Broadband providers 'must offer more support'

Broadband providers 'must offer more support'

Almost a third of British broadband users want their network providers to offer better customer support when things go wrong, according to a poll.

The issue topped the list of complaints in a survey of 3,345 broadband users quizzed by ISPreview, with 30.1 per cent naming support as the aspect of service they were least happy with. The factor just beat reliability, which 30 per cent said was the biggest problem, followed by broadband speed which 18.7 per cent highlighted as their major issue with their service.

Users also pinpointed problems with the cost of their broadband, with one in 10 unhappy with how much they were paying, and 4.1 per cent complained about restrictions on the use of their service. However, almost seven per cent of those polled said there were no aspects of their service that they were unhappy with.

The researchers found that the picture had changed dramatically in the 12 months since the survey was last carried out. At the end of 2012, slow broadband speeds were customers’ major gripe, with four in 10 choosing this as the major failing in their service. A year ago, customer support was a problem for only 7.1 per cent of the survey.

The differing priorities could be due to an improvement in broadband speeds during 2013, which saw a further roll-out of the Government’s BDUK programme to bring superfast connections to more businesses and homes. During the year, additional fibre services were installed and 4G mobile phone services were launched to cope with the explosion in demand by smartphone internet surfers.

The changes during 2013 allowed businesses and home consumers to upgrade and use the first of the next generation of faster broadband speeds.

In addition, the year also saw a number of difficulties including bad weather, technical problems and issues such as a rise in cable thefts which could account for the high placing of customer service woes in the latest report.

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(Image: Kings Sutton)