These annual price increases that the monopoly broadband players (Sky, Virgin, Eir, Vodafone AFAIK) have adopted in recent years should be outlawed imo, they are a disgraceful tactic to drive up subscription prices and show no respect for the deal (e.g. €40 for 12 months) that customers are signing up to. Yes, I know they state it in the T&Cs but that doesn't make it an okay practice.
There is nuance here that some folks may not appreciate. They often state this increase as CPI + x% (often 3% here as an example) and the support folks, when you ring them, simply say it's related to inflation and all the providers are doing it, so that must make it okay right?
They are hitching their wagon to the CPI, which is built on top of the Household Budget Survey (HBS) which includes an analysis of the costs of services like broadband, which they are systematically increasing the price of every April 1st, which allows them increase it by even more each year. So they are driving up the price of broadband in the country, which is feeding into the CPI, which they then use to justify a higher % increase each year.
It is pure madness that they are allowed do this. I ended up going with Pure Telecom as they do not apply this April 1st annual price increase, they honour the deal you sign up to for the duration of the contract and while the broadband speeds may not be as fast as Virgin, they are sufficient for me and I respect them for not jumping on the bandwagon of the big boys and hiking prices annually.
Just my 2 cents on this interesting topic.