21 March 2007
We asked Watchdog viewers to rate their broadband provider on customer service, ease of set-up, cancellation, value for money, and reliability of service. The results aren't presented as a scientific statistical survey, but a unique snapshot of the personal opinions of the 50,000 viewers who chose to take part. As such, it isn't intended to represent the views of Watchdog or the BBC's view of any of the companies, or their current performance.
For the purposes of this survey, Virgin, NTL and Telewest were treated separately, as the companies had only just merged and it was too early to assess the new company's performance.
Our overall ranking is based on the total volume of votes cast, meaning the companies that came out best and worst are shown in tables one and two.
Respondents were asked whether they were either: extremely unsatisfied (1), unsatisfied (2), satisfied (3) or extremely satisfied (4).
TABLE 1 - THE BEST BROADBAND PROVIDERS
This table lists - in order of the total number of votes cast - the companies that, overall, viewers who took part in the survey were most happy with. It was calculated by adding together the 'satisfied' and 'extremely satisfied' ratings in each of the five categories. This total is the number listed after each company's name.
| Based on sum of 3s & 4s (satisfied, extremely satisfied)
|
| 1. BT - 18,862 |
| 2. Virgin - 17,881 |
| 3. AOL Europe -16,977 |
| 4. Tiscali - 11,973 |
| 5. TalkTalk -10,802 |
| 6. NTL - 10,399 |
| 7. Orange - 9,036 |
| 8. Telewest - 8,062 |
| 9. Sky - 6,202 |
| 10. Pipex - 5,772 |
| 11. Plusnet - 5,014 |
| 12. Zen - 4,742 |
| 13. Eclipse - 2,781 |
| 14. Demon - 2,515 |
| 15. Tesco - 2,216 |
| 16. Freedom2Surf - 2,160 |
| 17. Madasafish - 2,031 |
| 18. Nildram - 1,619 |
| 19. Waitrose - 1,308 |
| 20. Bulldog - 1,162 |
| 21. Supanet - 1,131 |
| 22. UK_Online - 987 |
| 23. ToucanSurf - 895 |
| 24. One.Tel - 585 |
| 25. Homecall - 528 |
| 26. Force 9 - 518 |
| 27. Metronet - 426 |
| 28. Biscit - 258 |
| 29. Global - 166 |
TABLE 2 - THE WORST BROADBAND PROVIDERS
This table lists - in order of the total number of votes cast - the companies that, overall, viewers who took part in the survey were least happy with. It was calculated by adding together the 'extremely unsatisfied' and 'unsatisfied' ratings in each of the five categories. This total is the number listed after each company's name.
| Based on sum of 1s & 2s
(extremely unsatisfied, unsatisfied) |
| 1. Orange - 12,313 |
| 2. TalkTalk - 11,944 |
| 3. BT - 10,669 |
| 4. Tiscali - 10,412 |
| 5. AOL Europe - 7,500 |
| 6. Sky - 6,525 |
| 7. Virgin - 6,306 |
| 8. Pipex - 4,083 |
| 9. NTL - 3,753 |
| 10. Plusnet - 2,109 |
| 11. Bulldog - 1985 |
| 12. Telewest - 1373 |
| 13. Biscit - 883 |
| 14. Eclipse - 869 |
| 15. ToucanSurf - 811 |
| 16. Demon - 738 |
| 17. Tesco - 555 |
| 18. Freedom2Surf - 469 |
| 19. UK_Online - 432 |
| 20. Supanet - 431 |
| 21. Zen - 371 |
| 22. Homecall - 326 |
| 23. One.Tel - 305 |
| 24. Force 9 - 229 |
| 25. Nildram - 256 |
| 26. Madasafish - 190 |
| 27. Waitrose - 80 |
| 28. Metronet - 47 |
| 29. Global - 8 |
TABLE 3 - PROPORTIONAL DISSATISFACTION RANKING
Our main results have been calculated according to the number of votes cast, as this gives a more complete picture of viewers' opinions. However, it's clear that some of the smaller, lesser known companies provoked a very definite response, so we've also included here a proportional ranking.
This table lists all of the companies surveyed according to the proportion of 'extremely unsatisfied' or 'unsatisfied' votes. The total number of these 'dissatisfied' votes for each company was worked out as a percentage of the total number of people who responded about that company. The companies are listed in order of dissatisfaction.
| Votes for 1s and 2s as percentage of total votes for that company
|
| 1. Biscit - 77% |
| 2. Bulldog - 63% |
| 3. Orange - 58% |
| 4. TalkTalk - 53% |
| 5. Sky - 51% |
| 6. ToucanSurf -48% |
| 7. Tiscali - 47% |
| 8. Pipex - 41% |
| 9. Homecall - 38% |
| 10. BT - 36% |
| 11. One_Tel - 34% |
| 12= AOL_Europe - 31% |
| 12= Force 9 - 31% |
| 14= Plusnet - 30% |
| 14= UK_Online - 30% |
| 16. Supanet - 28% |
| 17. NTL - 27% |
| 18. Virgin - 26% |
| 19. Eclipse - 24% |
| 20. Demon - 23% |
| 21. Tesco - 20% |
| 22. Freedom2Surf - 18% |
| 23. Telewest - 15% |
| 24. Nildram - 14% |
| 25. Metronet - 10% |
| 26. Madasafish - 9% |
| 27. Zen - 7% |
| 28. Waitrose - 6% |
| 29. Global - 5% |
TABLE 4 - PROPORTIONAL SATISFACTION RANKING
This table lists all of the companies surveyed according to the proportion of 'satisfied' or 'extremely satisfied' votes. The total number of these 'satisfied' votes for each company was worked out as a percentage of the total number of people who responded about that company. The companies are listed in order of satisfaction.
| Votes for 3s and 4s as percentage of total votes for that company |
| 1. Global - 95% |
| 2. Waitrose - 94% |
| 3. Zen - 93% |
| 4. Madasafish - 91% |
| 5. Metronet - 90% |
| 6. Nildram - 86% |
| 7. Telewest - 85% |
| 8. Freedom2Surf - 82% |
| 9. Tesco - 80% |
| 10. Demon - 77% |
| 11. Eclipse - 76% |
| 12. Virgin - 74% |
| 13. NTL - 73% |
| 14. Supanet - 72% |
| 15= Plusnet - 70% |
| 15= UK_Online - 70% |
| 17= AOL_Europe - 69% |
| 17= Force 9 - 69% |
| 19. One.Tel - 66% |
| 20. BT - 64% |
| 21. Homecall - 62% |
| 22. Pipex - 59% |
| 23. Tiscali - 53% |
| 24. ToucanSurf - 52% |
| 25. Sky - 49% |
| 26. TalkTalk - 47% |
| 27. Orange - 42% |
| 28. Bulldog - 37% |
| 29. Biscit - 23% |
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