We recently shared communication about the news of Virgin Media’s planned takeover of YouFibre and Brsk. YouFibre have complained to us about this, and we wanted to be crystal clear in our thoughts on the matter, so please read below.
In-contract price rises
Grain doesn’t have in-contract price rises and never will. Virgin Media does but YouFibre doesn’t. After the takeover, Virgin Media will have to decide how they treat their own customers, versus how they treat YouFibre customers when it comes to price rises, and this could result in changes.
The YouFibre brand
In the announcement about the acquisition of Netomnia, the parent group of YouFibre and Brsk, their CEO, Jeremy Chelot, stated: “YouFibre will remain post-close”. But this isn’t the same as saying it will remain over the long term.
There have been previous cases of brands being taken over in the broadband market and while most of them have continued to operate immediately after completion of the takeover, nearly all of them have subsequently been closed.
There is however a precedent for brands remaining over the long term, for example BT took over Plusnet and has continued to operate the brand since.
Does this statement hold weight?
After the previous merger between YouFibre and Brsk, Jeremy Chelot made a similar statement in February 2025 that “Brsk at a later stage, will evolve into a full-service ISP, alongside YouFibre, with both ISPs leveraging Netomnia’s network to serve their customers.”
Less than a year after making this statement he announced the closure of Brsk saying that “moving forward under a single brand is a natural progression”. This could lead anybody to wonder what the future might hold for YouFibre under Virgin Media.
What does that mean for in-contract price rises?
We don’t know whether YouFibre will follow Virgin Media and introduce in-contract price rises after the takeover, but for the sake of their customers we hope not.
However, taking the example of Plusnet, before the takeover by BT, Plusnet didn’t have in-contract price rises, but they have since been introduced, following BT’s lead.
This point could easily be clarified if Virgin Media confirmed their commitment over the long term to honour YouFibre’s policy of no in-contract price rises for YouFibre customers.
This would surely be well received by YouFibre customers but may be poorly received by Virgin Media customers who already suffer from such price rises. It would also mean Virgin Media treating their loyal customers differently to the newly acquired customers from YouFibre.
Last month we have also seen yet another broadband provider, Toob, change its policy to start hitting their customers with annual in-contract price rises.
In our view the uncertainty hanging over YouFibre customers following the planned takeover by Virgin Media will remain for now.
Our commitment
One thing you can rely on is our own commitment not to have in-contract price rises. We don’t do them, and we won’t do them. We call on Virgin Media to join us in committing to fixed price contracts and abolish their own in-contract price rises.