Mid-Contract Price Rises Explained

A minimum term is a promise you make to stay. It has never been a promise the provider makes to hold the price, and for most of the last decade broadband contracts have carried a term letting the price go up part-way through. What changed in January 2025 is not whether a rise is allowed. It is whether you can know the size of it before you sign.

This guide covers home broadband, landline and pay TV contracts in the UK. It does not cover business contracts, which are outside these rules.

What a Mid-Contract Rise Is

A mid-contract rise is a price increase applied while you are still inside your minimum term, under a term of the contract you agreed at sign-up. It is not a new offer and it is not a renewal. Your obligation to stay carries on, and so does the exit fee if you leave.

Two things follow from that, and they are the two most people miss. The rise is contractual, so refusing to pay it is a breach on your side rather than theirs. And the contract that permits it is the one you signed, which means the rules that govern it are the rules that were in force on the day you signed rather than the rules in force now.

What Changed on 17 January 2025

Ofcom's rules from that date prohibit providers from signing customers up to new contracts containing price rises linked to inflation, or expressed as a percentage. New and renewed contracts must instead set out, in pounds and pence, exactly what the customer will pay across the contract period.

That is a transparency rule rather than a price control. A provider may still raise the price during the term. It has to tell you the cash amount and the date before you agree, so the figure is one you can add up rather than one you find out later.

Where a provider does offer a contract permitting a rise that is not specified, it must give 30 days' notice and the right to exit without a penalty.

Source: Ofcom, "Prohibiting inflation-linked price rises", statement published 19 July 2024, in force 17 January 2025.

Contracts Signed Before That Date

An older contract keeps the term it was signed with. In practice that usually means a rise worked out from a published inflation figure plus a fixed uplift, applied on the same date each year, with the figure taken from an index published months after you agreed to it.

The same rise, under the two regimes

	Signed before 17 Jan 2025	Signed on or after 17 Jan 2025
How the rise is described	A formula, worked out later	A cash amount, stated at sign-up
Amount known when you sign	No	Yes
What it depends on	An index published after you signed	Nothing — it is written in the contract
If the provider changes something not specified	30 days' notice, and the right to leave without a penalty

Worked Example: What the Difference Is Worth

Illustrative figures. These are not any provider's prices, and no provider is named. The arithmetic is the point, not the amounts.

A 24-month contract at £30 a month, starting 1 April, with one rise on each April inside the term.

Under a pounds-and-pence term — the contract says the price rises by £1.50 a month on the first April:

• months 1 to 12 at £30.00 = £360.00
• months 13 to 24 at £31.50 = £378.00
• total over the term: £738.00, an average of £30.75 a month

You could have worked that out at the till.

Under an inflation-linked term — the contract says the price rises by the December inflation figure plus 3.9 percentage points. On the day you sign, the December figure does not exist yet.

• if inflation comes in at 2.0%, the rise is 5.9% and the new price is £31.77
• if inflation comes in at 4.0%, the rise is 7.9% and the new price is £32.37

Sixty pence a month between the two, or £7.20 across the twelve months the new price runs for. That is not a large sum. The problem the rule addressed was never mainly the size of it — it was that a household comparing two deals could not add up either one, because half of each total had not been published yet.

When a Rise Lets You Leave

The right to exit without a penalty attaches to a change your contract did not specify, not to a rise as such.

• The rise was in the contract, in pounds and pence. No exit right. The amount was disclosed before you agreed.
• The provider makes a change that was not specified. It must give you 30 days' notice, and you may leave without an exit fee.
• The contract carries an old inflation-linked term. The rise is specified by formula, so it does not on its own create an exit right. Check the wording rather than assuming either way.

If you are unsure which of the three you are in, the deciding document is your contract and the date on it, not the provider's marketing.

The Notice You Should Already Be Getting

Ofcom requires your provider to send an end-of-contract notification by text, email or letter, between 10 and 40 days before your minimum term ends. It has to say what you are paying now, what you will pay when the term ends, any notice period, and the best deals the provider itself offers. Where a contract is part of a bundle, the notice covers the other parts and their end dates too.

If you are already out of contract, the obligation does not stop. Your provider must tell you at least once a year that you are out of contract, and tell you its best available tariffs at the same time.

Switching is a shorter job than it used to be. Since 12 September 2024 the industry runs One Touch Switch, so you contact the provider you are moving to and it arranges the switch and cancels the old service. Where there is a delay to the new service, or you are left without a connection for more than one working day, you are entitled to compensation.

Sources: Ofcom, end-of-contract and annual best tariff notification requirements under General Condition C1; Ofcom, "Simpler and quicker broadband switching is here", One Touch Switch live from 12 September 2024. Checked 31 August 2026.