Report: Complaints about broadband, landline, mobile and pay-TV services
As the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom receives complaints from customers about their landline, fixed broadband, pay-monthly mobile and pay-TV services.
To better understand the reasons for dissatisfaction among residential customers in our sectors, we compile that data and determine the number of complaints received by provider and by service. To compare the performance of providers, on a quarterly basis we publish the number of complaints that we received about them relative to the size of their customer bases (i.e. per 100,000 customers).
Overall trends
In the quarter from January to March (Q1 2022), complaints to Ofcom stayed broadly at the same level as last quarter (October to December 2021). Complaints about fixed broadband and pay-TV services increased slightly, while complaints about landline and pay-monthly mobile services remained the same.
- Shell Energy attracted the most broadband complaints per 100,000 customers, primarily due to faults, service and provisioning. EE and Sky attracted the fewest broadband complaints.
- Shell Energy was the most complained-about landline provider, with complaints mainly driven by faults, service and provisioning. EE attracted the fewest landline complaints.
- Virgin Mobile, BT Mobile and O2 were the most complained-about mobile providers. Customers were mainly unhappy with how their complaint had been handled. Sky, Tesco Mobile and EE attracted the fewest complaints in the mobile sector.
- Virgin Media generated the highest volume of pay-TV complaints; the main reason customers complained to Ofcom was complaints handling. Sky was the least complained-about pay-TV provider.
See below for information about the comparability of certain providers’ number of complaints. Our background and methodology document (PDF, 174.7 KB) goes into more detail.
Fixed broadband
How the providers ranked

Reasons for complaining

Landline
How the providers ranked

Reasons for complaining

Pay-monthly mobile
How the providers ranked

Reasons for complaining

Pay-TV
How the providers ranked

Reasons for complaining

Where the actual measurable difference between providers’ number of complaints per 100,000 customers is less than 1, we consider their results to be comparable. Within the following sectors, we consider the listed providers to be comparable:
Fixed broadband
- EE and Sky;
- BT and NOW Broadband; and
- Vodafone and TalkTalk.
Landline
- BT, NOW Broadband and Plusnet; and
- Plusnet and industry average.
Pay-monthly mobile
- Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile, EE and industry average;
- EE, industry average, Three and Vodafone;
- Industry average, Three, Vodafone, iD Mobile, O2 and BT Mobile; and
- O2, BT Mobile and Virgin Mobile.
Relative volume of complaints
The chart below shows the relative volume of complaints we have received for broadband, landline, pay-monthly mobile and pay-TV services. You can use the slider to filter by years.
Taking a year-on-year comparison, the relative volume of complaints for fixed broadband and pay-TV have increased slightly although the volumes remain low compared to previous years. The landline had a very slight increase (below one complaint per 100,000) while mobile pay-monthly has remained the same.
Overall complaints by sector
The chart below shows complaints for all providers in each of the four sectors.
Comparing different providers
To compare two or more providers' performance, select the service and then the providers you want to compare from the lists on the right.
Complaints by provider
Compare complaints for a provider across multiple sectors by using the options on the right.
More information
The underlying data is available in CSV format (CSV, 11.0 KB). We also include overall trend data for pay-as-you-go mobile complaints.
You can also read the report's background and methodology (PDF, 174.7 KB).
Older reports
- Telecoms and pay TV complaints Q4 2021 (PDF, 697.3 KB)
- Telecoms and pay TV complaints Q3 2021 (PDF, 1.3 MB)
- Telecoms and pay TV complaints Q2 2021 (PDF, 693.9 KB)
- Telecoms and pay TV complaints Q1 2021 (PDF, 1.3 MB)
Older reports are available on the National Archives.