Posted: 03rd Jan, 2012 By: MarkJ

The results from 880 respondents to our latest monthly survey has revealed that
over a third plan to switch ISP in 2012 (up from 31% in Jan 2011) and 35.6% remain undecided.
Furthermore 55.4% of respondents claimed to be "
happy" with their current broadband Internet Service Provider (unchanged from 2011), although the
old problem areas of service speed and reliability remain.
Do you pay more for broadband now than a year ago?
No - 51.2%
Yes - 43.3%
Don't know - 5.4%
Are you happy with your current ISP?
Yes - 55.4% [unchanged from one year ago]
No - 44.5%
Which aspect of your ISP makes you least happy?
Service Speeds - 37.1%
Support / Service Reliability - 19.3%
None / Not Applicable - 16.6%
High Prices - 16.5%
Service Restrictions (fup) - 10.2%
Do you plan to swap ISP in 2012?
Maybe - 35.6%
Yes - 34.1% [up from 31% a year ago]
No - 30.1%
It's no surprise to see that consumers are still least happy with their broadband ISP speeds and that over a third plan to swap provider during this year. The good news is that a new generation of superfast broadband services have finally begun to take hold, which offer faster speeds and greater reliability than current generation services.
As a result we predict that price, coverage and support quality will thus become key battlefields for the new generation of superfast broadband services.
Stricter rules from Ofcom (
here) and the Advertising Standards Authority (
here) are also working to make ISPs more honest about the capabilities of their services, which should hopefully result in happier consumers as concerns over speed and reliability slowly begin to subside.
Separately, this month's new survey asks
how important is broadband to your home life and what kind of REAL / minimum speed would you look for when buying a new home?
Vote Here.