Ofcom Shame TalkTalk and O2 for UK Broadband and Mobile Complaints in Q1 2025

Ofcom have today published their latest quarterly (Q1 2025) study of UK consumer telecoms complaints, which names TalkTalk as attracting the most negative feedback from customers for fixed broadband, while O2 took the most heat for Mobile and Virgin Media were put on the naughty step for Pay TV services.

Take note that the regulator’s report only covers complaints that Ofcom itself has received and not those sent directly to an ISP, the ISPA or an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) complaints handler (i.e. Communications Ombudsman or CISAS). Ofcom does not deal with individual complaints, but they do monitor them and can take action if enough people raise a concern.

Otherwise, the results below reflect a proportion of residential subscribers (i.e. the total number of quarterly complaints per 100,000 customers per provider), which makes it easier to compare providers in a market where ISPs can vary significantly in size. But sadly, the study only covers feedback from the largest ISPs due to limited data (i.e. those with a market share of at least 1.5%).

Take note that Ofcom’s most recent May 2025 study of telecoms provider quality (here) revealed that the proportion of UK consumers who were satisfied with their communications services stood at 73% for landline services (down from 77% two years earlier), 84% for broadband (up from 82%) and 88% for mobile services (up from 87%).

Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints

Debt troubled ISP TalkTalk attracted the most broadband complaints in Q1 2025, with 41% of them being driven by service faults and provisioning issues. On the flip side, Plusnet attracted the fewest complaints of all the listed providers, which makes a change from Sky Broadband almost consistently inhabiting the same spot.

Fixed Line Phone Complaints

Both EE and TalkTalk jointly attracted the most complaints for fixed line (landline) phone services, which were mainly driven by issues with service faults and provisioning. By comparison, Utility Warehouse continued to attract the fewest complaints for the fifth consecutive quarter, followed closely by Sky.

Mobile Complaints

Mobile operators enjoy lower complaint levels than fixed line providers, but somebody has to attract the most complaints and once again that turned out to be O2, where 28% of the quarterly problems were primarily driven by issues with complaints handling. By comparison, both Vodafone and Tesco Mobile attracted the fewest gripes.

Pay TV Complaints

Finally, Virgin Media attracted the most complaints for Pay TV services (closely followed by EE), while Sky TV received the fewest complaints.

Interestingly, Virgin Media sent in a comment to highlight how much they’ve improved since last year, although this reflects a comparison between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025, which overlooks that their broadband and TV complaints got worse over the last quarter. But O2 has at least continued to improve in mobile.

A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said:

“Six months after we drew a line in the sand and committed to improving our customer service, this data from the regulator shows real green shoots with overall complaints in the first quarter of 2025 down by 42% year-on-year.

Our more recent figures paint an even stronger picture, giving us confidence that our strategy of increased investment, simplification, upskilling agents and removing persistent pain points, is making a genuine and tangible difference in improving our customers’ experience with us. We’ll continue to make progress and get this right for good.”

Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q1 2025
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-and-pay-tv-complaints

UPDATE 11:49am

We’ve added a comment from TalkTalk below.

A TalkTalk spokesperson said:

“We’re very disappointed with this latest report and are working hard to improve how we handle customer complaints as well as reducing the need for them in the first place. We continue to invest heavily in a range of projects focused on our customers, giving our frontline colleagues better tools to understand problems, and improving the way we communicate with our customers. We believe these efforts will be reflected in future reports.”