UK's biggest broadband providers ranked - is your supplier top or bottom of the list?

UK worst broadband

Broadband has become a vital part of our homes but it seems not all suppliers are offering what their customers want, need or expect. That’s according to new research from the team at Which? who say many users are being left frustrated by sub-par service and bad connections. More worryingly, it appears that the big ISPs are the worst offenders when it comes to reliability, customer assistance and value for money.

Over 4,000 consumers took part in the new Which? survey so who comes out on top and which ISPs need to pull their socks up?

At the bottom of the pile in the latest Which? report is Virgin Media with the popular provider being criticised for poor customer service and above-average connection dropouts which are leaving users with access to the web – one in five said they had had an outage lasting more than an hour in the past year.

There was one positive for Virgin with its users praising it for overall connection speed. Virgin uses its own fibre infrastructure which means it can often offer improved downloads than some of its rivals.

So, it’s bad news for Virgin but Sky and BT haven’t faired much better. Sky users aren’t happy about their connection speed, reliability or value for money whilst BT customers have gripes including the high price and average customer service. Which? does say that despite the lacklustre ratings, BT customers are the most likely to have been with the provider for more than three years.

If the big ISPs are failing who is doing better?

It appears that smaller firms are performing far better with many now offering faster speeds at lower prices. These so-called Altnets are popping up all over the country with Which? now urging homes to shop around.

ISPs including Zen, Hyperoptic and Community Fibre all scored well in the Which? findings with users praising them for fair pricing and good download speeds.

Zen Internet was also singled out due to its commitment to both Ofcom’s code of practice and automatic compensation scheme and has firmly resisted the industry trend of introducing unpredictable price rises.

Speaking about the latest news, Natalie Hitchins, Which? Head of Home Products and Services, said: “Our latest broadband provider rankings show that consumers could be better off choosing a smaller company which prioritises customer service over a giant that also stings them with unfair mid-contract price rises.

“Customers with contracts that are ending soon should look at their switching options as our research found that consumers that did that saved almost £100 on average.

“Providers planning to cash in one last time in April with unfair mid-contract price hikes must do the right thing and adopt Ofcom’s proposals as soon as possible, while firms falling short on customer service must up their game.”