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Sky scored the highest for
overall satisfaction

Sky is top of the ISP pops

Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

Sky Broadband has come top in all the satisfaction categories of a new broadband satisfaction survey (16-09-08).

The BroadbandChoices.co.uk survey to find the UK’s favourite ISP is conducted every six months in conjunction with Point Topic, asking households to rate their provider in the following categories:

"ISPs should be competing fiercely not only to acquire customers but also to keep them happy"
  • Quality & stability of your home internet service
  • The clarity of pricing & billing
  • Good value for money
  • Download time of files & web pages
  • After sales support
  • Speed of service activation

Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com) was voted the best overall provider, coming top in all six categories; TalkTalk (www.TalkTalk.co.uk) came second, while cable provider Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) took third place.

However, Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, said that the statistics showed that the satisfaction gap had widened. “An area that does concern me is the increase in the satisfaction gap,” he said. “ISPs should be competing fiercely not only to acquire customers but also to keep them happy and that means a better service across the board. Over the past six months our survey shows that the gap between the top ISP and bottom ISP in each category is getting bigger - so whilst some companies are clearly improving their satisfaction ratings, others are falling further behind.

“The low scores that we see for after sales support, when compared to other categories, demonstrates for the second time running that customers feel neglected after they have signed on the dotted line,” he added.

He was also surprised to see that despite the ongoing credit crunch, customers didn’t feel they were getting less value for money, and noted that the difference in the “value for money” category was less than one per cent between February and July 2008.

“However, households can still save money,” he explained. “ISPs announce new deals all the time and any household that hasn’t looked at what else is on offer for a year or more may find that they can make significant savings on their annual cost of broadband if they switch broadband to another provider. Our research has shown that users can save an average of £150 per year if they switch to a new package or provider through our website.”

Phillips also gave a special mention to O2 (www.O2.co.uk) which, although its sample size was too small to be included in the survey, scored an impressive 94 per cent for fairly/very satisfied in “overall quality and reliability”, and 79 per cent for “after sales support” - 12 per cent more than Sky Broadband.

Related article - Cheap broadband.

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4 people have commented on Sky is top of the ISP pops.

  1. I've been with SKY for just under 2 years now and must have one of the best download speeds. I get a constant 12mb/s, and I am on the broadband max package. I have never had any problems with customer support, who have done everything possible to help when I have contacted them. Broadband choices speed tester says that I am getting 9.1mb/s, but other speed testers say I'm getting 11mb/s. When you do a test it depends on the time of the day that you conduct it that matters because if you do it in the evening you will get poor results, however if you do it after midnight you get much better speeds. I use a speed tester that allows you to try different locations to for your tests allowing you to find the best results, so you know which countries and the best times to download. As for sky removing the fair usage policy on their max package I say well done, although it should apply to all packages.
    - Neil Mooney, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Nov 16 2008 3:44AMPost a comment | Report Abuse
     
  2. I agree with Alan Higham's comment. Why hasn't the full 'league table' been published?

    What are we to believe in these various surveys? Looking at the recently published and very comprehensive Which? survey of ISPs, Sky was rated overall as 14th in their league table of 26 ISPs...! It is hardly surprising that Sky is now basing it's commercial advertising on the results of the Broadband Choices survey.
    - Robert Wellbeloved, Winchester UK, Oct 20 2008 8:57AMPost a comment | Report Abuse
     
  3. Hi, where are the survey results? Other than the 123 result I cannot find them - is it me? How many users were sampled? How many providers were commented on?
    - Alan Higham, UK, Oct 5 2008 7:32PMPost a comment | Report Abuse
     
  4. I have been with sky for six months and am generally well satisfied.However, my home page is stuck on msn.co.uk which I did not ask for and do not want.Repeated attempts to change have failed. How can rid myself of msn?
    - Bernard Robert Wright, Leicester, Oct 5 2008 11:22AMPost a comment | Report Abuse
     
 
 
Page Last Updated: Thursday, 9-Oct-08