For customers on Virgin Media - one of the UK"s largest internet service providers - it may not seem like all that long since the company increased its prices. In fact, it"s been only six months since the last price hikes, and now it"s planning to raise its broadband charges once again.
The company announced its last price rises back in November 2013, but they did not come into effect until February of this year. Now, as The Telegraph reports, the ISP will raise charges for the second time this year - although this time around, the increases will only affect those customers who solely use its broadband service, without a phone line, TV package or Virgin Mobile line on the same account.
From October, any broadband-only customers who joined before May 2014 will see their bills go up by £1.50 per month. This means that some of Virgin Media"s customers will have had to endure price increases of nearly 20% in the last year and a half.
This time around, however, customers have a choice, thanks to new measures introduced by UK telecommunications regulator Ofcom earlier this year. Unlike fellow telco O2 - which circumvented Ofcom, exploiting a loophole that allows it to continue imposing price increases on its customers mid-contract - Virgin is sticking to the spirit of Ofcom"s guidelines, confirming that any customer affected by the October increase will be able to cancel their contract without penalty.
Source: The Telegraph
Update: Virgin Media has contacted Neowin to clarify a couple of details. First off, they note that the price increases announced in November 2013, and which came into effect in February 2014, did not affect broadband-only customers; those customers actually received a separate pricing adjustment in October 2013. Secondly, Virgin Media also points out that it has "always allowed its customers to leave without penalty whenever there has been changes made to our cable services".