The ISPs we couldn’t help complaining about in 2025

It’s human nature to take things for granted until they’re suddenly affected or diminished.

We rarely appreciate good health until the inevitable early-spring surge in respiratory viruses sees many of us cursing our immune systems and stocking up on cold remedies.

Cars are unappreciated until they break down, boilers are neglected until the pilot light goes out, and we’ve previously written about how warning lights on routers are roundly ignored.

Similarly, broadband customers rarely write glowing reviews of a dependable ISP, yet they’re far quicker to criticise broadband firms which get things wrong.

Regrettably, outages and technical failures are part and parcel of home internet provision, from criminals stealing copper cabling through to unplanned emergency network repairs.

However, not all ISP complaints are unavoidable byproducts of infrastructure issues.

Sometimes, companies are just really poor at communicating – with customers, between internal departments, or in general.

It’s entirely reasonable to lodge a complaint if a customer service agent is rude or patronising, billing teams get every monthly statement wrong, or supplied hardware keeps failing.

If ISP complaints aren’t achieving anything, one recourse is to lodge a complaint with your ISP’s chosen alternative dispute resolution service – CISAS or Communications Ombudsman.

Although industry regulator Ofcom can’t assist with individual complaints, it still records every missive it receives and may step in if enough people are expressing the same concerns.

Ofcom publishes quarterly statistics on which ISPs have attracted the most ire, though this process usually runs around five months in arrears.

The figures for Q3 2025 were recently released, and some familiar brands found themselves in the firing line…

Main offenders

ISP complaints are recorded per 100,000 ISP customers, ensuring figures are directly comparable regardless of each company’s size and customer base.

Only ISPs with at least 1.5 per cent of the UK home broadband market are included, so you’re unlikely to find regional suppliers like Grain or KCOM in the list.

Overall, the industry average fell from 10 complaints per 100,000 customers in Q1 2025 to 8 in Q3, which is an encouraging trend.

Plusnet continued their previously strong performance with only four complaints per 100,000 subscribers, while BT saw its share of complaints fall below the industry average.

NOW Broadband didn’t even receive enough complaints for figures to be calculated, and parent group Sky continued their excellent form as one of the least complained about ISPs.

There was less to celebrate among EE, TalkTalk and Vodafone, all of whom recorded 10 complaints per 100,000 customers.

EE’s pay TV amenities were also the worst performing among ISPs who additionally offer TV content, while TalkTalk attracted the most complaints about fixed line phone services.

Sky performed extremely well in both areas, while Virgin Media showed encouraging signs of improvements after some disappointing scores in previous quarters.

Should I let this influence my choice of broadband provider?

If you’re currently out of contract and have no great loyalty to your existing provider, the level of complaints attracted by potential ISPs should certainly be considered.

However, if one customer in 10,000 writes to Ofcom to air their grievances, it means 9,999 other people didn’t have sufficient reason to lodge a complaint with the regulator.

Those are highly favourable odds, especially when you consider how indispensable home broadband has become.

Pricing and line speed are more significant factors than historic ISP complaints, particularly as there was little consistency in the specific reasons people wrote to Ofcom.