BT Increase Monthly Price for its UK Landline Only Phone Customers UPDATE

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today noted that, following the expiry of existing commitments, and considerations about how best to support BT’s landline-only customers, BT has confirmed that this group of customers will receive a £1 per month increase on their line rental, with no increase in call charges, from 31st March 2026 for a period of 12 months.

The change was first technically revealed at the start of this month when BT published an updated pricing document (PDF) for their residential service(s), which confirmed a range of price increases for various other products that weren’t mentioned as part of last year’s prior price hikes announcement (here).

However, BT has long had a voluntary agreement with Ofcom to protect the prices that their voice-only customers pay, which was last renewed for a five-year period back in March 2021. In practice this meant that BT would continue to apply an inflation-linked control (CPI+0%) on the basket of line rental and call charges for voice-only products.

“We believe a continuation of prices which remain flat in real terms is a proportionate, clear and timely way to continue to protect consumers. BT has also committed to an annual CPI+0% limit on prices for its Home Phone Saver product and a safeguard cap of CPI+2.5% for its line rental product,” said Ofcom in March 2021. But those commitments were about to expire at the end of this month and so BT has made a change.

Ofcom Statement

Landline only customers have a landline phone service with BT but do not have broadband with BT or another provider. The size of this group of customers is shrinking over time. As networks modernise, we expect all landline services will eventually be provided over a broadband service.

While this group of customers is getting smaller, it tends to be made up of largely older customers, who do not engage in switching provider as often as younger customer groups. We expect BT to continue to take this into account when setting prices for these customers in future and we intend to monitor BT’s pricing for landline only customers, as part of our regular monitoring of consumer prices.

We encourage financially vulnerable customers on means-tested benefits to check if they are eligible for a social tariff. BT offers a £10 per month landline-only social tariff for eligible customers, which may be more cost effective than the landline only tariff. Telecoms providers, including BT, have committed to ensuring that social tariffs are easy to find and signposted to eligible customers as part of the UK Government’s Telecoms Consumer Charter.

The line rental price increase for this group is, to be fair, relatively tame compared to what many of the provider’s more traditional broadband customers have recently had to face (e.g. mid-contract price hikes of £4).

UPDATE 3:34pm

We’ve added a comment from BT below.

A BT spokesperson told ISPreview:

“From 31st March 2026, landline only customers who do not have broadband with BT or another provider, will see their monthly price of their line rental increase by £1. We have contacted all landline only customers to notify them of this change.”

We are committed to keeping our customers and the UK connected, with dedicated landline services that deliver value for those who continue to rely on these services. This helps ensure customers retain access to a reliable phone service, supported by clear pricing and best in class customer support.”