The UK government has introduced a new Telecoms Consumer Charter that it says will help curb bill shock by enforcing more transparency from telco providers when Brits sign up to a broadband or mobile plan.

Britain’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said it had signed new commitments with BT (owner of EE and Openreach), Virgin Media O2, newly-merged VodafoneThree, Sky, TalkTalk and KCOM that are said to offer clearer pricing to consumers when they sign up to new telco packages.

Some of the providers who signed the charter attended a roundtable with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall on Wednesday. Speaking to The Mirror, Reeves explained the rationale behind the charter.

“We’ve got a voluntary agreement with the companies, which means this comes into force straight away rather than having to go through the process of consultation, legislation, amendments to bills, and then going to the House of Lords, which will take months – and instead, this is coming in straight away.”

Although it strives for transparency by declaring mid-contract price rises upfront in clear pounds and pence, following changes from Ofcom that banned inflation-based increase, the charter does not outright ban mid-contract price rises, only unexpected ones that were not declared from the get-go.

The charter should prevent moves such as the one made by O2 last October, when the provider applied a fixed annual price rise of £2.50 to new and existing pay monthly customers’ bills, up from the old rate of £1.80. Under the guidance of the charter, existing customers who signed up when the stated rise was £1.80 would not have to pay £2.50.

“Customers should always receive clear and easily understandable information about their telecoms services, prices, and any changes to those, so they know exactly what they are paying for and why,” the charter says.

“All providers commit that, where a contract includes a mid‑contract price increase, the core subscription price that customers sign up to is the price that they will pay. Any exception to this is limited strictly to unforeseeable and externally driven events that materially affect the cost of providing services.”

But critics have noted this is a voluntary charter, and does not appear to be legally enforceable.

MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis said he was “cautiously optimistic” on seeing the charter, but warned that it “frustratingly leaves two glaring gaps in Ofcom’s flaccid rules unaddressed.”

He said the fact that transparency doesn’t stop price rises and that variable pricing remains a loophole will “effectively embed above-inflation mid-contract price hikes into the mobile and broadband system – the very mischief the reforms were meant to fix.”

“This voluntary charter calls time on unpredictable inflation-linked price increases on old contracts after April 2026, and ensures it is less likely providers will push through surprise price rises, such as we saw with O2 last year,” said Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at Uswitch.

“While the move continues to place the emphasis on price change transparency, it doesn’t prevent price rises altogether – but does mean you should always know exactly what they are.”

Alex Tofts, a strategist at comparison firm Broadband Genie called the charter “a belated and weak response to providers testing how far they can push price increases during fixed-term deals.”

“The charter also fails to address the fact that, even under the ‘pounds and pence’ rule, price rises can still disproportionately hit the poorest customers, who find them the hardest to absorb,” he said.

“This problem will continue to confuse consumers and financially hit the poorest households the hardest. The only way to properly protect bill payers is to ban mid-contract price rises altogether.”

Sebastien Lahtinen, Director of broadband specialist website thinkbroadband.com said the move to provide consumers with better information was welcome but warned that the charter “only scratches the surface”.

“The annual price increases are still going to apply to many customers, and moving the last legacy contracts from inflation-linked increases to pounds-and-pence doesn’t mean consumers will save money, only that they know how much they will pay, and in case of lower end plans often pay more than under the old model as most increases are flat £3-4/month irrespective of the plan.”