Three: 2026 mid-contract price increase explained

Some Three mobile customers have noticed a monthly charge on their phone bill increase in the middle of their contract period. Price rises should be communicated clearly in advance; however, for some customers, the price hike can still come as an unwelcome surprise.

If a higher monthly payment on your phone bill mid-contract is not what you were expecting, you’re not alone. The UK’s Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) wants telecoms companies to be clearer in communicating that prices can rise during your contract. Ofcom says that 58% of pay monthly mobile customers don’t fully understand why their price has gone up.   

Ofcom and the ASA have set rules for new mobile contracts to ensure that price rises are clear and don’t catch customers off guard. But if you’re on a contract that started before the new rules, you may get unpredictable mid-contract price hikes based on inflation rates and percentages. 

Three’s price increases for April 2026

How much your monthly charge increases this year will depend on when you took out your contract with Three.

If your contract started on or after 9 November 2025, then here’s a tiered system of April price increases depending on how much data allowance your contract includes:

• 4GB or less: £1.80 more a month
• 5GB-99GB: £1.90 more a month
• 100GB or more: £2.30 more a month 

Three announced a new ‘pounds and pence’ price increase system in 2024. This will apply to customers who started a new contract or upgraded their existing contract from September 2024.

For these customers, the price rises are as follows:

• 4GB or less: £1 more a month
• 5GB-99GB: £1.25 more a month
• 100GB or more: £1.50 more a month

Three states that these annual increases will be outlined to customers at the start of their contract. The increases will be the same every year within the contract. 

If your Three mobile contract began before September 2024, your increase will be percentage-based. If you started or upgraded your contract:

• On or after 1st November 2022, your monthly charge will go up each April by the CPI rate for the previous December, confirmed in January 2025 as 2.5% plus 3.9%
• Between 29th October 2020 and 31st October 2022, your monthly charge will increase every April by 4.5%
• Between 29th May 2015 and 28th October 2020, your monthly charge will increase every May by the RPI rate from the previous January.

Mid-contract price increases explained

Mobile phone companies—and other telecoms and broadband providers—increase their prices annually to offset inflation and cover rising business costs. The price increases usually happen in March or April, but they can fall in the middle of a contract if it is taken out at a different time of the year.

Until recently, companies made these increases based on the Retail Price Index (RPI) or the Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus 3.9%.

The RPI and CPI are both inflation measures that are maintained by the UK Office of National Statistics. The CPI is the official figure for the UK’s inflation rate, while the RPI is a similar measure that is also used to set prices for some services.

The additional 3.9% is added to make sure companies can cover their rising costs.

Ofcom’s new rules require price increases to be given in pounds and pence. However, some customers on older contracts will still receive mid-contract price hikes based on these percentage rates.

Are there providers who don’t increase the price mid-contract?

Some mobile providers fix their fees for the length of your contract on some or all of their tariffs. For example, Tesco Mobile offers fixed fees with their Clubcard Price contracts, while GiffGaff has fixed prices for 18-month contracts.