Sim-only users with mobiles, tablets and/or smartwatches who took out a deal or upgraded before 25 March 2021 | 4.9% | 1 April 2024 |
Pay-as-you-go users | No price rise | N/A |
Plusnet (i) | ||
Broadband and landline users (barring exclusion below) | 7.9% | 31 March 2024 |
Broadband and landline customers within the minimum term of a 'fixed price contract' | - Call costs: 7.9% | N/A |
Mobile users | TBC | N/A |
Shell | ||
Broadband and landline users who signed up before 22 January 2024 | 6% | 1 April 2024 |
Broadband and landline users who signed up on or from 22 January 2024 | No price rise until April 2025 | 1 April 2025 |
Broadband or Phone Essentials users within the 12-month minimum term | No price rise | N/A |
Sky | ||
Broadband and TV users, including Sky Stream and Sky Glass users (excluding Broadband Basics customers as below) | 6.7% (on average) | 1 April 2024 |
Sky Broadband Basics customers (this is a plan for those receiving benefits) | No price rise | N/A |
Home phone users | 8% rise from 25p to 27p a minute | 1 April 2024 |
Mobile users who are out of contract | 3% (on average) | 14 February 2024 |
Mobile users who are in contract | No price rise | N/A |
Talkmobile | ||
All customers | No price rise | N/A |
TalkTalk | ||
Broadband and landline users (barring exclusions below) | 7.7% | 1 April 2024 |
Fixed Price Plus customers out of minimum contract period | 4% | 1 April 2024 |
Fixed Price Plus and Pre-Pay Saver customers within their minimum contract period | No price rise | N/A |
TalkTalk TV add-on users | No price rise | N/A |
TalkTalk's "most vulnerable customers" (iii) | No price rise | N/A |
Three | ||
Broadband and mobile users who took out a deal or upgraded on or from 1 November 2022 | 7.9% | 1 April 2024 |
Broadband and mobile users who took out a deal or upgraded on or between 29 October 2020 and 31 October 2022 | 4.5% | 1 April 2024 |
Broadband and mobile users who took out a deal or upgraded before 29 October 2020 | 7.9% | 1 April 2024 |
Virgin Media | ||
Broadband, landline and TV users (barring exclusions below) | 8.8% | 1 April 2024 |
Essential Broadband, Essential Broadband Plus, and Talk Protected phone-only plans | No price rise | N/A |
Vodafone | ||
Pay-monthly broadband, mobile, tablet or smartwatch users (barring exclusions below) | 7.9% | 1 April 2024 |
Broadband users on Vodafone Essentials (its plans for those receiving benefits) | No price rise | N/A |
Mobile pay-as-you-go users | No price rise | N/A |
(i) If you're already on a BT, EE or Plusnet contract with inflation-linked price rises written in, you'll continue to pay these until your current deal ends. These firms will use a different formula for increases from 2025. (ii) Shell's terms allow it to increase telecoms prices by CPI + up to 3 percentage points, though it has chosen a slightly lower amount in 2024. (iii) TalkTalk told us it assesses vulnerability on a case-by-case basis, but refused to provide more detail about the criteria it uses or exactly which customers this would apply to. Its published policy (link opens PDF) defines vulnerable customers as those who "may be particularly susceptible to harm or detriment" due to their personal circumstances.
If you're out of contract, you're free to leave – so check you're not overpaying
These firms have millions of customers who are out of contract and have simply been rolled on to often pricier tariffs without signing up for them. If that's you, you're free to leave without having to pay any fees or penalties – so it's worth checking if you can save £100s by switching. Remember, newbies tend to get the best deals.
Here's what to try:
Benchmark the cheapest deals – you can use our Broadband Unbundled and Cheap Mobile Finder tools.
If you want to stick with your provider, try haggling – our Broadband haggling and Mobile haggling guides have lots of tips on how to do this.
If your provider won't match or beat the deals you've found, switch – for full switching help, see our Broadband switching and Mobile switching guides.
Within your minimum contract term? Most can't cancel penalty-free – but Now customers CAN
Now customer? Unusually, you can leave fee-free if you're unhappy with the July price increase. You have to do this within 31 days from the date you were notified about the change. See Now's website for how to cancel.
Of course, there's no point leaving unless you can get a better deal elsewhere – use our Broadband Unbundled tool to compare the latest offers and see what you can get.
Alternatively, if you want to stay with Now, you can use your right to leave as haggling ammunition – for help with this, see our broadband haggling guide.
Sky customer? Sky also lets broadband and home phone customers leave penalty-free if their prices are rising – but only within the first 30 days after you're notified about the change. This right doesn't apply to Sky TV customers, including users with Sky Stream or Sky Glass. If you've got a Sky package that includes both broadband and TV, you can only cancel the broadband part penalty-free.
Customer of any other provider? If you're in contract – meaning you actively signed up to a new tariff within the last year or possibly two – the price rise will likely be part of that contract. In most cases, this means that you won't be able to cancel penalty-free. If you're unhappy with the price rise, you should note when your contract's due to end and start looking for new deals nearer the time.
The problem with mid-contract, inflation-linked hikes
Currently, it's common practice for providers to hike prices midway through a contract by the rate of inflation, plus an extra percentage on top. However, inflation remains an unknown until it's formally announced, so it's always unclear how much your contract will increase by.
Last year, we saw contracts rise by as much as 17.3%. While we're seeing smaller hikes this year due to a drop in inflation, these rises still add substantial pressure to households that are already facing high costs of living.
In January 2024, the Chancellor promised to probe inflation-busting broadband and mobile price hikes after he was grilled on the topic by Martin – though there's been no update so far. You can read Martin's letter to Jeremy Hunt on this topic, as well as on other key issues, in his blog.
It comes after telecoms regulator Ofcom proposed plans in December 2023 to ban inflation-linked mid-contract rises, which would force providers to outline any mid-contract increase at the point of sale in pounds and pence. However, these changes would still allow providers to increase prices by substantially more than inflation mid-contract – and they won't be in place for some time as Ofcom is yet to publish a final decision.
Following these proposals, the BT Group (which owns BT, EE and Plusnet) confirmed in April 2024 that it would start moving to a pounds-and-pence price rise model for new and renewing customers. The group said the new increases, the first of which will happen on 31 March 2025, will be as follows:- Mobile & 'connected devices' such as laptops, tablets and smartwatches: £1.50 a month (£18 a year).- TV: £2 a month (£24 a year).- Broadband: £3 a month (£36 a year).EE Basics and BT Home Essentials – the firms' social tariffs for those receiving benefits – WON'T rise in price.
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3 December 2024
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