You will have seen the headlines: Ofcom banned inflation-linked mid-contract price rises. What almost none of that coverage mentions is that the rules for business customers are not the same as the rules for households. If you run a business and you assumed the ban covers your mobile contracts in the same way, it is worth ten minutes to check, because the protections you have are narrower than the headline suggests.
The 30-second version
- Since 17 January 2025, inflation-linked and percentage-based rises are banned in new contracts. Any increase has to be stated in pounds and pence at the point of sale.
- Business customers get a different version of the rules. You must be told the main monthly price in pounds and pence, but providers keep more flexibility on increase terms than they have with households.
- Contracts signed before 17 January 2025 can still carry percentage rises. If yours is older, check it.
- Negotiated deals can waive the protection. If you signed something bespoke, you may have signed this away.
- Ofcom has not clearly extended the household exit right to business contracts, so do not assume a rise lets you walk.
- The fix is boring and effective: ask for the increases and their dates in writing before you sign.
On this page
What changed in January 2025
For years it was normal for a telecoms contract to say your price would rise each April by inflation plus a few percent. The problem was obvious once inflation moved: you signed up to a number you could not calculate, for a rise you could not predict, with no way to budget for it.
Ofcom banned that. From 17 January 2025, providers cannot put inflation-linked or percentage-based price rise terms into new contracts. If a contract includes a future increase, it has to be set out in pounds and pence, at the point of sale, along with when it will take effect. You should be able to read your contract and know exactly what you will pay and from which month.
That is a genuinely good change, and for households it is fairly clean.
The part the headlines miss
Business is treated differently, and this is the bit worth reading twice.
Ofcom's rules for small businesses and not-for-profits require that the provider clearly sets out the main monthly price in pounds and pence before you sign. Beyond that headline price, though, Ofcom gives providers more flexibility than they have with residential customers, specifically so contracts can be shaped to business needs. In practice that means a business contract can still contain increase terms that a household contract could not.
There is a second difference. Where a small business negotiates a bespoke agreement, it can waive the right to receive that pre-contract information in pounds and pence. If you have ever haggled a deal rather than taking the standard package, it is worth checking what you actually signed, because the protection may not be there.
Why this matters more than it sounds
Plenty of business owners read the consumer coverage in January 2025 and concluded the issue was dealt with. It was dealt with for their home broadband. Their company mobile fleet may be on entirely different terms, and nothing will have prompted them to look.
If your contract is older than the rules
The ban applied to new contracts. Ofcom is explicit that agreements signed before 17 January 2025 may still include price rises linked to inflation or expressed as a percentage, and those terms did not disappear when the rules changed.
There has been movement since. In February 2026 the major providers signed the Government's Telecoms Consumer Charter, under which they committed that April 2026 would be the final inflation-linked increase for customers still on legacy terms. That is a commitment by the providers who signed it rather than a regulation covering everyone, so if you are on an older contract it is still worth knowing what your own terms say rather than assuming you are covered.
Can you leave if the price goes up?
For households the position is clear. If a provider raises the price when the contract did not say how much it could rise, or raises it by more than the contract stated, it has to give at least 30 days' notice, and the customer then has 30 days to exit without paying an exit fee.
For business customers, Ofcom's own guidance does not spell out that the same exit right applies. We would rather tell you that plainly than imply you have a right you might not. Do not assume a price rise entitles you to leave a business contract. Read the termination clause, and if it matters to you, negotiate it before you sign rather than after a letter arrives.
Four things to check in your own contract
- When did you sign? Before 17 January 2025 and percentage rises may well still be in there. After, and you should be able to find an increase expressed in pounds and pence.
- Find the increase clause and read the actual wording. You are looking for either a stated amount and date, or a formula. If it is a formula, you do not have a predictable bill.
- Check whether it was a negotiated deal. Bespoke agreements can waive the pounds and pence protection. A good price at signing is not the same as a predictable price across the term.
- Check what happens at the end of the term. Plenty of mobile contracts roll on at the same price after the handset is paid for. That is not a price rise, but it costs you the same way.
What we do
Our own terms take the approach we would want as a customer. For the services in your contract, clause 6.7 commits us to giving you a schedule of charge increases, along with the dates those increases take effect, at the start of the relationship. Not a formula, not a percentage you have to model, and not a letter in March. The numbers and the dates, at the point you sign.
Separately, we can change our standard price list on two business days' written notice, but that applies to services outside your current agreement rather than the ones you have contracted for. We would rather spell out that distinction than let it sit as a surprise.
None of that makes us unusual or heroic. It makes the bill predictable, which is the entire point of the rule change, and it is what we would expect any provider to be able to tell you in one sentence.
Not sure what your current contracts allow?
Send us what you are on and we will read the increase clauses with you and tell you plainly what can change and when. Whether you move to us or not, you will know where you stand.