The majority of UK homes are fully aware of the yearly price hikes that affect their TV, mobile and broadband plans with most big telecom firms hiking things each spring. Over the past few years, many consumers have been hit by record rises due to the way the increases have been calculated – most UK providers were using the rate of inflation (CPI) mixed with a set percentage hike.
Because CPI rates continue to fluctuate, many customers have been left in the dark about how much extra they will actually pay each year and Virgin Media O2 now says it wants to stop the uncertainty. The Internet Service Provider (ISP) and mobile network will switch things up from next April and start charging a flat rate across all of its plans.
This, they say, with give users “more certainty” about what they are paying now and how much things are going up in the future.
So how much extra will you pay if you use Virgin Media O2’s services?
If you have Virgin broadband or TV your bills will go up by a flat rate of £3.50 next April no matter how much or little you currently pay. Meanwhile, O2 customers will see their airtime bill increase by £1.80, effective each April.
Although that might seem like a hefty hike, Virgin says it wants to be transparent about what’s to come.
“From January, we’ll change how we communicate and implement price increases. All future price changes will be included in customers’ contracts in pounds and pence, giving them even more certainty about how their bills may change over the course of their contract,” a Virgin Media O2 spokesperson explained.
“For new and re-contracting Virgin Media customers, this will be a flat increase of £3.50 a month, effective each April, while airtime price increases for O2 customers will be £1.80 a month, with device payment amounts remaining frozen. At less than the cost of a takeaway coffee or a sandwich, this represents excellent value for connectivity that our customers are using more than ever before, at the same time as we invest more than £5 million a day in our networks and services to give our customers the fast and reliable connectivity they increasingly rely on.”
Virgin now follows BT with the telecoms giant also changing things to a flat rate rather than a percentage. From 2025, BT users will pay an extra £3 for broadband and £1.50 for mobile plans.
“Annual price changes will be in pounds and pence, so you can have certainty when it comes to the cost of our products and services from year to year,” BT confirmed.
