Broadband

Broadband, mobile and pay TV firms will no longer be able to hit customers with inflation-linked price hikes mid-contract from January 2025, regulator Ofcom has confirmed. But, as MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) founder Martin Lewis has warned, the new rules will still allow for above-inflation price 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.

If you took out a broadband, landline, mobile or TV plan with EE or Plusnet since 17 June 2022 but left your contract early and got charged exit fees, you may now be due a refund. Others who are still with EE and Plusnet may also be offered the chance to leave their contracts penalty-free. It comes after the firms failed to give 1.1 million customers key information about their contracts when they signed up.

If you're a Shell Energy broadband and home phone customer, you'll soon be automatically transferred to TalkTalk – but your service should continue as before and you should keep paying your bills as normal.

Octopus Energy has bought Shell Energy UK in a move which will see Shell's gas and electricity customers moved to Octopus. If you're with Shell, your account, including payment details, will be transferred automatically in the coming weeks and months – just look out for a welcome email from Octopus. Until then, there are no changes and you should keep paying your bills as normal.

If you claim universal credit and other support payments you could sign-up to Vodafone's newly-launched social tariff, 'Vodafone Essentials Broadband', which costs £12 a month. It is the cheapest social tariff on the market with a speed of 38Mb but the price will near double after 12 months. 

BT is facing a £600 million class action case amid claims some 2.3 million customers have been overcharged for their landline since October 2015. The bid has been approved by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) and the case will now proceed to a full trial, though BT continues to deny the claims.

"Terrible" inflation-busting mobile and broadband price hikes are to be probed by the Chancellor after Martin Lewis grilled him on the issue. In an interview with the MoneySavingExpert.com founder, Jeremy Hunt said he would write to the competition and markets watchdog and "get to the bottom of it".

Broadband, mobile and pay TV firms will no longer be able to hit customers with inflation-linked price hikes mid-contract, under proposals put forward by the telecoms regulator. But while MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) founder Martin Lewis has welcomed the move, he has also called on Ofcom to ensure any rises are never above inflation.

Broadband and mobile firms should be banned from hitting their customers with unpredictable mid-contract price hikes, consumer group Which? and charity Citizens Advice have said. The organisations have urged the telecoms regulator to stop these "unjust hikes" to ensure people are given certainty about how much their contract will cost when they sign up.