Telecom price rise mid-contract: can your provider do it?

Yes, but not silently. A Belgian provider can raise its prices mid-contract as long as it notifies you individually at least one month ahead, and you then have three months to leave without penalty. Only one kind of rise escapes that exit right: the indexation your contract provided for in advance.

A plain rise is an increase decided by the provider alone, which your contract did not announce. Indexation, by contrast, follows the consumer price index every year, and a clause in the signed contract provides for it. The law of 13 June 2005 on electronic communications treats the two very differently.

What does the law say when a provider raises its prices?

Three obligations weigh on it. It informs you individually, on a durable medium. It does so at least one month before the change takes effect. And it reminds you of your right to cancel. On a fixed-term contract you then have three months from the notification to leave without penalty, as the regulator writes on its page on changes made by the operator.

The exit right does not apply in three cases:

• the rise follows a change in the consumer price index and your contract provides for that indexation;
• the change results from an amendment to the law;
• all the changes are exclusively and demonstrably in your favour.

In plain terms: a rise you never read in your contract opens the door. A rise announced by a clause does not.

Indexation or plain rise: how can you tell?

Open the contract, not the letter. Letters almost always cite inflation and investment, as Orange did for its 18 January 2026 rise or Telenet for its spring one, but that argument has no legal weight, and only a clause tying the price to the consumer price index counts, which Selectra finds in the terms of Proximus, Telenet and Orange.

The trap to avoid: concluding that a rise is an indexation because the provider talks about inflation. No clause in your version of the contract, no indexation.

Which situation opens an exit right?

Table put together on 9 October 2026 from the IBPT page on changes by the operator and from Selectra's analysis of cancellation after a price rise. How a particular case is classified always depends on the wording of your contract.

The 2026 rises run from 2 to 4 euros a month

Little on a bill. More over the length of a contract.

Prices announced by L'Avenir (3 November 2025, rises of 1 January 2026), Test-Achats (Telenet, March 2026) and Selectra (Orange, 18 January 2026). Annual and 24-month gaps calculated on 9 October 2026, excluding indexation and options. I did not recheck these price lists on the operators' own sites.

The relative increase runs from +2.52% at Telenet to +7.14% at Scarlet, whose bundle is nonetheless the cheapest in the table. Four euros more is 96 euros over a two-year contract: a competitor that saves you less than that is not worth the trouble, especially with a device left to pay off.

The Test-Achats page gives two dates for the Telenet rise: 16 March in the text, 8 April in its description. I could not settle it. Only your letter is authoritative.

How long do you have to react?

Three months, counted from the notification and not from the rise. A letter received on 5 November for a rise on 1 January leaves you until 5 February. After that date, the exit right specific to the rise disappears, and that is where many customers get caught out: the window closes in February, well after the first higher bill has landed, while the letter itself had been sitting for weeks in an inbox nobody rereads.

Test-Achats, in an August 2025 report, describes an exit possible until the first day of the month after the rise. The regulator says three months. Between the two, act within the month.

When in doubt, leave early.

How do you leave without making a mistake?

1. Note the date of the notification and exactly what it announces.
2. Look for an indexation clause in the contract. Without one, the exit is open.
3. Choose the new provider first, then let Easy Switch deal with the old contract.
4. If you cancel yourself, do it in writing and cite the notification: a phone call is not enough.

A financed phone follows its own rule. Leaving the subscription is free, but the device's residual value stays due, amortised over 24 months at most, as the FPS Economy explains.

Does the exit right still matter after month six?

Barely. After the sixth month, the law bars any termination fee, rise or no rise. The exit right tied to a rise therefore weighs mostly during the first six months, when cancelling would still cost the remaining fees. After that, the real question becomes the competitor's price, and the ranking of internet offers answers it.

What if the provider never notified you?

Dispute the rise in writing and attach the bill concerned. If the answer is unsatisfactory, go to the Telecommunications Ombudsman Service, which is free. Our guide to disputing a telecom bill details the evidence to gather.