Ofcom ranks the worst and best companies for broadband and phone services

Last month saw a number of household bills creep up, everything from council tax, water costs, energy prices, to broadband and mobile.

The increases also resulted in inflation reaching 3.5%, the highest in over a year.

But if you’re paying more for your mobile, broadband or landline, are you getting the best customer service? The UK’s communication regulator, Ofcom, has released its latest list of the best and worst providers when it comes to customer service.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Ofcom found that there were signs companies have improved the way they deal with issues - customer satisfaction with complaints handling for mobile (61%), broadband (58%) and landline (60%) were all significantly higher in 2024. In 2022 satisfaction levels were just above 50% for all three services.

Mobile and broadband customers said they had a reason to complain last year more than in 2022 – at 14% for mobile (compared to 12%) and 23% for broadband (versus 20%).

Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s director of market intelligence, said: “It’s encouraging to see industry rally to our call to improve things for their customers. Call waiting times have come down for many providers and satisfaction with complaint handling is on the up. But there’s further to go.

“Not all companies have made the same progress and it’s still taking the industry too long to fix things when they go wrong. Our rules have made it easier than ever to switch providers, so if companies don’t act they may find customers voting with their feet.”

How does your provider rank and could now be a good time to switch? If you are out of contracts, switching to a new provider could save you hundreds.

Mobile companies: Customer service ranked

Across all mobile phone service providers, the average number of complaints made to Ofcom reduced in 2024.

O2 generated the most complaints per 100,000 mobile customers (23), while Tesco Mobile generated the fewest (4).

Smaller providers – those outside of the four major network operators, EE, O2, Three and Vodafone – tended to score better, including for overall satisfaction.

Source: Ofcom

Tesco Mobile scored better for complaints handling (68%), while Three was lower than average (51%).

Lebara – which was included for the first time in this year’s report – Tesco Mobile and giffgaff customers were also more likely than average to recommend their provider to a friend.

How do broadband and landline companies compare?

When it comes to broadband, Plusnet ranked best for customer satisfaction, and TalkTalk worst.

EE ranked higher than average in terms of dealing with complaints (66%), along with Plusnet (65%) and Sky (63%). TalkTalk (54%) and Virgin Media (53%), on the other hand, scored lower than average.

On speed of service, in general, more than eight in 10 (83%) broadband customers were satisfied, which is in line with the level reported in 2022.

At the same time nearly three quarters (73%) of standalone broadband customers were happy with the value for money of their package, an increase from 62% in 2022.

The most complained about broadband company was NOW Broadband. It generated 65 complaints to Ofcom per 100,000 customers (65), while Sky generated the fewest (21).

Source: Ofcom

For landline, Plusnet again performed well, with customers reporting a higher-than-average overall satisfaction score (83%). Virgin Media customers, meanwhile, had a lower-than-average score (67%).

Vodafone (67%) and Sky (65%) scored higher-than-average satisfaction with landline complaints handling.

How long does it take to speak to customer services?

It’s taking mobile customers less time to speak to a customer service agent if they have an issue, but more time for broadband and landline customers, the Ofcom research found.

The average time it takes to get through to a customer service agent for mobile customers fell to 1 minute 52 seconds, down from 2 minutes 24 seconds in 2023.

For broadband and landline providers the industry average call waiting time increased to 2min 1s in 2024, up 13 seconds from the 1min 48s average in 2023.

It is also taking longer for broadband and landline customers to get new services installed – and there are big differences between the best and worst performers.

Orders took an average of 11 days to complete in 2024, an increase of one day from 2023.

Vodafone completed the lowest proportion of orders by the date agreed, at 60%, while BT and EE each completed 69% of orders by the date agreed.

In comparison Sky, TalkTalk and NOW Broadband all completed more than 90% of orders on time.

Only three quarters (73%) of all broadband and landline orders were delivered by the date agreed in 2024, down from eight in ten (80%) in 2023.

What to do if things go wrong

Under Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme, broadband and landline customers of companies who have signed up the scheme are entitled to compensation for missed engineer appointments, delayed start dates for new services and lengthy outages – without having to make a formal complaint.

In total, providers paid out over £63m to customers under the scheme in 2024, down from £67 million in 2023, which suggests fewer things are going wrong for customers.

The following providers are signed up to the scheme:

• BT
• EE
• Hyperoptic
• Plusnet
• Sky (including NOW Broadband)
• TalkTalk (restrictions apply for customers not on the Openreach network)
• Utility Warehouse
• Virgin Media
• Vodafone (restrictions apply for customers on the CityFibre network)
• Zen Internet

Outside the automatic scheme, Parliament has not given Ofcom powers to resolve people’s complaints about their phone or broadband service. Instead, these can be dealt with by Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services.

Ofcom currently approves two ADR schemes: the Communication & Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS) and Communications Ombudsman.

ADR schemes are independent and free to use. You can take your complaint to an ADR scheme if:

• you have already raised it with your communications provider and it is still unresolved; and
• it has been at least eight weeks since you made the initial complaint to your provider or you’ve been unable to reach an agreement with them and you have received a deadlock letter.

Although Ofcom doesn’t investigate individual complaints, it might investigate a company if monitoring reveals a particular problem.

For example providers currently use ‘fibre broadband’ as a catch-all term. But Ofcom wants reforms to give consumers greater clarity on whether they will get full-fibre or a partial connection.