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Martin Lewis: Mobile and broadband mid-contract inflation hikes are BANNED – but there are winners and losers

Person using their mobile and laptop next to a wifi hub.
Emily White
Emily White
Senior News & Investigations Reporter
Created 15 January 2025 | Edited 5 February 2025

Inflation-linked broadband, mobile and TV price hikes are now banned. This means some will see their bills rise by a specified amount in pounds and pence instead. However, MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis has warned that many WILL still see an above-inflation rise despite the new rules.

Martin Lewis: 'If firms want to put prices up, there are now two ways of doing it'

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Martin Lewis: BANNED! Mobile and broadband mid-contract inflation+ hikes – how this will affect you

Martin Lewis: "Inflation linked mid-contract price hikes on mobile and broadband have ended. I'm Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com and I want to talk you through what this means for your mobile and broadband.

"I know this is something many of you have got in touch with me about over the last few years, with your teeth gnashing at the injustice of it.

"Because what we were seeing each April is, even if you've locked into a contract, even if you've got a fixed price, these firms were putting your prices up by above inflation, typically 3% or 4% above inflation, which meant a couple of years ago some people were seeing 17% mid-contract price hikes, last year it was about 8% or 9% mid-contract price hikes.

"Well, that has now changed. The regulator Ofcom has changed the rules. What it says now, is if you're going to put prices up, you have a choice of two ways of doing it.

"The first is the most common; firms must include in 'pounds and pence' the amount that your price will rise during the contract.

"So, what we're seeing now, for example: Virgin Media had a deal the other day on broadband around £25 a month. And then it says in April, you will pay £3.50 a month more, and the following April, because it was a contract that lasted over two Aprils, you'll pay another £3.50 a month more, so £25 will go to £28.50, £28.50 will go to £32 a month by the time that your contract finishes.

"And that's the new way that they're going to communicate and they're allowed to do it.

"Now my problem with this is, while I think this is good for transparency and at least you'll understand what you're paying, I wanted to see them ban any mid-contract price rises that are above inflation. But that isn't happening. And in fact, for some people, the percentage rise will be far greater than it was at inflation.

"Think about it. If you're increasing everybody's contract, no matter what they're paying, by £3.50, someone who's paying £20 a month, well they're seeing a massive rise – 16%, 17%.

"Someone who's paying £40 a month, they're seeing a rise of 8% or 9%. So, we're going to see some shifting of the pricing mechanisms that go on here, and what it also allows firms to do – this new model that Ofcom has come up with – is it allows firms to price low early on for a low headline price, but then bump up bigger price hikes year by year.

"So you could start, I mean let's make this extreme, no one's doing this at the moment. You could start on £20, but then say a few months time in April, it's going up to £30. In the year after it's going up to £40. That could legitimately work within the rules.

"I said there were two types. What's the second one?

"Well, if a firm chooses not to include the price hikes in pounds and pence when you sign up, then if it does increase the price, you are free to leave within 30 days.

"And this is the approach that Sky says it's taking. It's not publicising price hikes, it will decide in April and when it puts the price up, if people want to leave, they'll have 30 days in which they can leave penalty-free. They can leave the contract even in the middle of the contract. So, it's going to be one of those two systems.

"Most are going to go with the pounds and pence rise. Some are going to go with, 'we won't bother telling you now, but we're going to put it up a little bit later on'.

"Now, it's important to note this only applies for new contracts. So if you are already in a mobile phone contract, because this has only just come in, well, you can still have above inflation price hikes this year or next year.

"But once your contract comes to an end, [if you upgrade or renew] that'll count as a new contract so they won't be able to do it. So that's what you need to know about mid-contract price hikes.

"While I'm on, I should tell you that 14 million people are out of contract on their mobile phones. Text 'INFO' to 85075. And that'll tell you whether you're out of contract in most cases, not in every case. It can't work in every system. And then go onto our Cheap Mobile Finder to find your cheapest Sim and just get it a lot cheaper. You could be paying £5 a month and get 50GB of data, unlimited minutes, unlimited texts.

"And we also have a comparison, and our comparison sites we've updated them so they include the price hikes on all of these products. We have our Compare Broadband Deals tool on MoneySavingExpert.com. Go and make sure you're not being ripped off on your broadband and mobile."

Broadband, mobile and TV price rises: firm-by-firm

As outlined in Martin's video briefing above, there are two ways broadband and mobile firms can now raise prices for new customers, or those renewing or upgrading:

  1. Either tell you exact rises coming (most'll do this). It must say before sign-up, in pounds and pence, any rises due mid-contract.

  2. Not tell you, but then let you leave (only big name doing this is Sky). If it chooses not to indicate rises, and then at a later point, announces one mid-contract, it must let you leave penalty-free within 30 days of notifying you. If it doesn't say 'no mid-contract rises' when you sign up, see this as a realistic possibility.

    Most paid-for TV is also included in these rules, except for Sky – to understand why and what you can do about it, see our Sky TV investigation.

For existing customers in their minimum contract term, price rises will be governed by what (if anything) was in the contract when you signed up. For most, this will be something like "inflation + 3%". The table below shows the rise you can expect this spring based on when you signed up.

Broadband, mobile and TV bill rises in 2025

Provider and contract type

Price rise % or £

Start date

BT, EE and Plusnet (i)

Broadband, landline, mobile and TV – joined or upgraded on or after 10 April 2024

- £1.50 a month for mobile Sim-only and Flex Pay airtime users
- £2 a month for TV users
- £3 a month for broadband users
- £4 a month for bundled handset and airtime mobile users

31 March 2025

Broadband, landline, mobile and TV – joined or upgraded on or before 9 April 2024

6.4%
December's CPI figure published in January + 3.9 percentage points

31 March 2025

- BT Home Essentials and Basic and EE Mobile Basics (for those receiving benefits)
- Landline-only
- BT Home Phone Saver
- Pay-as-you-go

No price rise

N/A

Now

- Now Full Fibre 75
- Now Superfast
- Now Full Fibre 300
- Now Full Fibre 100

6.2% on average
Price rises not linked to inflation

1 April 2025

- Now Brilliant Broadband
- Now Fab Fibre
- Now Super Fibre

TBC

TBC

TV-only

TBC

TBC

Broadband Basics (for those receiving benefits)

No price rise

N/A

O2

Pay-monthly and Sim-only mobile

£1.80 a month

1 April 2025

Smartwatch, mobile broadband and tablet

75p a month

1 April 2025

- Device-only plans
- O2 Essential (for those receiving benefits)
- Pay-as-you-go

No price rise

N/A

Sky

Broadband and TV, including Stream and Glass

6.2% on average
Price rises not linked to inflation

1 April 2025

Sky Broadband Basics (for those receiving benefits)

No price rise

N/A

Mobile users who are out of contract

£1.50 a month

14 February 2025

Mobile users who are in contract and home phone only users

No price rise

N/A

TalkTalk

Broadband and landline – joined or upgraded on or after 12 August 2024

£3 a month

1 April 2025

Broadband and landline – joined or upgraded on or before 11 August 2024

6.2%
December's CPI figure (published in January) + 3.7 percentage points

1 April 2025

Fixed Price Plus, out of contract

TBC
Last year, bills rose by 4% in line with December's CPI figure, published in January

TBC

- Fixed Price Plus and Pre-Pay Saver, in contract
- TV add-on
- "Most vulnerable customers"
- Former Shell Energy customers (ii)

TBC

TBC

Three (broadband & mobile)

Joined or upgraded on or after 8 September 2024

- £1 a month for 4GB or less mobile data allowance
- £1.25 a month between 5GB and 99GB mobile data allowance
- £1.50 a month for 100GB or more mobile data allowance
- £2 a month for broadband

1 April 2025

Joined or upgraded between 1 November 2022 and 7 September 2024

6.4%
December's CPI figure, published in January + 3.9 percentage points

1 April 2025

Joined or upgraded between 29 October 2020 and 31 October 2022

4.5%

1 April 2025

Joined or upgraded between 29 May 2015 and 28 October 2020

TBC
Bills will rise by January's RPI figure, published in February

1 May 2025

Joined on or before 28 May 2015 and not upgraded since

No price rise

N/A

Virgin Media

Broadband, landline and TV – joined or upgraded on or after 9 January 2025

£3.50 a month

1 April 2025

Broadband, landline and TV – joined or upgraded on or before 8 January 2025

TBC
Bills will rise by January's RPI figure, published in February + 3.9 percentage points

1 April 2025

- Essential Broadband / Essential Broadband Plus (for those receiving benefits)
- Talk Protected phone-only plans

No price rise

N/A

Vodafone

Broadband, mobile, tablet or smartwatch – joined or upgraded on or after 2 July 2024

- £1 a month for 'basic' mobile plans
- £1.80 a month for other pay-monthly mobile plans
- £3 a month for home broadband

1 April 2025

Broadband, mobile, tablet or smartwatch – joined or upgraded on or before 1 July 2024

6.4%
December's CPI figure published in January + 3.9 percentage points

1 April 2025

- Broadband Essentials (for those receiving benefits)
- Mobile VOXI For Now (for those receiving benefits)
- Mobile pay-as-you-go

No price rise

N/A

(i) BT, EE and Plusnet are all part of the BT Group. Plusnet only offers broadband packages. (ii) TalkTalk took over Shell Energy broadband, and acquired all its broadband and landline customers, in January 2024.

Martin: 'We're seeing way above inflation rises as the norm'

Martin Lewis
Martin Lewis
MSE founder & chair

There are winners, but many losers too... During the consultation, we (me and MoneySavingExpert) were pushing Ofcom to ban any above inflation rises mid-contract. It didn't. Now its new structure's in place, as predicted, we're seeing way above inflation pounds and pence rises as the norm.

Worse, for those on cheaper, say £25 a month broadband deals, a £3.50 a month annual rise is equivalent to 14% – far bigger than this year's inflation-linked rises would've been at about 6%. Though of course, the rise for someone on an expensive £60 broadband deal (who by definition is probably overpaying already and should switch) would be proportionately less; under 6%.

If you're out of contract, you're free to leave – so check you're not overpaying

Broadband and mobile 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:

It's worth noting that if you're on an inflation-linked contract right now (as most people are) and you do nothing when it ends, you'll remain under your old contract terms (meaning the £ and pence requirement won't apply) until you renew, upgrade or switch – though of course you can leave penalty-free.

Within your minimum contract term? Most can't cancel penalty-free – but some Sky customers can

  • Sky customer? Sky 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.

    Now, which is owned and operated by the Sky Group, also allows customers to leave penalty-free within 31 days of being notified about any changes.

  • 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 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.

MSE Forum

Broadband and mobile price hikes 2025

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MSE Email icon 11 February 2025

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