Proactive Investors – Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, has introduced new rules to make inflation-linked price rises easier to understand for mobile phones, pay-TV and broadband users on a contract.
From next year, customers have to be notified to any rise n contract charges in a “clear and comprehensible” way.
Ofcom said it had received complaints about rises in bills without warning citing small print in contracts linking them to inflation.
“Under new Ofcom rules announced today, any price rise written into a customer’s contract from January 2025 will need to be set out in pounds and pence, prominently and transparently, at the point of sale.
“Providers will also need to be clear about when any changes to prices will occur,” said the regulator.
Telecoms companies have been heavily criticised for two years of inflation-linked rises on top of a basis 3.9% increase.
That meant prices going by around 7% this year, 14% in 2023 and 9% in 2022.
According to the regulator, more than half of broadband customers and pay monthly mobile customers (58%) do not know what inflation rates such as CPI and RPI measure.
At telecoms companies with inflation-linked price rises only 16% or 12% of mobile customers understood that inflation-linked price rises plus the standard charge were included in the contract.
In April, six in 10 broadband and mobile customers were on contracts subject to inflation-linked price rises, said Ofcom.
