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In a somewhat surprising development for an ISP that has spent the past few years campaigning against mid-contract price hikes. City-focused UK ISP Hyperoptic has this week refreshed the pricing of their broadband packages to adopt the same structure of annual price rises as many of the largest internet providers.
The operator, which at the start of this year suffered another round of redundancies and spoke about having their “target of 2m homes passed well within our sights” (here), officially claims to have so far deployed their alternative full fibre (FTTP/B) network to reach “more than” 1.73 million homes in parts of 64 towns and cities.
Regular readers will note that Hyperoptic has also spent much of the past 2-3 years actively campaigning to stop the practice of mid-contract price rises by rival broadband providers, which often increases consumer prices well above the current level of inflation.
Just to quote the provider’s previous Policy Director, James Fredrickson, from 2023 (here): “Millions of households across the UK are unknowingly locked into deals with inflation busting mid-contract price rises – and unable to leave that provider without paying hefty termination fees … At Hyperoptic we don’t do mid-contract price rises. We believe the price you see advertised should be the price you pay for the length of your contract.”
Similarly, Hyperoptic’s CEO, Dana Tobak, last year reiterated (here) how they’d “campaigned against unpredictable mid-contract price hikes for over two years” and expressed pride “on being in the corner of customers, offering hyper fair and transparent contracts with no mid-contract price hikes“.
So, when several readers this week informed ISPreview that the ISP had done a U-turn on this policy and introduced the same sort of mid-contract price rises as larger rivals, we were perhaps a touch surprised.
Lutfu Kitapci, CCO and MD of ISP at Hyperoptic, told ISPreview:
“For years, broadband consumers have had to deal with unknown price increases in the middle of their contract and we are proud to have campaigned and supported the ban of this unfair practice. Price changes however are not uncommon, for example after introductory pricing, discounted months and other offers. To remain competitive in the current environment, we will be introducing an annual increase of £3 from April 2026, for customer joining from 3rd June 2025.
Existing customers will not be affected by the annual increase, unless they switch to a new minimum term. Customers on the Fair Fibre plan will also not be affected by this change. We are confident that this move will help customers to make a fair comparison when choosing their next broadband provider.”
The change means that, for example, customers taking their top 1Gbps tier on a 24-month term will now pay £35 per month (plus a £19 one-off activation fee), albeit rising to £38 from April 2026 and then £41 from April 2027. In fairness, Hyperoptic has clearly signposted the change and the pricing remains attractive, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is still a bit of an embarrassing change, given their history on the subject.
Naturally there are still plenty of other ISPs out there to choose from and many of those still inhabit the same moral high ground as Hyperoptic once occupied. But sadly, Hyperoptic are the only ISP choice on their own specific network.