What this year’s price change means for our customers
Our annual price change is never an easy conversation to have with customers. It is, however, an important part of how we cover our increasing costs and keep investing in our networks and services to do more for the people we serve.
We're doing all we can to be smart with our cost base and we're incredibly careful about what we pass on to customers. And we want to be clear about how and when any changes to prices will occur.
From 31 March we’ll roll out our annual price change, with customers on two types of model across our brands: Pounds and Pence and CPI+3.9%.
Why two models? In December 2023, Ofcom asked communication providers to move away from inflation-linked mid-contract price rises. We were the first operator in the UK to introduce a Pounds and Pence price change, aligned with Ofcom’s approach offering our customers a predictable long-term view of their annual price rise for the duration of their contract term.
Putting a number on it
So, from 31 March 2025, for new and re-contracting mobile customers on the Pounds and Pence model, this annual increase will be an extra £1.50 a month. It will be £1.50 a month for connected devices (including laptops, tablets and smart watches), £2 a month for TV customers, and £3 a month for broadband customers.
There will be customers on our CPI+3.9% model, because they were already in contract before we introduced the Pounds and Pence change. There will also be some customers with a mix of the two models across different products.
For CPI+3.9%, we use the December rate calculated by the Office of National Statistics to calculate our price change. This was 2.5%, which means a price change of 6.4% (CPI:2.5% + 3.9%). On average, this year’s change is around £2 to £3 per month – a very small part of an average household's bill.
A total of 2.6 million customers will be excluded from price change. This includes our Social Tariff customers, landline only customers who don’t have broadband with us or another provider, and those with PAYG on mobile.
For everyone else, this small increase means we can keep giving our customers even more with the latest tech across fibre and mobile as we roll out 5G standalone and Wi-Fi 7 – setting a new standard for connectivity in and out of the home – continue to invest in our network and keep our most financially vulnerable customers connected.
We’re the UK’s best mobile network for 11 years in a row, and one of the country’s fastest broadband providers. The quality of those network is the foundation that means we can bring our customers so much more as demand continues to increase. Average mobile data useage, for example, has more than trebled in the past five years, and mobile download speeds have doubled.
With customers using more data and getting faster speeds, these relatively small price increases mean we can give them the networks they need.
