Virgin Media customers face price hikes for broadband, TV and landlines from next April – and can no longer cancel in-contract deals if they object
- Virgin Media users are already facing 13.8% price hikes this year
- Now the telecom provider has also outlined its plans to raise bills in 2024
- He said he would use the higher RPI inflation measure, rather than the CPI
Virgin Media customers will face even higher broadband, TV and landline bills next year – and lose the ability to cancel their offers without penalties.
The telecommunications company is already raising prices by an average of 13.8% from April or May 2023, depending on customer contracts.
But the provider is also the first to announce plans for its tariffs from April 2024.
Customers will face bill increases of the February 2024 inflation figure plus 3.9%. Exceptionally, Virgin Media will use the upper retail price index inflation measure to set its new prices, not the lower consumer price index measure.
Sign of the times: Virgin moves to higher inflation figure to set price hikes for 2024
The CPI is currently the standard for calculating telecom price increases. The RPI is currently at 13.4%, compared to 10.1% for the CPI.
RPI is expected to fall to 1.5% in 2024, with CPI at 0.6%, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Virgin Media customers will also not be able to cancel their offers if their contracts increase in price in the medium term.
Virgin’s new terms and conditions state: “As this annual price increase is provided for in your terms, there is no cancellation right for this price increase from April 2024.”
Inflation-linked price hikes can be blurry and unpredictable
Ofcom’s Cristina Luna-Esteban
A Virgin Media spokesperson said: ‘We know price increases are never welcome, particularly at this time, but like many other businesses we are experiencing significant cost increases while investing to keep up with the pace of growing demand, as broadband usage has increased by more than 10% in the past year and speeds have increased by 40%.
“We are committed to supporting customers in this difficult climate and are freezing prices for vulnerable customers and those benefiting from our social broadband tariffs.”
Ofcom is conducting a review of inflation-linked mid-term broadband and phone price increases.
When the communications regulator launched the review last month, Cristina Lund-Esteban, director of telecommunications consumer protection, said this type of price increase could be “unclear and unpredictable”.
