Inflation rises were supposed to be over

For a few ugly years, British broadband contracts told you the price would rise by a formula you could not translate into a grocery number at the moment of signature. That was the trick. The regulator went at the trick. Retailers then discovered other ways to make April interesting: a pounds figure in the small print, a rolling rest, a ‘review’. Households heard ‘they banned the rises’ and sat still. Sitting still is how a banned trick becomes a quieter invoice.

What was actually sat on

The mischief was linking a mid-contract rise to CPI (or similar) plus a number, so the pounds were a future surprise. Ofcom’s work was to make the in-contract price knowable, or to make surprise a reason to leave without a fee.

It was not a national price freeze. Anyone who told you that was selling calm.

What you still get in the letter

A numbered pounds rise you were shown at sale. A rolling price after the handcuff ends. A ‘we can vary’ clause that may still give you an exit if they go beyond the deal. An end-of-contract letter that hopes you will not read it.

April remains a season. Put it in the calendar even if a podcast said the season was cancelled.

How to read a 2026 contract

Search for ‘increase’, ‘vary’, ‘April’, ‘CPI’, ‘RPI’. If a formula remains, treat it as hostile. If a pounds figure is there, add it to year-one. If silence, ask them to say ‘the monthly price will be X for the minimum term’ in durable form.

Then compare that path to a different retailer on the same plant. The rule change was supposed to make comparison possible. Use it.

They banned a formula. They did not ban April. Read April.

The inflation trick was a scandal because it hid pounds. The sequel is quieter invoices. Quiet is not the same as still.