Ofcom reveals league table of the worst broadband providers

1 week ago 24
The Ofcom logo next to a woman looking at her phone confused Ofcom has published new figures (Image credit: Ofcom / Shuttertock / Fizkes)

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  • Ofcom has published statistics on complaints it's received for Q2 2026
  • The categories covered are broadband, landline, mobile, and pay-TV
  • Complaints overall are down on the previous quarter, due to pay-TV

The Ofcom complaints statistics are in for the second quarter of 2026 (April to June), and some landline, broadband, mobile, and pay-TV providers have fared better than others. Overall, complaint numbers are down from the previous quarter, due to fewer being filed for pay-TV services.

You can check out a fuller list of figures collected by the UK communications services regulator on its website. The calculations are made based on the number of complaints per 100,000 subscribers, so it's worked out as a fraction of the customer base.

The broadband providers topping the complaints table this quarter are EE (up from last quarter), BT (the same), TalkTalk (down), and Vodafone (also down from last quarter). The least number of complaints as far as broadband goes were Plusnet, Sky, and Virgin Media. You can see the full results below.

Two tables showing Ofcom's broadband report results

(Image credit: Ofcom)

However, Plusnet was the most complained-about provider for landlines — with most of the complaints concerning how it handled complaints. Sky, Utility Warehouse, Virgin Media, and Vodafone recorded the fewest landline complaints.

Mobile and pay-TV

A mobile phone with the Virgin Media logo on the screen is held up in someone's hands front of some blue lights

Virgin Media customers had quite a bit to complain about (Image credit: Virgin Media)

For mobile, the most complaints were received about O2 (mainly regarding faults, service, and connections) and Sky Mobile (mainly regarding changing providers). EE, Giffgaff, Tesco Mobile, Three, Vodafone, and iD Mobile registered the fewest complaints for mobile.

In the pay-TV category, EE and Virgin Media got the most complaints (four and three complaints per hundred thousand subscribers, respectively), while the least went to TalkTalk (just 0.2 complaints per 100,000 subscribers).

Two Ofcom tables on a blue background showing surveys of mobile network companies

(Image credit: Ofcom)

The statistics as a whole make for interesting reading too. Of the four categories, broadband providers attracted the most complaints — an average of six complaints per 100,000 subscribers across all the providers.

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Ofcom doesn't handle these complaints itself, but does set down rules that providers have to abide by. "Although Ofcom cannot help with individual customer complaints, by publishing these figures we can help customers to choose the providers and services that best suit their needs," says the regulator.


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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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