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Revealed: Northern Ireland is unhappiest broadband region in the UK

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Posted 3rd March 2010 at 8:48am by Jonathan Leggett

TOP 10 BROADBAND LOGO

3rd March 2010 - London: People in Northern Ireland are the UK’s least satisfied broadband users, according to new data revealed by Top 10 Broadband, the UK’s most popular broadband comparison site.

Top 10 Broadband’s study, based on over 180,000 unique satisfaction ratings on its website, found that nearly one in five people (18 per cent) in Northern Ireland think their broadband service is “bad” or “terrible”.

In comparison, North West England was the happiest region, with 60 per cent of people there describing their broadband service as “good” or “great.”

The area with the lowest level of dissatisfaction was East Anglia, where only 12 per cent of people complained their broadband was not up to scratch.

Nationally the average figure for broadband satisfaction was 57 per cent, with 14 per cent saying they were dissatisfied.

Alex Buttle from Top 10 Broadband said: “People are increasingly relying on their broadband connection in the same way they rely on other utilities like gas or water – not surprisingly, they just expect it to work properly every time.

“The fact that people’s broadband speed and reliability varies so much from place to place is simply unfair for consumers trapped in a badly serviced region.

“And while it’s good that more than half of people seem to be happy with their broadband service, the satisfaction levels really should be a lot higher for such an essential service. It’s little wonder record numbers of people are using Top 10 Broadband’s StreetStats™ service to compare broadband speeds in their area.”

Full results:

Region Percentage of people who said they were satisfied with their broadband Percentage of people who said they were not satisfied with their broadband
North West 60 13
North East 58 14
West Midlands 58 13
London 57 15
South East 57 15
Yorkshire & Humberside 57 14
Scotland 56 14
Wales 56 15
South West 56 15
East Anglia 56 12
East Midlands 55 14
Northern Ireland 54 18

Notes to Editors:

Top 10 Broadband is the UK's most popular dedicated broadband comparison site with over 12 million visitors per year.

Last year the team launched their new StreetStats™ service which allow users to test their broadband speed and compare themselves to other people in their area. Top 10 Broadband tested over 2 million broadband connections for their users in 2009.

The award-winning website also offers a range of comparison tools and customer reviews, allowing users to make quick and easy broadband buying decisions.

Contact:

Alex Buttle

Top 10 Broadband

alex@top10.co.uk

020 3170 8041

Pete Marcus

Citigage

Peter.marcus@citigatedr.co.uk

020 7282 2815

More news on: Customer service and satisfaction, Press releases, Broadband speeds, Broadband coverage, Consumer trends

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2 comments

  • Sally Davenport, 4th March 2010.

    It's about time this came to light. Don't know why broadband isn't better in N.Ireland. We pay the same charges after all.

    Reply

  • McDills, 15th May 2010.

    I can vouch for this, my broadband speeds are awful but being soo far away from my exchange there's not much I can do about it. But the fact that there is only one LLU provider in just a few of the exchanges in the Northwest is quite bizarre. Do O2, Sky and the rest not think there's a market here? Or do BT and Talk Talk have some sort of stranglehold?

    Though there is a ray of hope for some folks, Northern Ireland seems to have it's own fibre roll out different to that of BT's 'Infinity' fibre. It's initially aimed at business users but hopefully in time residential users can get on board.

    Reply

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