Prices
In-contract broadband price rises
From 17 January 2025, Ofcom has required providers to set out, in pounds and pence, any price rises written into new phone, broadband and pay-TV contracts, and to say when those changes happen. This page explains what that rule does and does not do. It does not list this month’s tariffs.
Reviewed 5 November 2026 · 6 min read · Independent · Not a price list
The rule, in plain language
For years many UK contracts said the monthly price would rise each year by inflation plus a set percentage. You could not know the cash amount when you signed, because next year’s inflation was unknown. Ofcom banned that style of term for new contracts. Where a provider writes a rise into a new contract, the rise has to be a cash amount, shown clearly before you are bound, including on a phone sale or in a shop, and the provider has to say when it happens.
The rule does not cap the size of a rise. It does not force every contract to include a rise. Some contracts have no in-contract rise. Some still allow an unspecified increase later, but then the provider must give notice and a penalty-free exit under the general rules that apply to that kind of change. Read which kind you are being offered. The words “no mid-contract rise” and “rises by a stated amount each April” are different products.
Ofcom’s own summary was published when the rule took effect and again in the consumer guide to price-rise rights. We link those pages below. We do not reprint a table of what each brand will charge next spring. Those figures change, they differ by product, and a figure copied here would go stale.
Contracts signed before the rule
A contract you signed before 17 January 2025 can still contain an inflation-linked or percentage rise if that is what you agreed. The new rule did not rewrite old terms. If you are still inside such a contract, the letter or the terms you signed are the source. Do not assume your old deal now behaves like a new advert.
When that old contract ends, a new deal should follow the current rule. A retention offer is a new contract if you accept it. Ask them to state any rise in cash, and the date, before you say yes. A verbal “it’s about the usual” is not a price.
If you do not recognise the rise on a bill, complain to the provider with the contract or the order confirmation in front of you. This site cannot see your contract. We will not guess which side is right.
An introductory period ending is not the same thing
A lower price for a few months, followed by a higher ongoing price, is the shape of the offer. It should be visible when you sign. It is not a surprise “rise” in the inflation sense, but it is the number that decides whether the deal is cheap. People compare the opening month and then live in the later months. Write both numbers down.
Setup fees, delivery, and a router you thought was included can sit outside the monthly price. Add them once. Do not spread a one-off fee across the whole contract unless you are comparing two deals on the same method, and say that you did.
A social tariff, where a provider offers one, is a separate product with its own eligibility. It is not a discount code on a commercial intro. We do not print social-tariff prices. Ask the provider, and ask only a provider who can serve the premises.
A stated rise is not automatically a right to leave
If the cash rise was in the contract you accepted, you usually cannot treat the arrival of that rise as a new penalty-free exit. You knew the amount. The right to leave without an early-termination charge is for changes that were not agreed in that way, inside the window the notice gives you.
Put the exit fee, if you are leaving for another reason, next to the new contract. A switch started under One Touch Switch does not wipe the fee. Get the fee in writing from the provider you are leaving. An unknown fee is not zero.
Do not use a national average rise as your rise. Ofcom has described the market in its own reports. Your contract is one product. The number on your order is the number that matters.
A method you can reuse without our prices
On a piece of paper, write the introductory monthly price, how many months it lasts, the price after that, the length of the minimum term, any cash rise and the month it happens, any upfront cost, and the early-termination charge on the service you would leave. The known scheduled cost is the intro months at the intro price, plus the rest of the term at the later price, plus upfront costs, plus any rise that falls inside the term if it was stated. Do not silently add a rise you have not been shown. Do not subtract cashback you have not received.
If a rise falls after the minimum term, it is not part of the minimum-term cost. It still matters if you expect to stay. Say which horizon you are using. Two honest people can pick different horizons. They should not pick different arithmetic.
This site’s tools, where they calculate, should follow that method and show the inputs. A tool that hides the exit fee, or treats a blank fee as zero, is not a tool we are willing to stand behind. If you do not know the fee, the result is incomplete, and the page should say so.
What we will not publish
We will not publish a league table of this month’s broadband prices as if we had re-checked every brand’s national tariff on the morning you read this. Prices are premises-level and offer-level. A figure from a newspaper, a forum or an old catalogue is not your order.
We will not call a price “Ofcom approved”. Ofcom set a disclosure rule. It does not approve a brand’s monthly charge. We will not invent a typical household saving. Households are not typical in the way a headline needs them to be.
Reviewed 5 November 2026. If Ofcom changes the rule, or a provider’s own terms contradict a sentence here, the regulator’s page and the contract win. Tell us if a sentence has gone stale.
Questions
- Do all broadband contracts now ban price rises?
- No. New contracts must not use inflation-linked or percentage rises. A provider may still include a rise if it is a cash amount, shown up front, with the timing. Some contracts have no in-contract rise at all.
- Does the rule rewrite my old contract?
- No. Contracts from before 17 January 2025 can still follow the wording you signed, which may mention inflation. A new deal you accept now should follow the current rule.
- Is the end of an introductory discount a banned rise?
- No. It is the later price of the offer, and it should have been visible when you signed. Compare that later price, not only the opening month.
- Can I leave free when the stated rise happens?
- Usually not, if you agreed the cash amount in the contract. A penalty-free exit is for rises that were not agreed that way. Read the notice.
- Why are there no prices on this page?
- Because a national tariff goes stale and is not your premises. Check the provider for the current product, including any rise in pounds and pence and the price after any introduction.
- Does One Touch Switch include the rise in the handover?
- The process moves the service. It does not calculate your bill. You still have to read the new contract’s price path and the old contract’s exit fee.