Thousands to be hit with broadband and mobile phone price hikes from Monday

Eir is among the telecoms companies hiking prices from next week.

Charlie Weston

Hundreds of thousands of households will have to pay more for their broadband, TV and mobile services from next week when a number of providers increase their monthly prices.

The bills for some people on bundled plans will rise by close to €100 a year.

Eir and Vodafone are set to implement inflation-busting price hikes from the start of April, while Sky, Three Mobile, and Virgin Media also upping their prices in the coming weeks.

From next week, most customers of Eir and Vodafone will see their bills go up by 7.6pc as the providers implement what they call “annual price adjustments”.

Under this policy, bills go up each April by the annual rate of inflation as of January each year plus an additional 3pc.

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Customers of Three Mobile see their prices go up by a flat 4.5pc each April regardless of the rate of inflation.

The monthly costs for customers who joined Eir or re-contracted their Eir services before March 1 this year will rise by 7.6pc from April 1. It will mean some plans going up by €8 a month, or €96 a year.

If a customer has a broadband and phone with a standard monthly price of €66, from April the monthly price will increase by €5 a month, or €60 a year.

For Vodafone customers, this year’s price adjustment will be 7.6pc.

It applies to all Vodafone mobile and fixed plans which have a six, 12, 18 or 24-month minimum contract term.

Mobile phone operator Three Ireland said the cost of its plans would rise by 7.6pc from April, made up of a 3pc annual rise, plus the rate of inflation in January.

A €60 3 Bill pay Unlimited 5G contract will rise by €4.56 a month, which works out at €54 a year.

A number of Sky Ireland’s 600,000 customers are to be hit with price rises after it said it was increasing its broadband and TV subscription service fees.

The move will mean an average increase for households of around €52 a year from April.

The average increase of 4.1pc follows a similar hike last year.

TV and broadband provider Virgin Media is hiking its prices from May 11.

Broadband provided by the company will rise by €4 a month for some customers, with a similar rise in TV services costs for a number of customers. This works out at a rise of €48 a year for a broadband-only customer.

Virgin Media said affected customers would face a 4.6pc price rise.

A small number of Virgin Media customers are being hit with an increase of €8 a month as they get both broadband and TV services, a rise from €95 to €103. This is an 8.4pc increase, or €96 a year.

Daragh Cassidy of price comparison site Bonkers.ie hit out at Eir, Vodafone and Three Mobile for using a pricing model where they impose annual price rises that are linked to the rate of inflation.

They have changed to a system of hiking costs for consumers at the same time every year by the rate of inflation, plus a set percentage.

The Government is considering banning this pricing model.

Mr Cassidy claimed it was contrary to competition law, a charge rejected by the providers.

He said: “Bonkers.ie is also calling on the CCPC [Competition and Consumer Protection Commission] and ComReg to clarify their positions regarding the use of automatic price adjustments in the Irish market.”

Households looking to offset the price increases were advised by Bonkers.ie to compare prices and switch to a new provider as it said there is still very good competition for new customers.