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Customers of mobile operator O2 may be displeased, if not surprised, to learn that the provider has today followed sibling Virgin Media’s recent increase to their existing mid-contract pricing policy on broadband packages (here), by announcing a similar hike for their own mobile subscribers.
Effective from today, O2 will now apply a new fixed annual price rise to Pay Monthly (airtime) mobile customers of £2.50 every April, which is up from the current rate of £1.80. Elsewhere, O2’s data only MBB (mobile broadband) and Smartwatch customers will continue to receive an annual price increase of 75p (unchanged from last year). Out of bundle charges will also continue to increase by 5% every 1st April.
New and upgrading customers will naturally be informed about this before they enter into a contract with the (new) annual price rise amount. We are currently checking to see how existing customers will be treated. As usual, one of the biggest problems with this approach to mid-contract hikes is that it hits every package in the same way, regardless of whether you’re on a cheaper tariff or a more expensive one (i.e. those on cheaper plans end up being disproportionately impacted).
An O2 spokesperson told ISPreview:
“With demand for mobile data at an all-time high, we’re introducing a 70p per month increase to annual price rises for O2 customers, effective each April.
An annual rise of £2.50 a month – around 8p a day – continues to represent excellent value for services that customers are using more than ever before. We’ve again frozen prices on handset repayment plans and are investing £700m into our mobile network this year to ensure we meet growing demand and give our customers the fast and reliable connectivity they rely on.
Customers on our social tariffs continue to be exempt from any price changes as part of our efforts to provide support to those who need it most.”
Just for some context. At the start of 2025 Ofcom began requiring UK telecoms providers to adopt a new approach to mid-contract price hikes, which did away with the old percentage and inflation-based model – replacing it with one that must now set out such price rises “clearly and up-front, in pounds and pence, when a customer signs up” (here). This made annual price hikes clearer and more transparent, but as above, not necessarily cheaper.
UPDATE 2:30pm
O2 confirmed to ISPreview that these changes will also apply to existing O2 customers, as well as new and re-contracting customers, from today (although you won’t feel the hike itself until April). The only good news is that O2 will be writing directly to existing customers about this change, and they are being given the right to exit without penalty if they wish.
Price changes are only applied to customers’ airtime plans, with device plans frozen. Customers on their social tariffs will also continue to be exempt from any price increases.