Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, says that People are paying substantial sums for their broadband and still getting patchy internet service and lacklustre connection speeds. Since April last year there has been a 27 per cent jump in the number of people coming in to seek help about internet and broadband issues.
People living in rural areas can find unreliable internet a particular struggle. It is vital that value for money with internet costs is not an urban luxury so that everyone can freely access the online market. Some users are finding that while they are paying for superfast broadband speeds they are getting something which is only marginally faster than dial-up.
Ofcom's latest report on complaints in the broadband industry named Orange/EE as the most complained about provider between July and September 2013, for the fifth consecutive quarter. The service has received double the average number of complaints from users, standing at 0.45 complaints per 1,000 customers, up from 0.32 the previous quarter. BT was the second most complained about broadband provider, again showing a significant rise over the previous quarter.