Quality of UK broadband services falling

A broadband consumer survey has highlighted growing dissatisfaction among UK surfers

UK consumers are increasingly unhappy with the broadband internet services they receive from ISPs, research reported today.

Point Topic's latest BroadBand User Consumer Survey highlighted growing dissatisfaction among UK surfers.

"The change since our last survey is striking. Within 10 months the satisfaction levels have declined significantly," said Dr Katja Mueller, research director at Point Topic.

"Some 92 per cent of respondents in February 2006 said they were 'very' or 'fairly' satisfied with the service they receive, but this had dropped to 77 per cent in December 2006."

The analyst firm quizzed respondents about speed of service, billing clarity and value for money.

Of particular note was the change in users who reported being 'very' or 'fairly' dissatisfied with 'after sales support', which rose from seven per cent in February 2006 to 18.3 per cent in December 2006.

"This suggests that many ISPs are focusing on the rush to gain market share in a rapidly consolidating market at the expense of customer service. In the long run they may pay dearly for this neglect," said Dr Mueller.

Point Topic believes that customer churn will be a major factor in the consumer broadband market in 2007.

Ofcom introduced General Condition 22 on 14 February which requires all ISPs to use the Mac (Migrations Authorisation Code) process if they receive a migration request from a customer.

The use of the Mac numbers, which speed up the procedure of changing broadband supplier, and consumers' increasing familiarity with the process, suggests that users are more likely to swap ISP if they are unhappy with their service for too long.

"With 25 per cent of respondents telling us that they were ready to switch supplier, ISPs may have their work cut out trying to keep hold of their hard won customers," said Dr Mueller.

The poll was conducted for Point Topic by YouGov and Ipsos MORI in December 2006 with over 5,000 respondents.