topic Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an) in Broadband & Landline

The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

LordMatt — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 23:13:59 GMT

The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints, according to the Indie, include EE. I am not surprised.

EE, TalkTalk, and Vodafone were named as Britain's most complained-about broadband providers, according to the latest figures from the communications watchdog Ofcom.

The article says that broadband complaints were particularly focused on EE, which feels about right.

When my contract is up, who should I switch to?

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

XRaySpeX — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:55:07 GMT

@LordMatt : Sure! More users > more complaints!

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

Northerner — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 09:28:21 GMT

Hi @LordMatt

People moan but as soon as they are offered a few £ off their bill they stay and still moan because the issue remains. Switching is easy and if you use cashback and similar sites can be beneficial.

Many complaints on here are about the expectations around the free router but I just don't understand why there is not a discounted service with no router for those who own their own. Similar to SIM only without the phone.

As @XRaySpeX says the more services offered and bigger customer bases will result in more complaints.

Thanks

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

JimM11 — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 09:52:32 GMT

@LordMatt Been on a few, EE service was fine, Hub let it down at that time was the EE Smart Hub 6 Plus, Sky no issues service no problems old SR203 hub worked fine, customer service could/did not hold up there end of a bargain so quit and left them, now on Vodafone, FF connection no issues, power hub not worth a button but it is an ISP supplied hub, so it's back in the box, VF lost the landline phone connection transferring it from sky, so have just given up on it now been 3 months and not worth the bother any more.... All the ISP's have some customer complaints of sort's none are immune.

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

Chris_B — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 10:43:40 GMT

@LordMatt I’ve been a EE BB customer for getting on now around 7 years and I’ve not had one reason to complain. You can take a lot of these complaints as WiFi issues and that’s not in EE control because EE didn’t place the router in a location that’s not ideal so causing WiFi problems.

And there’s nothing in that link to actually say what the complaints are about which in itself is very misleading because I can bet there’s loads about poor WiFi connectivity.

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

Schockwave — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:07:38 GMT

Well, I have been an EE, previously Orange broadband customer for around 30 years and have never had to complain either, although we did have broadband down for around 4 four weeks when I was an Orange customer, but then that was a whole area, not EE’s fault, but Open Reach had to do a cable repair, which caused the problem, was given more internet to use on my mobile instead if needed and compensated, when all sorted. Oh and it did not just affect Orange/EE, but also other broadband networks, who use Open Reach!

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

JimM11 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 14:21:06 GMT

@Schockwave Nostalgia and taking you back, loss of Internet for one day is now a complete disaster never mind close to a 4 week stint, problems are no longer allowed to occur, all diggers etc should be banned from causing any issue's the last one here when copper, few off the lines got mixed up and neighbours were running back and forth relaying messages, for the correct numbers which were to the wrong homes, typical your aunty jessie called but she did not recognise me, let me pass on the message and get the call back to you, it will be a different number as Mark has mine, and i have his, by the way i am John not sure how long this is going to take but it will get fixed somehow.....

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

LordMatt — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 22:34:10 GMT

It is very nice for you that you have never had an issue. I program web servers as a job, so trust me when I say this is not a WiFi issue. My computer has a gigabit Ethernet connection to the hub. WiFi is not part of the chain between me and the wider world.

The bottleneck is very much a hardware issue. Not counting the time EE pushed an update that bricked thousands of their routers. That one hit me too.

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

LordMatt — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 22:35:35 GMT

I'm happy for you that your connection has been problem free. I've upgraded twice because bother times they said it would by-pass the problem. The fault is almost certainly either the roadside box or the LLU.

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

LordMatt — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 22:36:44 GMT

That's depressing

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

XRaySpeX — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 22:46:18 GMT

EE no longer LLU's. It did, as Orange, until about 2011 but is now WBC. I doubt LLU is relevant today.

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

JimM11 — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 05:30:04 GMT

@LordMatt Have you ever considered just getting your own router to match whatever connection type you need, that way you will have control over a third party device regarding updates to it.

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

Schockwave — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 12:45:58 GMT

@JimM11 , I agree with you, I have Netgear, so easy to set up, and if you buy an extender, do it via the website you can then decide whether you want to separate the 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ or get them to use the same as your router. Because I use it for my ring doorbell, I have it so that I can either set it up as 2.4 or 5 GHZ, so use 2.4GHZZ, but can also set up to use 5GHZ, easy when you know how, and the app is very good too.

Of course if someone wants to use EE TV, then they have to use EE’s router, but I do not need it.

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

JimM11 — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 12:53:58 GMT

@Schockwave Yes way to do it, Asus XT8 tri band all separated, one 2.4Ghz, one 5Ghz 80Mhz wide and the other 5Ghz on 160Mhz with all the Ai mesh hanging on the last as High speed and mesh Wireless backhaul. Asus works well separate or combined, just wish i could say the same about device connection's when combined, devices just have a mind off there own at times, so far easier to split and connect what you want and where you want....

Had it on copper 40/10 split and now the FF500, not an EE user anymore.

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

Richardr66 — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 17:56:50 GMT

I'd be sceptical of the numbers in the report.

Firstly, more up to date numbers are at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms-and-pay-tv-complaints where EE is closer to average.

Secondly, the numbers are those who for whatever reason have contacted OFCOM directly. This is a very small number of complaints, most of which are dealt with by the provider, i.e. EE, or if not the ombudsman scheme EE use. There is also no weighting for seriousness of the complaint.

Re: The UK broadband providers that attracted the most complaints (EE, TalkTalk, an)

Richardr66 — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:17:42 GMT

For what it is worth, and I don't think it is worth a great deal as before, OFCOM have updated these numbers today for the 1st quarter of 2026. For reasons best known to themselves, they have changed the URL to:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/service-quality/telecoms-and-pay-tv-complaints

EE remains in the middle for broadband, level with Virgin Media, and not far behind Sky, their two main rivals.