These price rises make annual bill hikes much clearer, but their impact across different deals isn't equal. Customers with cheaper contracts are likely to see a larger proportional increase than those on more expensive deals.
Read on to find out how to navigate the new price rises and see how much your monthly costs might increase.
How EE customers could be hit by rip-off charges
EE is the only provider to announce a separate increase for ‘bundled’ contracts, where the handset and airtime plan are paid in a single instalment. It's increasing its charges by £4 a month – £2.50 more than it charges for Sim-only contracts.
Bundled contracts are not easy for customers to understand, as it's unclear how the costs and increases apply to each part of the contract. Fortunately, most providers now only offer split contracts, where you can clearly distinguish between these figures.
EE’s £4-a-month increase is for contracts that started after 10 April 2024 – it’s possible that these are offered to some customers who don't meet the credit criteria for a split ‘Flex pay’ contract. This increase is more than double the highest airtime increase announced by any network, so it’s either incredibly high, or EE is charging extra for the repayment of the phone. We think this is unfair. Typically, networks justify raising prices by saying they use the money to maintain and invest in network infrastructure. However, there seems no justification for charging more for a phone that doesn’t cost extra for the network to provide.
When we put our concerns about this to EE, it didn't explain why the increase is so high. An EE spokesperson said: ‘We offer our mobile customers a contract option to suit their needs and we are transparent with price increases before they sign up to any contract.’
As for the remaining Big Four networks, any Three and Vodafone customers on ‘legacy’ bundled contracts will receive the old inflation-based price increases. This means they effectively face paying inflation on a handset repayment, too. O2 has moved all its customers to the new pounds-and-pence price increases.
How you can avoid the charges
avoid the cycle of being sucked into lengthy contracts with yearly increases. Use our switching service toOther mobile customers set for hikes of more than 14%
shows that all networks have a difference of at least 4.3 percentage points between the smallest and largest increase, while for some the difference is as high as 10.5 percentage points.A flat monthly increase will have the largest proportional price rise for customers on low-data deals or longer contracts, as usually these have a lower initial price.
For example, a one-month unlimited max-speed data Sim with Vodafone is £48 a month, meaning a £1.80 increase represents a rise of just 3.8%. Whereas a 24-month, 3GB Sim is £16, so the same increase works out as a 11.25% jump.
How to get better value from a mobile contract
As the new rules mean more accurate information is available when picking a contract, it’s important to calculate the total cost.
We’ve compared the cost across a 24-month contract with one of the Big Four and a smaller network, which offers fewer perks but huge savings. A 24-month unlimited Ultimate O2 Sim is £1,089 in total, starting at £44.49 a month but with its £1.80 increase after a year included.
In contrast, a 24-month unlimited iD Mobile Sim has no mid-contract price rises, so it's £16 a month for the duration, a total of £384. Overall, you could save £705 in two years.
O2 Ultimate offers perks such as Disney Plus, free roaming in 123 destinations and access to O2 priority rewards, but this has to be weighed against possible savings of more than £700. With iD Mobile, you get 30GB of free EU roaming.
For more ways to cut your monthly costs, read our .
Broadband customers facing price hikes of up to 15%
Although the new price rises are much more transparent than previous terms linked to inflation, a disadvantage is that people on cheaper broadband contracts will see larger proportional increases.
Snapshot analysis of the cheapest and most expensive deals by the major broadband providers shows the proportional impact of the new increases on customers who took up a new deal in January.
Keep in mind that these are just the percentage increases in the first year – these providers commonly offer 24-month contracts, so the price will jump by another £3 or £3.50 in the second year of the contract.
As our analysis shows, this means the deal could end up costing over 20% more per month than the amount originally advertised. This was the case for the cheapest deal from each of the providers we looked at, but two examples exceeded 25%.
Vodafone’s Full Fibre 80 deal, advertised for just £22 a month in January 2025, will increase to £28 a month in April 2026 – an increase of 27%. And another attractive deal, Virgin Media’s M125, will increase from an original price of £23.50 in January 2025 up to £30.50 a month in April 2026 – an increase of 30%.
How to get better value from a broadband contract
Although Ofcom’s new rules require providers to be upfront about price rises when you sign up, you’ll still need to stay on your toes when switching to a new deal to ensure you don’t end up paying more than you need to.
There are a couple of key points to keep in mind:
When price rises and upfront costs are factored in, a deal that looks pricier at first glance can actually work out to be more affordable.
For example, when we looked at deals available in January, Zen Internet’s Full Fibre 100 (CityFibre) was advertised for £28 a month, compared with Plusnet’s Full Fibre 74 at £25.99. However, once we factored price rises and upfront costs into those deals, the average monthly cost of the Zen deal was lower (£28 vs £29.74), despite the average speed being faster.
Similarly, we found that Hyperoptic was advertising three months free on its 150Mb Superfast deal, which would then rise to £29 for the rest of the contract. Contrast this with TalkTalk’s Full Fibre 150 deal, which was being offered for £26 a month. However, once we'd added in offers, price rises and upfront costs, the average monthly cost of the Hyperoptic deal was lower (£26.17 vs £29.75).
If you want peace of mind, choose a provider that doesn’t hike its prices mid-contract, such as Hyperoptic, Utility Warehouse or Zen Internet. Then you’ll know how much you’ll be paying every month without having to do any additional calculations.
Sick of substandard service? It’s easy to move on – get started using guide onsource https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/telecoms-price-rises-include-rip-off-contract-inflation-and-up-to-15-bill-hikes-aVuQM3F3ZFsn