Plusnet and Virgin Media Come Top in 2017 Home Broadband ISP Survey

The annual Broadband Genie 2017 survey has today handed their award for “Best Broadband Provider” to Plusnet after they came top in five out of seven categories and secured a consumer satisfaction score of 74%. Elsewhere Virgin Media also picked up several awards.

As usual the Broadband Genie survey is largely based upon online feedback collected from 3,958 consumers in the UK (OnePoll), as well as the data from just 20,018 speedtest results using the testing tool provided on their website. The survey asked respondents to rate ISPs based on their performance across a range of categories, such as customer support, technical support, value for money, reliability and service speeds etc.

A small number of the awards were also handed out by a judging panel, which included Carrie-Ann Skinner (TStrategy Manager at the Good Housekeeping Institute), Jasmine Birtles (Founder of Moneymagpie), Matthew Evans (CEO of the Broadband Stakeholder Group), Tom Fellowes (Sale Director at Wavenet) and Rob Hilborn (Head of Strategy at Broadband Genie).

2017 Home Broadband Survey Awards

Best Broadband Provider
WINNER: Plusnet 74%
Virgin Media 72%
Sky Broadband 70%
EE 69%
BT 66%
TalkTalk 63%

Best Customer Care
WINNER: Plusnet 78%
Sky Broadband 74%
Virgin Media 72%
EE 71%
BT 66%
TalkTalk 64%

Most Reliable Broadband Provider
WINNER: Virgin Media 76%
Plusnet 75%
Sky Broadband 74%
BT 72%
EE 71%
TalkTalk 69%

Best Technical Support
WINNER: Plusnet 77%
Virgin Media 74%
Sky Broadband 74%
EE 72%
BT 68%
TalkTalk 66%

Best Value Provider
WINNER: Plusnet 77%
EE 75%
TalkTalk 73%
Sky Broadband 70%
Virgin Media 67%
BT 64%

Most Recommended Provider
WINNER: Plusnet 67%
Virgin Media 64%
Sky Broadband 58%
EE 52%
BT 49%
TalkTalk 41%

Most Trustworthy Provider
WINNER: Plusnet 76%
Sky Broadband 73%
EE 73%
Virgin Media 72%
BT 70%
TalkTalk 64%

Fastest Provider
WINNER: Virgin Media 65.78 Mb/s
Vodafone 35.14 Mb/s
BT 29.24 Mb/s
Plusnet 21.66 Mb/s
EE 18.2 Mb/s
TalkTalk 18.15 Mb/s
Sky Broadband 15.38 Mb/s

Customer Speed Satisfaction
WINNER: Virgin Media 81%
Plusnet 70%
BT 70%
Sky Broadband 69%
EE 67%
TalkTalk 66%

Judging Panel Awards

Best Budget Provider
WINNER: Origin Broadband

Best Bundled Provider
WINNER: Sky

Most Innovative Provider
WINNER: Hyperoptic

Best Streaming TV Service
WINNER: Netflix

Best Catch-up Service
WINNER: BBC iPlayer

It’s worth pointing out that surveys like the one above only tend to focus on the biggest broadband providers and sadly this often ignores smaller ISPs, many of which may be able to offer superior service quality and support. In other words, the results should always be taken with a pinch of salt. However it’s good to see that the panel of judges were at least able to recognise a couple of smaller providers.