Broadband price rises by provider in 2026

Miles Northrop | July 7th, 2026

The way providers alter their pricing each year has changed numerous times, often at the behest of Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator. Each change has been designed to keep providers honest about the changes you can expect to see to what you pay across the length of your contract.

One reason the rules keep changing is because, like all businesses, providers tend to find loopholes. This latest change, enacted early in 2025, basically means that for broadband packages and bundles any mid-contract fee increases must be shown next to the monthly price. That's not necessarily as simple as it sounds, and there's a quite a bit to discuss. So without further ado, let's look at the change and how it applies to the main providers.

Price rises by provider

Here is a summary of the remaining providers you can compare on BestBroadbandDeals.co.uk and what their price rise policy is in keeping with the new rules. We will update this page as more providers fall in line with the rules.

How are providers responding to this? Well, we'd love to tell you they're all complying with identical wording and phrasing in order to make things as simple as possible, but sadly there's no such clause in Ofcom's new rules, meaning not all of them are doing things the same way. Here's a detailed breakdown of how the changes are taking effect with the UK's biggest providers.

Sky price rises 2026 to 2028

Sky is unique in its approach to all this. Despite having briefly decided to conform to the letter of Ofcom's regulations, it seems to have now finally settled on a different approach. Rather than specify up-front exactly what your annual price rises will be, it reserves the right to increase your monthly fee by whatever (and presumably whenever) its sees fit. The get-out for the consumer here being that in the event of any price rise they're free to leave their contract with just 30 days notice and no exit fee to pay.

To our knowledge no other provider takes this approach, and no doubt there are mixed feelings on this. But for an engaged customer who's willing to keep an eye out on the availability of alternative offers from other providers, this isn't such a bad thing. The downside though is that Sky really do offer the best TV experience, so many subscribers simply never want to leave.

BT price rises 2026 to 2028

BT is falling fully in line with the new rules, advertising all of its packages at the headline monthly price followed by a stated increase of £4 per month across all of its packages on March 31st of both 2026 and 2027. And that £4 increase hasn't changed since 2025, so you could argue that the inflation has stopped inflating. BT contracts are two years so the provider finds itself in the perhaps unfortunate position of having to show two future price increases.

Virgin Media price rises 2026 to 2028

Virgin Media contracts are now 24 months (student broadband deals aside) – they raised them from 18 months in June 2025. That means we're now showing two April price increases in their listed pricing. And, like all broadband providers, the price goes up steeply at the end of the contract – a means to encourage you to sign up for another one (and we'd say a good reason to consider switching).

It also waived a price rise this April for anyone signing up just beforehand, which was only fair. Current advertised pricing now shows a £4 per month increase from April 2027, and another in April 2028. It also shows the new higher price you'll see when your contract ends.

TalkTalk price rises 2026 to 2028

TalkTalk also offers its broadband on a 24 month contract, and therefore has to show two price increases alongside its listed monthly pricing. This currently reads as a £4 price increase on all packages from April 2027, and again from April 2028.

Vodafone price rises 2026 to 2028

Vodafone's fixed-line broadband packages similarly run on 24-month terms, meaning you'll need to factor in two rises. They apply a flat £3.50 per month increase to its broadband plans on April 1st of each year. So that's a £3.50 hike hitting in April 2027, with a second £3.50 jump scheduled for April 2028.

Plusnet price rises 2026 to 2028

Plusnet (which operates under the BT Group) matches its parent company by setting fixed annual rises of £4.00 per month, applied on March 31st of each year.

Ofcom's price advertising rules

To understand why changes to pricing are now being shown next to the monthly price, it's probably a good idea to briefly discuss how we got here. Over a decade ago in January 2014 a new rule came in meaning that if your provider raised the monthly price of your broadband contract, you would be given the opportunity to quit and switch to another provider. The measure was designed to prevent mid-contract price rises, but unfortunately it did not.

Instead, over the subsequent years, providers found ways around it, eventually asking customers to agree to a yearly price rise as part of their contract terms, thereby denying them the right to quit and switch. The providers jumped on this, warning new customers of price rises each year during their contracts based on the CPI inflation rate. Plus another 3.8%. That's a big rise, and because users had been 'warned' of it upfront, then technically the providers were complying with the regulation.

And it remained that way for some time. Clearly though, that wasn't serving customers well, especially during the years of exceptionally high inflation we suffered through during the COVID years. So Ofcom embarked on a consultation exercise to address the issue and prevent broadband providers from hitting their customers with such large mid-contract hikes.

So what changed?

The result was a new system, introduced on 17th January 2025. Here's an overview of the current state of play:

• Exactly what’s changed – Broadband providers must display any mid-contract price rises in clear pounds and pence terms, right next to the headline monthly cost. This goes beyond the vague 'inflation + x%' buried somewhere in your contract that defined the previous system. Now you’ll see something more like '£25 p/m until April 2027, then increases by £3.50 each April during contract'.
• Why Ofcom has introduced it – Ofcom found that many people were caught out by price hikes hidden in the small print. By forcing providers to spell out how much more you will pay over time, it hopes you’ll be able to make a more informed choice before signing up.
• How it works for adverts – Any advertised price (online, TV, posters, comparison sites) has to include a clear indication of future costs, the goal being to ensure you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into.
• What providers must do – Providers need to put this information front and centre, not hidden away. If they use an 'inflation plus x%' formula, they have to provide a pounds and pence figure to support it. It has to be explained plainly, so you’re not left scratching your head over complex calculations.
• What broadband comparison sites must do – Comparison services like BestBroadbandDeals.co.uk must also show the new price-rise wording next to fee information in all of their listings. You can see this in action right now in our broadband comparison.
• The impact on you – If you’ve ever been frustrated by unexpected price hikes, these new rules do give a firmer idea of ongoing costs throughout the length of your contract. It allows you to compare deals more confidently, understanding what you’ll likely pay in the future as well as what you'll pay at the outset.

Why do prices go up?

We'd love to say it's a simple matter of inflation because it's certainly a part of the answer. Up until this new rule change, yearly price rises were inflation linked, albeit at inflation plus 3.8%. With most providers now showing annual price rises of at least £3 pr year under the new system, for many broadband packages the situation is actually now worse than it was, with a typical £30 per month broadband deal adding a full 10% or more to its monthly price.

Broadband providers often cite rising operational costs, along with investment in network infrastructure as the primary factors behind annual price rises. This is likely a half truth. Some of what you pay surely does go back into investment in the network. However, these are mostly public companies, and public companies have shareholders to please.

What we think

I can be argued that the new pricing rules mean every customer will have a much clearer idea of that they are going to pay in each year of their contract. However, if Ofcom's aim was to try to stymie the never-ending increase in expense of what has ultimately become a necessary utility, it's not going to have that effect.

Instead, providers will now advertise price increases that seem reasonable on the face of it, but are actually multiples of the current inflation rate. At £3 per month extra added to your monthly bill every April 1 for most providers, customers are likely not to be too worried about suddenly not being able to afford their broadband. However, many customers these price rises are steeper than they were before.

This is partly because previously under the old 'CPI inflation plus 3.8%' system, those on cheap broadband deals would see a smaller increase than those on all-singing, all dancing broadband, TV and mobile bundles.

How to avoid price rises

If you sign up to a particular new provider who is telling you up front what the cost increases will be each year, there is no way to avoid the annual hikes. You agree to them as part of the Ts and Cs of your contract. However, if your provider hikes the price beyond what is agreed in your contract, you can still leave with 30 days notice.

There are also some other ways to get out of your contract that don't have anything to do with pricing. For the sake of covering every angle, here's a short breakdown of situations in which you can leave your contract without paying any fees.

• Price rises not disclosed upfront – If your provider hikes the monthly cost beyond what was clearly spelled out when you signed up, you can usually walk away without exit fees.
• Failure to meet promised speeds – Ofcom rules allow you to leave penalty-free if your broadband consistently falls below the minimum guaranteed speed and the provider can’t fix it within a reasonable time
• Significant changes to contract terms – If your provider makes a major, unilateral change to your contract (beyond agreed conditions), you may have the right to leave
• Persistent service faults – Chronic outages or technical problems that the provider fails to resolve can also give you grounds to leave early
• Cooling-off period – If you signed up online or over the phone, you have 14 days to change your mind and cancel without penalty

Other complications

We have seen a few oddities emerge now that this scheme has been put into practice. Firstly, providers face a bit of a dilemma with new customers joining in the weeks and days leading up to that March/April price-rise. We've seen examples of providers opting to waive the increase for recently signed-up customers, but there doesn't seem to be a consensus of what timespan to apply to that situation. It'd certainly be galling to see the price you just signed up to a few weeks earlier was significantly increased so soon.

The second peculiarity regards special offers. In particular those offers which impact the pricing for a set period of time – 'six months half price' for example. If the price-rise date falls within that six months, how is that applied? Is there an 'intermediate' pricing period where it's half-price plus the increase? Do they waive the increase until the promotional period is complete? It's a slightly murky area and in these circumstances properly accurate pricing can be difficult to arrive at.