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Survey Claims Half of UK ISP Users Suffer Broadband Problems

Tuesday, Mar 29th, 2022 (11:58 am) - Score 2,016
computer broadband technical problem uk

A new Which? survey of more than 3,903 UK broadband customers, which was conducted between December 2021 and January 2022 by Deltapoll, has claimed that 49% of respondents (ISP customers) had suffered some sort of service problem in the last 12 months (usually related to poor speeds and router problems).

According to the survey, the most common issue was “frequent signal drop-outs” (17%), with Plusnet’s customers complaining the most of this (20%). But the survey fails to clarify whether this is with reference to home WiFi or the broadband connection itself (consumers can’t always tell the difference).

The second most common issue was slow speeds (15%), which rises to 18% among both Sky Broadband and Virgin Media customers (the survey doesn’t provide a full table of comparative ISP results). The latter is interesting since Virgin Media is generally perceived as having some of the fastest speeds in the market, at least on a nationally available scale.

Finally, the third most common issue was “router trouble” (15%), which is apparently most common for Virgin Media customers (18%). But the survey makes no attempt to clarify what different types of “trouble” they mean, which is relevant because consumers could easily blame the router for faults that might be caused by other devices or services.

Summary of Additional Findings

➤ Service outages lasting more than 1 hour were reported by 12% of customers overall (15% on Virgin Media).

➤ 37% of respondents said they’d experienced customer service issues, but this also includes when price increases are perceived as a problem by consumers (when are they not perceived that way?).

➤ 17% of consumers said price increases had been an issue for them in the last 12 months, rising to 24% for Sky Broadband and 23% on Virgin Media.

➤ 10% found it difficult to contact their ISP.

We should point out that not every person has the necessary skills to correctly identity and diagnose the cause of connection issues, which tends to result in all such gripes being levelled at the broadband provider. As usual, take such surveys with a pinch of salt.

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
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Comments
14 Responses
  1. Avatar photo Mark says:

    And 99% could be avoided if the ISPs actually supplied decent equipment rather than the underpowered junk they give to save a few quid.

    I’ve used my own equipment for a long time now and very very rare have any issues now and on the rare occasion nothing a reboot doesn’t fix.

  2. Avatar photo Anthony Goodman says:

    So the underlying point of this survey is; Get everyone onto FTTP as soon as possible… vDSL and aDSL are just too ripe for problems.

    1. Avatar photo Paul says:

      Shouldn’t ADSL be banned from new sales? I’m still seeing people ordering ‘NowBroadbandADSL’ for 18 quid. This could be easily avoided where a better technology exists (FTTC/P)

      Do Plusnet have a disproportionate number of ADSL users? Is it possible to have ADSLMAX package speeds provisioned on FTTP circuits ie 24 Download + 2 Upload ?

      Maybe they could re-provision to FTTP to stabilise the line and then bombard the customer with oh-so-tempting speed upgrades afterwards?

    2. Mark-Jackson Mark Jackson says:

      It’s worth considering that there are areas where ADSL2+ runs faster than VDSL2 (FTTC) – since ADSL2+ is from the exchange and VDSL2 the cabinet. Plus, removal would not help areas where ADSL is the only option. Likewise, for some providers the cheapest package is still an ADSL2+ service, which has relevance if you’re only a basic internet user.

    3. Avatar photo Mel says:

      @Paul

      Possibly the high Plusnet drop-out figure was due to the long standing 5ghz wifi issue with the “Hub One” router they used to supply. They apparently finished rolling out a firmware fix mid December 2021, and the survey was in Dec to Jan, while the issue would still be fresh in their customers’ minds:- https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Hub-One-5GHz-WiFi-issue/td-p/1696363/page/192

      It would not surprise me if many of these issues will be wifi related.

  3. Avatar photo Darc says:

    I have often wished that the ISP’s would offer a range of routers or even just a low end and high end model for extra ££. Thing is most people don’t know enough to buy and install something better, but if the ISP said this higher end router would be better they would probably spend the extra money.

    I’ve lost count of amount of friends I have seen change ISP’s to get better service when it was just the junk router the ISP provided that was the issue not the internet connection.

    Just from a customer retention point of view, surely it would be better to have an option other than the junk they provide by default

  4. Avatar photo Richard Branston says:

    Virgin’s reliability is truly dreadful.

    They have invested in a “real speed” monitor by SamKnows that measures the service from the network to the router, and from the router to a connected device. It’s therefore clear cut when there’s a problem if it’s the network connection or a Wi-Fi connection.

    In our case “real speed” has shown total disconnects / downtime running into 5 weeks out of 16 months of service. Slow speeds (which according to Virgin can be <1Mbps on upload and download without them needing to pay compensation) runs to around 4.5 months on a 16 month rolling basis.

  5. Avatar photo thehawk says:

    Please take into consideration to demographic covered by ‘Which Readers’. My Father-in-law for example. Most of his broadband and wifi problems are caused by his own actions. for example, he moaned for ages about his broadband being slow. When I went over to his house to have a look I discovered he’d ‘accidentally’ turned the wifi off on his mobile phone.

  6. Avatar photo Mike says:

    Half of users are the problem.

  7. Avatar photo s7eve says:

    As said usually it is ADSL customers or indeed fttc on provider routers that if taken in the context they are are sufficient but the survey was in the lockdown and working at home time and the amount of customers you tell to get on to at least fttc for literally a pound a week and they complain yet want to run a house of 5 people and 30 devices on ADSL is crazy… Seen them using over 2tb a MTH and moaning because they get some lag… 2 X consoles TVs phones tablets laptops… Etc etc only so many cars you can fit down a road unless you get on a motorway and you get more is the best way to explain to them…and regards supplying better routers yes that’s an option but they won’t wanna pay an extra 5 quid to cover it…can’t win… Virgins usually decent…half the folk complain as they don’t realise most smart devices won’t run 5ghz too…something not explained better by all providers..

  8. Avatar photo CarlT says:

    So 88% of customers haven’t had an outage of over an hour in I presume a year. That’s pretty impressive reliability.

    The gold and required standard for old school telephones was 99.999% availability – less than 6 minutes outage per year. If people are seeing 4 9s that’s outstanding.

    85% are content with their speeds. Given many will be using WiFi that’s great.

    90% do not find it difficult to contact their ISP: excellent.

    Strange how different these numbers look when you flip them around, isn’t it?

  9. Avatar photo MilesT says:

    I ordered NowBroadbandADSL for my mothers house at £18.

    Purely as at the time the line rental plus anytime call package including international was competitive and simplified to one bill. Internet/WiFi was a bonus for me when I visited. No FTTP, and fairly slow max speed on FTTC smallish Norfolk market town, low down the list for mass FTTP rollout although new housing estates are getting Openreach FTTP by default.

    NowBroadband have just worsened the international part of the Anytime call package (raised all the 2p pm countries to standard tarriff) but held the price otherwise.

    Was not forced into VoIP.

  10. Avatar photo Markdvdman says:

    I moved onto Sky FTTP when it was first available a few months ago – now on the 500/70 service after starting on the slower 150/30.

    I used to have dropouts on FTTC but never had one dropout on FTTP! Mind you a powercut has not come so that would cause one but best thing I ever did!

    As for these surveys, the amount of people saying the internet was not working when it was a coverage thing is beyond me!!!

  11. Avatar photo Mark Embleton says:

    Should point out that FTTP throughput issues are common on some ISP, eg: Sky broadband FTTP has an issue with throughput speed issues and because it is full-fibre the ISP don’t believe those suffering from these issues count! It is not helped by Ofcom using terms like live sync speed and accepting ISPs information that a sync speed with the DSLAM or whatever, and that a full-fibre just passes the maximum speed and the customer has purchased and not a test of speed to good headend infrastructure is what Ofcom mean when talking about minimum guaranteed speed.

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