Which? Identifies the Most Moaned About UK Broadband ISPs

A new survey of 7,026 broadband customers, which was conducted by consumer magazine Which? in July 2018, has examined 12 of the biggest UK home broadband ISPs and found that customers of Virgin Media were the most likely to experience problems with their service. Meanwhile subscribers to Zen Internet had the least moans.
The most common gripes across all of the providers stemmed from price increases, slow broadband speeds, connection dropouts and router problems. For example, some 45% of Virgin Media users complained about price increases, which was followed by router problems (21%) and connection drop outs (16%).
The cable operator has over the past 12 months hit subscribers with a couple of price increases for their broadband, phone and TV services, although this trend is not uncommon among all of the biggest ISPs. Similarly Virgin has also had to contend with some widely reported bugs in their top Hub 3.0 (SuperHub v3) router, which includes the now infamous latency flaw (here).
Overall Which?’s survey noted that the most complained about ISPs were Virgin Media, BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and the Post Office (in that order). Meanwhile the smaller providers did fair better, although it’s noted that even the best rated Zen Internet still had problems that affected a third of their customers (i.e. slow speeds 11%, frequent drop outs 10%, router problems 10% and general connection drop outs 4%).
In fairness, over the course of a year you’d expect to see the occasional service disruption no matter who supplies your broadband, which is somewhat par for the course when dealing with complicated networks and computer systems. Just as your Computer or Smartphone may occasionally run into the odd problem, so do telecoms networks.
As usual we always recommend taking the results of such studies with a pinch of salt, not least because we don’t know how much feedback each ISP received. Meanwhile Ofcom’s own complaints statistics suggest that Sky Broadband, Virgin Media and EE may actually receive proportionally fewer complaints than some of their largest rivals (here).
Similarly not all problems with speed or routers are the fault of your ISP. For example, speeds can be affected by slow WiFi, local network congestion or poor wiring within your home and routers can easily be screwed up by poor end-user configuration. Simply blaming the ISP for everything that goes wrong isn’t always fair or accurate.
In the end Which? noted that 81% of respondents had been with their ISP for more than 2 years and were likely to be out of their minimum contract term, which meant they could be paying more than others for the same service. Typically the magazine suggested switching ISPs to save money, although the above survey indicates that many of the cheapest and largest providers also attract proportionally more gripes (out of the frying pan..).
Source ispreview
Industry: Telecommunications News

Latest Jobs
-
- Lead Cyber Security Incident Response Consultant.
- United Kingdom
- N/A
-
Seeking skilled and passionate UK-based individual for a Lead Cyber Security Incident Response Consultant opportunity 3 core skillsets for the role Hands on technical incident response (triage and planning). Business consultancy (engaging with clients). Commercial awareness. Being able to engage in business growth conversations. Consultancy experience is an essential as it the ability to visit clients and the office. Additional experience will include, but not be limited to: Developing incident response strategies, guides and procedures for effective incident handling Proactive and reactive defense plans based on cyber threat actors' techniques Offering guidance, supervision, and fostering opportunities for team development Significant career development opportunities for the right individuals.
-
- OUTSIDE IR35 Contract- Functional tester- SC clearance Microsoft Windows Server
- London
- Outside IR35 contract
-
Front End Functional tester with SC clearance needed for an Outside IR35 project. Current valid SC clearance is required Experience with functional testing with exchange, sharepoint, SQL and other applications relating across a windows server Migration to 2019. Must be able to get to Central London 3 days a week. Jira, Wiki documentation and automation experience highly desirable.
-
- ForgeRock Consultant- UK
- United Kingdom
- Upto £100,000 plus benefits
-
ForgeRock Consultant/ Architect is require for niche consultancy who are looking to expand their presence within the UK/European Market Looking for a lead IAM architect, ideally with ForgeRock experience but would consider other vendors, But looking for someone who is able to advice and consultant with Clients but have the implementation background so they can get involved in projects as and when needed. Key duties will be: Provider IAM consultancy to clients, with a focus on ForgeRock Product stack ·Responsible for the design and implementation of ForgeRock solutions ·Install and configure ForgeRock stack to meet customer authentication and authorization requirements, ·Design and implement OAuth2 protocol using ForgeRock OpenAM, ·Design and develop OpenAM custom authentication modules, ·Configure ForgeRock stack to protect RESTful API, ·Troubleshoot and support ForgeRock IAM stack. This is a great role to join a niche play as they look to kick of their European expansion
-
- ForgeRock Consultant- Netherlands
- Netherlands
- N/A
-
ForgeRock Consultant required for 6 Month Contract This will be a mix of on site and home based, so need people to be based in the Netherlands We are looking for a lead ForgeRock Technical Consultant/ Architect with strong experience of ForgeRock to lead a new deployment project. ·Responsible for the design and implementation of ForgeRock stack ·Install and configure ForgeRock stack to meet customer authentication and authorization requirements, ·Design and implement OAuth2 protocol using ForgeRock OpenAM, ·Design and develop OpenAM custom authentication modules, ·Configure ForgeRock stack to protect RESTful API, ·Troubleshoot and support ForgeRock IAM stack. ·Designed and developed Restful APIs, This is a great project with an expanding leading IAM player within Europe, We are looking for someone with the above experience, who is comfortable hitting the ground running and taking on the reins at the start of a project