Mobile phone providers are not allowed to increase their prices during the contract period due to inflation

The regulator Ofcom announced that it would prohibit mobile and broadband providers from linking their prices to high inflation figures during the contract period.

New rules from the UK regulator, confirmed on Friday, will force companies to openly and clearly communicate to their customers any price increases in pounds and pence included in their contract.

Many large telephone, broadband and pay-TV providers now link their price increases to the future rate of inflation. This “unfairly” shifts the burden of inflation costs onto customers, Ofcom explained.

It said that people “cannot predict” and “do not understand inflation well.”

“We have decided to ban this practice,” the regulator said.

From January next year, any price increase on a contract will therefore have to be quoted in pounds and pence.

This is a confirmation of the rules that the regulator had already examined in December last year.

Cristina Luna-Esteban, director of telecoms policy at Ofcom, said: “With household budgets tight, people need certainty about their monthly spending.

“But that’s impossible if you’re tied to a contract where the price could change due to difficult-to-predict factors like future inflation.

“We are taking action in the interests of phone, broadband and pay-TV customers to put an end to this practice. This will enable people to be sure of the price they are paying, compare deals more easily and benefit from our competitive market in the UK.”