Virgin Media to hike bills for millions by 4.5% – adding up to £48 a year to bills
Virgin Media said a “significant majority” of customers will see prices rise by between £2 and £4 a month
MILLIONS of Virgin Media customers will be hit with inflation-busting price hikes this autumn.
The telecoms giant has announced that five million broadband, TV and home phone customers will see prices rise by an average of 4.5 per cent from their October or November bills.
This increase soars above the latest inflation figures announced today, which stood at 2.5 per cent for the consumer prices index (CPI).
Virgin Media said a “significant majority” of customers will see prices rise by between £2 and £4 a month.
But affected customers can cancel their contract penalty-free as a result of the increase as long as they notify Virgin Media within 30 days of receiving notification about the rise.
The telecoms provider is notifying customers of the hike from this week.
Virgin Media is the latest in a long line of telecoms providers to announce price hikes this year.
From 16 September, BT customers will be hit with the second increase in a year, while EE, Plusnet, Post Office, and Sky customers have already seen their bills rise.
Virgin Media last upped prices by 4.7 per cent on 1 November 2017.
It blames rising rising business costs on the latest increase.
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A Virgin Media spokesperson commented: “Increasing prices is not a decision which we take lightly.
"We work hard to keep our prices competitive while continuing to invest in our network and improve the services we offer our customers.
“This year’s price increase is lower than last year while broadband usage on our network has increased by almost 40 per cent in that time, with approximately 60 per cent of total traffic now due to more streaming of video.
"At the same time the impact on us of a 300 per cent increase in business rates on broadband networks has started to take effect, hiking up the costs associated with building and running our network.”
The price hikes follow the news that popular television channels, including Dave and Gold, are returning to Virgin Media after it settled a pay dispute with UKTV.
Only last week Virgin Media launched a new app, which allows customers to download and watch TV shows on-the-go.
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