Survey Sez: Brits Want More Speed, Better Support

More than a third of U.K. broadband subscribers polled plan to switch ISPs sometime this year, and 36 percent are thinking about it. A new ISPreview.co.uk survey also found that more than half of respondents claimed to be "happy" with their current ISPs, even though many of their concerns still had not been addressed since the survey was taken a year ago.

When asked which aspect of their ISP “makes you least happy?," nearly 40 percent pointed to service speeds, and nearly 20 percent said service support/reliability. Others were frustrated by high prices and by the ISP practice of data throttling. Only 17 percent reported no major complaints. ?

And broadband costs are going up;  more than 40 percent of respondents said they were paying more for their plans than they did a year ago, but that could be due in part to a government Value Added Tax (VAT) hike that went from 17.5 percent to 20 percent. Upgrades to faster and more expensive superfast broadband packages have also played a part, albeit only a small one due to their limited coverage.? 

Says ISPreview.co.uk founder Mark Jackson, "The good news is that a new generation of superfast broadband services have finally begun to take hold, which offer faster speeds and greater reliability than current generation services. Meanwhile price, coverage and support quality will become key battlefields for the new generation of superfast broadband services.”?