In contract price rises

iniltous

It’s not really within Ofcoms terms of reference to stop companies putting up prices , the market decides the price not Ofcom ,  the idea is if a company is ‘greedy’ ,the competitors  will clean up , all those price sensitive customers won’t stay , the company with the high price ( compared to the market price ) lowers its prices to get customers or goes out of business, that’s the supposedly the way a market works.
FWIW , all those who complained about CPI+3.9% and got a blanket £3 annual increase as the replacement , apparently haven't learned the lesson,  if those complaining do  get Ofcom to ban any increase during the minimum term , should realise that a current deal like  £30 going upto £33 after the annual increase, then £36 the year after , will simply be £35-£36 from the start .

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

The issue was that there was a cartel-like similarity in how the industry all adopted the same escalation clauses and also it was an unfair contract where you signed up to a fixed price contract with an unknown escalation when they removed the ability to cancel.

OFCOM have a remit to ensure fair pricing. So it is not their remit to control prices, but it is their remit to ensure the market is fair, and unpredictable increases were deemed unfair.

From January next year, percentage increases will be banned, and only actual value increases can be offered.

That means when you are renewing a contract you can actually look at the 2 year deal, or however long, and easiliy work out which is the most expensive.

They are also now insisting on clear description of what you are buying, so people can't sell a dodgy connection as fibre just because the link to the box down the road is fibre if it still uses some 40 year old phone line to get to your house.