Martin Lewis: "O2 price rise feels like a mockery of Ofcom’s consumer protection"

In January 2025, Ofcom required mobile providers to clearly show how much bills will increase each year in pounds and pence, before people sign up. Now O2 has announced that from April 2026, up to 15 million customers will see their monthly bills rise by more than it told them – £30 a year – up 40% from the £21.60 annual increase previously written into their contracts.

Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, said: "This move feels to me a bit like it makes a mockery of Ofcom’s new 'pounds and pence’ consumer protection regime, which came in at the start of this year. It was the regulator’s solution to hideous above inflation mid-contract price hikes was that on sign-up firms should tell you in advance, in pounds and pence, the price hikes you’ll face during the contract period.

"Sky has side-stepped this from the start by saying it wouldn’t tell customers of the rises before they sign up, but instead when it does annual price hikes it will allow them to leave penalty free.

"Now O2 is also dancing away, increasing contracts by more than it said it would when people signed up. And while that means all its impacted mobile customers can leave penalty free – and many should- we know few will, most will likely just have to suck up a rise that was more than they were told when they signed up.

"The worry is now O2 has opened the door to this behaviour other mobile firms will feel less worried about following suit. It’s a great regret that when Ofcom consulted on these changes it didn’t listen to the proposal I and others made to simply ban above inflation mid-contract price rises (or any mid-contract rises).

"And it’s worth noting the rises O2 had told customers of in advance were already usually far above inflation, but now will typically be at least 7% and up to 30%. And all this adds more inflationary pressure to the economy in its own right."

O2’s price hikes compared to inflation

(i) Percentage above latest CPI figure of 3.8%

Please see MoneySavingExpert.com’s news story for full details.