Three UK Start Applying New Pricing Policy to Existing Mobile Customers
Mobile operator Three UK (VodafoneThree) recently began notifying some of their existing customers that, from 1st April 2026, they will be updating their annual price increase terms to a “more transparent approach“, which moves away from % based price rises and uses amounts shown in pounds and pence. But it won’t impact everybody, yet.
The change, which is in line with Ofcom’s new policy (here), was first technically introduced by Three UK (and Vodafone) back in early November 2025 (here). But at the time that only applied to new customers, while the latest change extends the policy to some existing customer. The exact increase customers see will be dependent on when your current contract started (this may be when you joined Three or last upgraded your account) – details.
However, customers who joined or upgraded their phone, SIM Only, Mobile Broadband or Home Broadband plan between 1st November 2022 and 7th September 2024, and are still within the minimum term of your contract on 31st March 2026, will still be subject to an increase each April by the preceding December CPI rate of 3.4% + 3.9% (total increase of 7.3%). Otherwise, it’ll be the pounds and pence method.
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Three UK Statement
“From 1st April 2026, we’re updating your annual price increase terms to a more transparent approach, which moves away from % based price rises and uses amounts shown in pounds and pence, so that you can see more clearly what the change to your monthly charge will be from April each year.
…
Similar to many other mobile providers, our Pay Monthly plans are subject to an annual price change. The increases reflect inflationary pressures we are facing as a business including energy prices, supplier increases, and increased staffing costs. Despite this change, our prices remain some of the most competitive in the market and we have a range of support, including a social tariff via SMARTY, available for customers struggling with their finances.”
Three UK’s new mid-contract price rises (extra monthly charge):
Low (4GB and below): £1.80
Mid (5GB and above, below 100GB): £1.90
High (100GB+): £2.30
Home Broadband: £3.50
Smartwatch Pairing Plans: £1.80
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Is this only for out of contract customers?
No because it says “new mid-contract price rises”. Mid-contact would assume you are still in contract. These will be the new prices I’m guessing from every April.
Putting the increase, in to pounds and pence (and then using CPI % plus a extra arbitrary amount % of handy profit, in the example of 7.3%) and not telling you the true % of increase is “just £2:30” sounds like a method to confuse the custom in the actual increase. But as the now has just three mobile networks, the increase is an effective monopoly and OFCOM rather than working for the customer, is acting for the companies and the government whom get extra VAT on the increase.
Network I’m on : THREE
OFCOM as a government agency should not agree to more than CPI rate of 3.4% since it already exceeds the BoE 2% target by 70%.
Cost of Living crisis enablement.
The additional 3.9% is just rincing the customer because they can.
I think you’ve misunderstood the nature of inflation. It’s not something that Ofcom have control over.
I disagree. Telecoms are part of the basket of goods that is used to calculate the various inflation indexes. If telecoms pricing increases by CPI + an extra percentage, then they’ll always contribute towards increasing inflation.
Will have to check if I have seen that email yet as I’m out of contract on a business data sim then a £ increase would be a significant % increase, far more than the original in contract % increase!
Update: Just had the email, so business customer with data only sim and out of contract and I received the below. Note it seems to focus if you’re still in contract, no mention of being out of contract.
Calculate your new Monthly Charge
Each April, we’ll calculate your new Monthly Charge by:
1.Taking your current Monthly Charge as at your April bill date
2. Adding a fixed increase based on this Monthly Charge (before any promotional discounts) as set out below:
Monthly Charge Increase in Monthly Charge
£9.99 or less £0.50
£10 to £20 £0.75
£20.01 and over £1.50
All charges and increases excl. VAT.
I had a good offer on an unlimited data SIM (primarily because they had network issues at the start of my contract and I helped them out with wireshark tracing). I’ve purposely not changed my subscription in any way to keep me on the 4.5% fixed annual rise.
A 4.5% rise for me would have been just over 60p per month. This price increase is over a 25% rise!
I contacted their team using online chat this afternoon who said the change was regulated by Ofcom, I asked them not to be disingenuous and it’s purely a commercial decision. They wouldn’t budge a penny on this so I told them to cancel and I’ve purchased a prepaid data SIM from Scancom.
Ironically, the SIM I purchased and the deal Scancom has for the amount of data I need works out to be less per month overall than the price increase from Three, so they’ve actually done me a favour haha.
Ive used Scancom for years – I even had 2 Business contracts from them on Three and not only was it cheaper but I got £180 back on both sims!
Well I’ll be jumping ship as soon as this increase (c20%+ in my case!) goes through. 3’s service in the UK is rubbish but I kept them as I was grandfathered into global roaming. Now with eSims that’s no longer that relevant. Weren’t 3 supposed to freeze prices for 3 years as a condition of the Vodafone merger? Crickets from OFCOM quelle surprise
Two months to go before my 12 months SIM deals ends going to ID mobile three is ripping off customers.
They are just starting to close Three shops now, forcing all the staff to transfer to the Vodafone Franchise Owners who will then need to pay for duplicate Store Managers and staff they don’t actually need, so they will then make them redundant at statutory rate versus the current Enhanced Three rate. Three and Vodafone can then claim they kept their word, that they didn’t make any shop staff redundant because of the merger, they’ll try to say, it was the independent Franchise partner that did it. Total sham and disgraceful ways to treat loyal staff and customers.