More than half of Brits have suffered problems with their broadband in the last year – here’s how to switch
Price hikes, poor speeds and lack of service are among the issues households have had to put up with
MORE than half of Brits experienced a problem with their broadband service in the last year, according to new research.
The most common problems listed by the 56 per cent who reported issues included price hikes, poor speeds, connection dropouts and router issues.
Consumer group Which? polled more than 1,900 customers across 12 providers for its latest broadband satisfaction survey.
Virgin Media customers were the most likely to have experienced a problem, with nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) reporting some kind of difficulty in the last year, typically due to price.
Some 62 per cent of Sky customers reported a problem, followed by 61 per cent of BT customers, Which? said.
Zen Internet achieved the lowest proportion of complaints, with 25 per cent of customers saying they had experienced a problem.
Broadband switching: What you need to know
A NEW broadband contract might catch your eye this Easter bank holiday weekend. But whatever you do don't jump in.
If you've got a long time remaining on your current contract, you could have to pay an expensive early cancellation fee, so it could be worth just sticking with your current provider until your contract's up.
Once you've done that follow these pretty easy steps:
- Shop around and compare - Use a price comparison site like or to see what deal would be best based on your internent needs. Also check that the service you want is available in your area.
- Check your speeds - To compare properly you'll need to know what speed your currently getting. Advertised speeds for broadband are just that - there's no gurantee you'll get the speed the firm say - but if you're a heavy internet user with a large family it makes sense to go for a speedier but more expensive deal.
- Contact your new provider - Once you've found a decent deal simply contact the new firm. If you've gone through a comparison site you can just click through but you can always call them. In most cases your new firm will sort out the whole transfer for you and you won't need to do anything. If you're switching to or from a provider which doesn't use the Openreach network - like Virign Media - then you will have to contact your current provider to cancel.
- Get online - Typical costs for your new package to be installed can be around £60 but your new provider will let you know this before you agree to anything. In most cases an enginner won't need to visit your home unless they need to install a new phone line for example, so you'll only be without broadband for a few hours.
Even if your contract is coming to an end but you can't be bothered switching, call your current provider and see what new deal they'll offer you - don't just leave your deal roll-over onto its standard price.
The most common complaint was around recent price increases, affecting one in five (22 per cent) of broadband customers.
Virgin Media customers were twice as likely to have had a problem with price hikes (47 per cent), but it was also the top complaint in relation to BT, with 30 per cent of its customers reporting an increase.
Slow speed was the second biggest problem, affecting 21 per cent of those polled.
TalkTalk customers were more likely to suffer slow speeds than any other provider included in the survey, with 31 per cent affected.
Almost one in five people overall (17 per cent) suffered connection dropouts and the same percentage experienced problems with their router.
Virgin Media customers were the most likely to be left with no internet at all for hours or even days at a time (15 per cent), this was also a problem for one in 10 (11 per cent) of Post Office customers.
BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Zen Internet - who together serve around 90 per cent of landline and broadband customers in the UK - have agreed to automatically compensate customers affected by slow repairs, missed appointments and delayed installations from early next year under Ofcom plans.
Fed-up customers will get up to £25 when things go wrong.
Alex Neill, Which? managing director of home products and services, said: "It's clear that too many households are still suffering from substandard broadband and our research shows that providers have a long way to go before they meet their customers' expectations.
More on money
"Customers who suffer from a shoddy broadband service will welcome new measures for automatic compensation, however providers should do more to stop these problems from happening in the first place.
"Anyone not happy with the service they are getting should look to switch.";
A Virgin Media spokesman said: "We do everything we can to balance keeping our prices competitive while investing to meet customers' ever-increasing appetite for faster broadband and better content.
"We continue to put our customers first.
"This year we're in the process of upgrading millions of our TV customers to our latest V6 box and have just increased our fastest broadband speeds to 350Mbps - both at no additional cost."
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