The Top Reasons Why UK Consumers Stay with their Broadband ISP

A new survey of 1,000 broadband customers, conducted by Which?, has revealed that 40% had been with the same ISP for 10 years and only 15% had been with their provider for less than 2 years (likely to reflect recent switchers). The reasons for this tended to vary between users of BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and Virgin Media.

Sadly the survey only reveals partial results for each internet / TV provider and offers no information about its methodology or when the study itself took place, although there are still a few useful insights to be had even if it does only stem from a fairly small sample size.

Overall just 29% said they stuck with their current broadband ISP because they thought it was the best, while 26% stayed loyal because they feared that other providers might be worse and 25% felt their existing provider offered them the cheapest price.

The survey then looked at the top reasons for why consumers chose to stay with each of the markets biggest four broadband and TV providers. As you’d expect, there’s a lot of variation, although with only partial results it’s difficult to draw too many conclusions.

Top Reasons for Staying with an ISP

Virgin Media

37% of customers said they stay a customer because they feel their provider is the best.

BT

21% stayed because they felt loyal to BT.

TalkTalk

73% stayed with TalkTalk because they thought it offers the best price.

15% of customers say they stay a customer of the company because they feel it’s the best.

Sky Broadband

23% said they stayed a Sky customer simply because they like the company.

21% said they believe other providers will be worse than Sky.

9% said they felt loyal to Sky.

Interestingly the ISP with the longest standing customers of all was found to be Virgin Media, where 79% had been subscribed for more than 5 years. By comparison 23% of BT’s customers had been signed up for less than 2 years. We should add that Virgin Media is on a completely separate cable network (BT is on Openreach with lots of other ISPs), tends to receive fewer complaints than BT, has a better established TV platform and the fastest widely available service speeds.

Otherwise there was no surprise to find that price was the reason why most of TalkTalk’s customers stayed loyal, although it’s worth noting that they’re often battling rivals like Vodafone for the crown of cheapest national broadband provider. In some areas consumers may also be able to access cheaper FTTH providers, such as Hyperoptic. Sadly the above survey wasn’t big enough to consider the wider market picture.