Ofcom Reveals UK's Least Favorite TelcosOfcom Reveals UK's Least Favorite Telcos

encourage competition, by letting consumers know about the individual performance of providers;

be useful for consumers: alongside other things, this data may be relevant to those considering a new service or provider; and

incentivise telecoms providers to improve their performance. In addition to information about telecoms complaints, consumers may wish to consider a range of information when thinking about a communications service, such as price and network quality of service.

For example, Ofcom accredits price comparison websites and also publishes information about broadband speeds.

Complaints about telecoms providers
Ofcom has spent a considerable amount of time ensuring that the data is categorised and presented in a reliable form, although it is subject to limitations as detailed in the report.

Ofcom’s telecoms complaints report focuses on providers with a 5 per cent market share or more (covering at least 87 per cent of the relevant telecoms market) and looks at all telecoms complaints about these landline, broadband and mobile providers.

For landline and broadband services, this report looks at BT Retail, BSkyB, TalkTalk Group and Virgin Media. For mobile services, it looks at 3UK, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

The number of complaints is published as a proportion of each provider’s customer base. This enables consumers to compare providers on a level playing field.

The data published today is from October 2010 to February 2011 and Ofcom intends to publish reports on a quarterly basis. Ofcom also intends to publish more detailed data and for a larger number of providers in future reports.

Landline services
Ofcom’s data indicates that across landline providers with a market share of 5 per cent or above, it received the most complaints about TalkTalk Group with 1.78 complaints per 1000 customers from October 2010 to February 2011. Ofcom saw a peak in complaints about TalkTalk Group in November 2010, following its investigation into the company for incorrectly billing consumers for cancelled services.The least complained about provider over the same period was Virgin Media with 0.21 complaints per 1000 customers.

Broadband services
Ofcom’s data indicates that across fixed broadband providers with a market share of 5 per cent or above, it received the most complaints about TalkTalk Group with 1.27 complaints per 1000 customers from October 2010 to February 2011. Ofcom saw a peak in complaints about TalkTalk Group in November 2010, following its investigation into the company for billing consumers for cancelled services.The least complained about provider was Virgin Media with 0.20 complaints per 1000 customers.

Mobile services
Ofcom’s data indicates that across mobile providers with a market share of 5 per cent or above, it receives the most complaints about 3UK with 0.15 complaints per 1000 customers from October 2010 to February 2011.

The least complained about provider was O2 with 0.04 complaints per 1000 customers.

Ofcom