Broadband price rises: what your provider can and cannot do

Broadband price rises used to arrive as a formula. Your contract said something like CPI plus 3.9 per cent, nobody knew what CPI would be, and one April the bill went up by an amount you couldn't possibly have worked out on the day you signed. New contracts are not allowed to work that way any more. The old ones did not vanish, though, so what lands on your bill this spring depends less on your provider than on the date you signed up.

What are broadband price rises, and who still gets them?

A mid-contract price rise is an increase your provider applies part way through a fixed term, using a clause that was in the contract before you signed it. It is not a penalty and it is not a mistake. Most large providers apply one every year, usually in March or April, whether or not anything about your service has changed.

It is not universal. Some smaller networks sell a price that holds for the whole contract, so the figure you agree in month one is the figure you pay in month eighteen. Past the first year, that one clause can matter more than the advertised price.

The rule that changed in January 2025

From 17 January 2025, Ofcom banned inflation-linked and percentage-based rise terms in new phone, broadband and pay TV contracts. Any rise written into a contract from that date has to be stated in pounds and pence, prominently and transparently, before you agree to it.

That's a genuine improvement. The number is knowable on the day you sign, rather than hanging on an inflation figure published a year later. The rises the big brands set out for 2026 sit at around three to four pounds a month, and they are printed in the contract summary you're shown before checkout. What the rule did not do is ban the rises. It banned pretending they were unknowable.

Why your bill can still follow inflation

The change was not applied backwards. A contract taken out before 17 January 2025 keeps the clause it was sold with, so a CPI-linked formula agreed in 2024 carries on doing what it always did until the term ends or you renew onto current terms.

This is the part that catches people out. The headlines in 2025 read as though inflation-linked rises had been abolished, and they were, for new contracts. If you haven't changed deal since 2024, yours is very likely still on the old basis. The place to check is the contract summary your provider sent when you signed, not this year's press release.

Can I leave without paying a penalty?

Only if the rise was not made clear to you before you signed. Ofcom treats an increase to the recurring monthly charge as materially detrimental, which obliges a provider to give at least 30 days' notice and let affected customers leave without an early termination charge. That right exists for a change you were not told to expect, not for one printed in the contract you agreed to.

So the test is disclosure rather than size. A rise you were shown in pounds and pence at the point of sale is enforceable, and leaving early will cost you whatever the exit terms say. A rise that appears from nowhere, or one bigger than the contract allows for, is a different matter and worth challenging. Start with the provider's own complaints process, and if that goes nowhere the complaint can be escalated to an independent ombudsman, which every UK provider has to belong to.

What the pounds and pence rule did not fix

A flat increase is not flat in effect. Four pounds on a twenty-five pound package is a far bigger jump in percentage terms than the same four pounds on a sixty pound one, so the households on the cheapest packages feel it hardest. Which is roughly the opposite of how the change gets described.

Consumer bodies have said as much. Citizens Advice has argued the new rules have not gone far enough and that mid-contract rises should be banned outright rather than merely disclosed. ISPreview reported in July 2026 that a private member's bill had been tabled to do exactly that, while noting that bills of that kind rarely become law. Worth knowing about, not worth waiting for.

How to make the next rise somebody else's problem

• Find your end date first. Everything else follows from it. Inside the term your options are limited to challenging a rise you were not told about; in the last month or two of it, you can move freely and the leverage is yours.
• Read the rise clause, not the headline price. A deal advertised at a couple of pounds less can end up dearer by month thirteen. The number that matters is what you pay across the whole term, rises included.
• Treat a fixed price as a feature worth paying for. Several of the networks we track contractually hold the price for the full contract, which the large brands almost never do. Our provider profiles say which ones do it and what their rise policy is where they have one.
• Check what is actually available before you decide. Whether a fixed-price network serves your street is a street-level question and only the checker knows the answer, so start with what you can get at your address.

The honest caveat: a fixed price is not the same as a low price, and moving to a smaller network is a judgement about that network as well as about the deal. Our guide on whether it is safe to switch to a small provider covers what to look at. If you have decided, the mechanics are short and mostly automatic, and how switching actually works walks through them.

The one thing not worth doing is nothing. A rise you absorb quietly compounds against a price that was already the highest your provider charges, and doing nothing has been the expensive option in this market for years.

Frequently asked questions

When do broadband price rises usually happen?

Most large providers apply theirs once a year, in March or April, and tell you a month or so beforehand. The date is set out in your contract rather than chosen at the time, so it is the same month every year for as long as you stay.

Can my provider put the price up when I am out of contract?

Yes, and there is no minimum term stopping you leaving when they do. Out-of-contract prices are usually the highest a provider charges, so a rise on top of one is worth acting on rather than absorbing.

Does the pounds and pence rule apply to a contract I signed years ago?

No. The rules changed for contracts taken out from 17 January 2025 onwards and were not applied backwards, so an older contract keeps the inflation-linked clause it was sold with until the term ends or you renew.

Is a fixed-price deal always cheaper in the end?

Not automatically. It removes the rise, not the headline price, so a fixed deal that starts a few pounds higher can still cost more over two years. Compare the total you would pay across the whole term rather than the first month.