Broadband users complain of price rises

♦ Price hikes and broadband speeds are a problem for up to three quarters of people who use major providers, Which? has found.

The watchdog polled more than 1,900 customers across 12 providers and the most common problems listed by the 56 per cent who reported issues included price hikes, poor speeds, connection dropouts and router issues.

Virgin Media customers were the most likely to have experienced a problem, with 73 per cent reporting some kind of difficulty in the last year, typically due to price. Some 62 per cent of Sky customers reported a problem, followed by 61 per cent of BT customers, Which? said.

Zen Internet achieved the lowest proportion of complaints, 25 per cent.

The most common complaint was around recent price increases, affecting one in five (22 per cent) of broadband customers. Virgin Media customers were twice as likely to have had a problem with price hikes (47 per cent), but it was also the top complaint for 30 per cent of BT customers.