Several broadband and mobile operators, including Vodafone, BT, EE, and Plusnet, have this week notified of a small but useful tweak to their mid-contract price hikes policy, which means that new customers who sign-up will not be hit by the price increase that was previously due to start around the end of March 2025.
In the past there have often been complaints from customers who signed up just before the introduction of an annual price hike, since it meant the monthly price they paid increased only a short period after joining the service for the first time. Many consumers rightly view this as being both confusing and unfair.
As everybody should know by now, Ofcom recently required telecoms providers to adopt a new approach to mid-contract hikes, which did away with the old percentage and inflation-based model – replacing it with one expressed in pounds and pence (here). The change meant that, until this week, the aforementioned broadband providers were all due to increase their monthly rentals by £3 extra every March or April.
For example, BT’s 900Mbps package, which currently costs £40.99 per month, was expressed as increasing in price to £43.99 “From 31 March 2025” and then £46.99 from “From 31 March 2026“. Similarly, Vodafone’s packages did the same, albeit with the change being effective from 1st April 2025 and 1st April 2026.
The tweak this week sees Vodafone notifying that their 1st April 2025 price increases will no longer apply to those taking out a new contract/package. Instead, if you’re taking out one of their packages today, for example, then your next mid-contract price increase will hit on 1st April 2026, rather than 1st April 2025. As we say, it’s a small change, albeit one that may carry a benefit for their newest customers.
ISPreview understands that BT, EE and Plusnet are all due to adopt the same change tomorrow (1st March 2025), although the impact of this may vary depending upon how they set their usual discount pricing for each package’s contract term. We believe mobile plans may also see a similar change.