- Best and worst telecoms customer service for mobile, broadband and landline revealed
- Satisfaction with complaint handling increased significantly, but more customers had a reason to complain
- Average call waiting times fall for mobile firms, while smaller providers score highly with customers
New Ofcom research compares how the UK’s broadband, mobile and landline customers rate their providers for customer service – including call waiting times, complaint handling and overall satisfaction.
We have also seen signs that companies have improved the way they deal with complaints.
Customer satisfaction with complaints handling for mobile (61%), broadband (58%) and landline (60%) were all significantly higher in 2024 compared to 2022, when satisfaction levels were just above 50% for all three services. While these are positive steps, we must see providers continuing to improve.
However, despite increased overall satisfaction, the proportions of mobile and broadband customers who said they had a reason to complain were higher last year than in 2022 – at 14% (compared to 12%) and 23% (compared to 20%) respectively.
How the companies compare
Looking at mobile, smaller providers – those outside of the four major network operators, EE, O2, Three and Vodafone – included in the report scored highly in some areas, as well as for overall satisfaction.
Tesco Mobile and giffgaff customers had higher than average overall satisfaction scores (both 94%), while O2 and Vodafone customers were below average (85% and 84% respectively).
Tesco Mobile scored higher-than-average satisfaction with complaints handling (68%), while Three was lower than average (51%). Lebara [1], Tesco Mobile and giffgaff customers were also more likely than average to recommend their provider to a friend.
Across all providers, the average number of complaints made to Ofcom reduced in 2024. O2 generated the most complaints per 100,000 mobile customers (23), while Tesco Mobile generated the fewest (4).
Turning to broadband, Plusnet customers had a higher-than-average overall satisfaction score (91%), while for TalkTalk customers, overall satisfaction was lower than the average (77%).
EE ranked higher than average satisfaction with complaints handling (66%), along with Plusnet (65%) and Sky (63%), while TalkTalk (54%) and Virgin Media (53%) scored lower than average. In general, over eight in 10 (83%) broadband customers were satisfied with the speed of their service, this is line with the level of satisfaction in 2022, and nearly three quarters (73%) of standalone broadband customers were happy with the value for money of their package, an increase from 62% in 2022.
NOW Broadband generated the most broadband complaints to Ofcom per 100,000 customers (65), while Sky generated the fewest (21).
Finally, for landline, Plusnet customers had a higher-than-average overall satisfaction score (83%), and Virgin Media customers had a lower-than-average score (67%). Vodafone (67%) and Sky (65%) scored higher-than-average satisfaction with complaints handling.
On hold: call waiting times revealed
The average time it takes to get through to a customer service agent for mobile customers fell to 1 minute 52 seconds, down from 2 minutes 24 seconds in 2023 [2]. Six of the nine mobile providers included in the report reduced their average call waiting times during the year.
The industry average call waiting time for broadband and landline providers increased to 2min 1s in 2024, up 13 seconds from the 1min 48s average in 2023 [2]. However, five of the nine broadband and landline providers included in the report reduced their average waiting times.
Getting new services up and running
Across broadband and landline installations, orders took an average of 11 days to complete, an increase of one day from 2023. And only three quarters (73%) of all broadband and landline orders were delivered by the date agreed in 2024, down from eight in ten (80%) in 2023.
Vodafone completed the lowest proportion of orders by the date agreed, at 60%, while BT and EE each completed 69% of orders by the date agreed in 2024. In comparison Sky, TalkTalk and NOW Broadband all completed more than 90% of orders on time.
Compensation when things go wrong
Under Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme, broadband and landline customers of companies who have signed up the scheme are entitled to compensation for missed engineer appointments, delayed start dates for new services and lengthy outages.
In total, providers paid out over £63m to customers under the scheme in 2024, down from £67 million in 2023. This decrease indicates fewer things are going wrong for customers [4].
Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s Director of Market Intelligence, said: “It’s encouraging to see industry rally to our call to improve things for their customers.
“Call waiting times have come down for many providers and satisfaction with complaint handling is on the up. And we’re seeing competition in action, with smaller players challenging some of the bigger, well-established providers.
"But there’s further to go. Not all companies have made the same progress and it’s still taking the industry too long to fix things when they go wrong. Our rules have made it easier than ever to switch provider, so if companies don’t act they may find customers voting with their feet.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Lebara was included as a mobile provider across all three of our customer research trackers and average call waiting time and abandonment rate analysis for the first time this year, as the company had sufficient customers to merit inclusion and achieve a robust sample size.
- Due to changes in the providers included in the report, the industry average is not comparable with previous Comparing Customer Service reports.
- Ofcom’s previous Comparing Customer Service report was published in 2023, after which, we moved to biennial reporting. Following consultation, we also reduced the frequency of the three customer research trackers to every other year. Following the 2022 wave of our customer research trackers, we next conducted fieldwork in Q4 2024.
- According to Ofcom data, 97% of landline and 91% of broadband customers were with companies covered by the automatic compensation scheme in December 2024.