EE Broadband Customers to Pay More from June

EE has announced it will be raising its broadband prices next month by an average of £2 a month.

The mobile and broadband provider announced the changes will be come into effect from June 26, and it has already begun notifying its customers of the price hikes. However, it is currently understood that only those that have been an EE broadband customer since before February 29 this year will be affected. Any new customers who joined after this date won’t see any changes to their bills. But hundreds of thousands of customers will still be affected.

“We’re contacting some of our home broadband customers to let them know about changes we’re making to the cost of their plan which will take effect from 26 June,” said a spokesperson for EE. “Many of our customers will see no change at all, and the average increase for plans that are changing is £2 per month.”

EE’s latest announcement comes after other broadband providers have announced similar price hikes. TalkTalk confirmed it would be raising prices for its broadband customers by up to £3 a month from June 1, while Sky Broadband raised its own prices by an average of 5%, or £42 a year, on April 1. The latest announcement is a further blow to loyal EE customers, however, as the firm also announced average price hikes of 2.7% for its mobile services on March 31.

There are various reasons why broadband providers are consistently raising their prices. They are constantly working to add new and improved services and develop new systems. There is also an ever-increasing demand for data from the public, which also pushes up prices.

“We know price changes are never welcome, so we always try to keep costs down while continuing to invest in providing even faster, more reliable home broadband with the UK’s best service with 100% UK and Ireland call centres,” said the EE spokesperson.

Broadband providers are also having to adapt to new rules put in place by the regulator Ofcom. Under new regulations introduced by the watchdog in March, broadband providers in the UK will now be required to automatically compensate their customers if there are any problems experienced such as missed or delayed appointments or installations, or for a loss of broadband connectivity for 2 working days or more.

Ofcom rules also ensure that, because of the price hikes, customers are free to switch to an alternative broadband provider if they wish to do so, without incurring any exit penalties. However, any customers wishing to switch without penalty needs to get in touch with EE to notify them of their desire to switch within 30 days of receiving official confirmation of the price rises.