OFCOM

A review into mid-contract price hikes on mobile and broadband bills has been launched by the telecoms regulator, amid concerns that providers aren't being clear enough about what customers can expect to pay during the full length of their contract.

Sky TV customers should check their bills NOW as millions are still not being told their contract is coming to an end. The telecoms giant is adamant it doesn't need to send end-of-contract notifications to its TV customers, despite being told to do so.

Mobile and broadband customers should find it easier to cancel penalty-free if their provider makes detrimental mid-contract changes that were not agreed to when they first signed up to the plan. 

Plusnet and John Lewis broadband customers will be automatically compensated for delayed repairs and loss of service. Plusnet, which also runs the broadband service for John Lewis, has joined nine other companies that are part of the regulator's automatic compensation scheme. 

Shell Energy is to scrap a controversial £15 'cease fee' it charges customers who switch away from the firm or cancel their contract, MoneySavingExpert.com can reveal. It comes after we queried the fee with regulator Ofcom and it asked Shell Energy to explain the charge - though Shell insists it was already reviewing the fee as it prepares to take on 450,000 Post Office customers later this year.

Mobile companies will be banned from selling 'locked' phones which only work with their network, under new rules coming into force at the end of next year. 

EE, Plusnet and Sky have become the latest broadband firms to commit to doing more to help vulnerable and out-of-contract customers, as part of an Ofcom review which the watchdog claims could result in total savings for consumers of £270 million per year.

Phone, broadband and pay-TV firms must give extra support to vulnerable customers – which could include payment holidays and tariff advice – under new guidance from communications watchdog Ofcom.

Some of the biggest broadband providers are set to cut costs for those loyal customers paying expensive out-of-contract prices by March 2020, under new measures announced by the telecoms regulator. Yet don't be fooled, the best deals will still be for switchers.

Mobile company Giffgaff has been fined £1.4 million today after an error in its billing system meant about 2.6 million customers were overcharged by almost £2.9 million.