Ofcom says mobile and broadband complaints are at record lows

Ofcom has reported that the number of complaints regarding mobile, broadband, landline, and pay-TV services in the UK are at a record low. The UK's telecoms regulator doesn’t resolve complaints, but regularly offers consumer advice and publishes league tables every quarter in an effort to help operators improve their services and performance.

With its latest figures, the regulator revealed that the broadband market had the most complaints across the wider telecoms sector, with an industry average of 11 per 100,000. This could possibly be due to an increase of people working from home and children attending school remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased peoples' reliance on high-quality broadband speeds and a decent connection in order to work and learn.

Fergal Farragher, Ofcom’s Consumer Protection Director said: “Complaints have fallen to a record low, and we expect providers to keep working to achieve the highest standards. If you’re unhappy with your provider, it’s worth shopping around. We’ve made it easier than ever to switch, and you could end up with better customer service as well saving money.”

According to the latest figures, providers TalkTalk and Shell Energy had the most complaints about their broadband service, while TalkTalk also generated the most complaints among the UK's landline providers. For mobile, the most complained about operators were iD Mobile, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile. Virgin Media was also the most complained about pay-TV provider.

According to Ofcom, the most common reason customers named for complaining was being unsatisfied with the way companies dealt with their original complaints.

The latest league table also showed that EE and Sky had the fewest broadband and landline complaints, with EE only responsible for four complaints out of 100,000. EE, Tesco Mobile and Sky had the fewest complaints in the mobile sector, and Sky was the least complained-about pay-TV provider.