Three in four mobile and broadband customers are worse off under the regulator's fix for mid-contract price rises than they would have been under the old system it replaced. That is the finding of research published on 29 June 2026 by MoneySavingExpert, which analysed 47,000 mobile and broadband tariffs and found that in 75% of cases the price rise under Ofcom's new pounds-and-pence system was bigger than the rise the old inflation-linked formula would have produced — and in 99% of cases the rise was above inflation. The rule that was supposed to end surprise bill increases has, on the evidence so far, made most of them larger.
The rule itself is real, and it did change what a contract must say. From 17 January 2025, Ofcom banned inflation-linked and percentage-based price-rise terms in all new phone, broadband and pay-TV contracts. Any rise written into a new contract must now be set out in pounds and pence, prominently and transparently, at the point of sale, with the date it takes effect. Ofcom announced the change on 19 July 2024, to give customers certainty about what they would pay over the life of a contract. It did not cap the rise, or ban mid-contract rises: a provider can still raise the price every April.
The worked example: £10 a month becomes £13.60
Take a two-year Vodafone 3GB contract signed up at £10 a month in December 2024. Under the new system it rose by £1.80 a month in April 2025 — an 18% rise on a £10 bill — and by £1.80 again in April 2026, leaving the customer paying £13.60 a month. Under the old system, where Vodafone increased bills by inflation plus 3.9%, the rises would have been 6.4% and 7.3% respectively, leaving the customer paying £11.40 a month — 16% less than under the new system. The flat pound figure looks small on its own. On a cheap contract it is a large percentage, and it repeats every April.
The pattern holds across the market. A customer on an £8-a-month low-data plan faced a 31% rise under the new system, against 7.3% under the old formula, with consumer price inflation at 2.8%. A £2.50 April increase would typically only benefit a customer paying more than £34 a month, according to MoneySavingExpert. "Transparency only goes so far, we don't want customers overpaying just because they were told about it first," said Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert, on Good Morning Britain on 29 June 2026.
The O2 case: when the stated rise was not the rise applied
The system was tested in October 2025, when O2 told customers it would raise airtime prices by £2.50 a month from April 2026 — up from the £1.80 a month that had previously been written into their contracts. That is £30 a year instead of £21.60. Ofcom issued a public statement saying: "We are disappointed by O2's decision. This goes against the spirit of our rules which are designed to ensure greater certainty and transparency for customers when they sign up."
If a provider raises prices beyond what was agreed when the customer signed up, it must give 30 days' notice and let the customer leave penalty-free within 30 days of being told. O2 gave affected customers that 30-day window — although anyone whose plan included a handset still had to pay off the remaining handset balance in full.
The old contracts still running
The ban applies only to new contracts. Customers who signed before 17 January 2025 may still have rises linked to inflation, which means the exact amount cannot be known until the relevant inflation figure is published. Before the ban, the standard formula was inflation plus 3.9% each April — behind rises of up to 17.3% in April 2023, when inflation was at its peak. Ofcom's pricing report, published on 26 February 2026, notes that April 2026 was the last time the largest providers would apply inflation-linked rises, under the government's Telecoms Consumer Charter, and that by March and April 2027 no in-contract customer should still be subject to an inflation-linked rise. Until then, a contract that states its rise in pounds and pence can be costed before signing; one linked to inflation cannot.
Citizens Advice, which campaigned for the ban, concluded in February 2026 that the new rules had failed. Its analysis found that awareness of mid-contract rises among people on new contracts had risen only from 30% to 38% for mobile, and from 29% to 36% for broadband — barely a third of customers spot the rise before signing. Citizens Advice called the reform "a half-fix" and is calling for mid-contract price rises to be banned altogether.
The handset trap: paying for a phone you already own
The price rise is only half the bill. The other half is the contract rule that costs most mobile customers money, and it is written into the contract itself: when the handset part of a deal is paid off, the monthly payment does not fall on its own. The same amount keeps leaving the account, month after month, for a phone that already belongs to you. On bundled contracts the handset and airtime are sold as one monthly price; on a split contract, the device payments stop when the loan finishes.
Buying the handset outright with a SIM-only plan works out cheaper on average than buying both from a provider, Ofcom's February 2026 pricing research found. SIM-only deals have now reached half of all pay-monthly mobile subscriptions, up from 44% a year earlier.
How to leave, and what to check first
The rules give customers three practical tools, and they work in a fixed order. First, the end-of-contract notification: providers must tell customers between 10 and 40 days before the minimum term finishes, stating the end date, what the customer currently pays, what they will pay afterwards, and the provider's best deals. The moment a contract ends, the customer can leave penalty-free.
Second, text-to-switch. To keep a number, text PAC to 65075; for a new number, text STAC to 75075; to check contract status and any early-exit fee, text INFO to 85075. The provider must reply with the code within a minute, the code is valid for 30 days, and the new provider must complete the switch within one working day. Asking for a code changes nothing until it is given to a new provider.
Third, the annual rise clause itself. Before signing anything, ask what the increase will be, when it lands, and what the total cost over the full term will be — not just the opening monthly figure. Check actual use over the last three months in the network's app before renewing, and cancel add-ons not used in three months. Compare the total, get a rival SIM-only price in writing before calling the current network, and set a reminder for a month before the new contract ends. Customers struggling to pay should ask early: providers are expected to offer payment plans or a cheaper tariff, and social tariffs for people on Universal Credit or Pension Credit do not rise mid-contract, according to Ofcom.