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The Institute of Customer Service (ICS) has today published their second biannual UK Customer Satisfaction Index for 2025 (July), which reveals that only one mobile and broadband (telecoms) provider made it into their table of the country’s top 50 organisations – Tesco Mobile (9th). But both Virgin Media and Utility Warehouse saw a big improvement.

The research typically reflects the results from a large online survey of over 15,000 customers – balanced to be representative of the UK adult population, which asked each of them about their experiences across hundreds of different organisations (a total of 59,500 responses were gathered). This was then used to produce a score out of 100 for each organisation.

Overall, the “Telecommunications & Media” sector reported a small improvement in its general ranking since the last report in January 2025, with average customer satisfaction rising by 1.1 points over the period to give a total rating of 74.4 out of 100.

At the same time, Tesco Mobile (score of 85) saw their ranking rise from 16th (score of 82.5) to 9th position over the same period, placing them into the top 10 table. But sadly, they were the only telecoms provider to even make it into the larger top 50 table this time around, although it’s not all bad news (see below). Take note that some highly rated telecoms providers simply didn’t receive enough feedback to be included into the top table.

The UKCSI also named two telecoms providers in their top 20 table of “most improved organisations“. The first is Utility Warehouse, which saw their score improve from 74.1 a year ago to 79.2 today, although they’re ranked 106th overall (13th in the “most improved” table). The second is Virgin Media, which saw their score improve from 63.5 to 68 today, although they’re still ranked a dismal 236th (19th in the “most improved” table).

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The UK telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has today confirmed that they will make it quicker for consumers to access Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers, which are third-party ombudsman schemes that help people to resolve complaints with their phone, broadband and mobile providers.

The regulator currently requires that all telecoms service providers – those offering services to consumers and small businesses – must be members of an approved ADR scheme (there are two of these – CISAS (CEDR) and the Communications Ombudsman). The schemes are free for consumers to access and designed to supplement (not replace) your provider’s own internal complaint procedure(s), although ISPs often have to pay sizeable costs (hundreds of pounds) regardless of whether the customer wins or loses a case.

The ADR process is usually seen as a last line of defence for consumers and thus such schemes are generally only used after a dispute has gone unresolved for 8 weeks, or earlier with the agreement of their provider (i.e. the “Deadlock Letter” stage). See our ISP Complaints and Advice section for more information. But Ofcom has today confirmed that they will reduce that waiting period from 8 to 6 weeks.

The change is based on the fact that, between January 2022 and 2024, Ofcom found that a significant majority (79%) of complaints received by the biggest telecoms companies were resolved in less than a week, with 94% being resolved within six weeks.

For the roughly 700,000 consumers that had a complaint open at 6 weeks, only around 19% were able to get their issue resolved or referred to ADR ahead of the current, eight-week threshold. “We were concerned that a material number of consumers waited an additional two weeks, continuing to potentially incur harm or detriment, before being given access to ADR to get a resolution,” said Ofcom.

Ofcom has also re-approved both the ‘Communications Ombudsman’ and ‘CISAS’ as ADR schemes for the telecoms sector. “Our review found they are working well and continue to meet the statutory assessment criteria under the Communications Act,” said the regulator. Finally, the regulator has also tweaked the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are set for the schemes.

The change to adopt a shorter six weeks waiting period will, according to the final statement, be formally enforced from 8th April 2026, which will only apply to complaints raised either on this date or afterwards. But Ofcom said that it expects ADR providers to start reporting against the new KPIs from Q4 2025.

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Irish network operator Eir is taking BT (Openreach) to the High Court in London over a claim for damages worth £67m, which relates to a long-running dispute over the UK broadband giant’s Northern Ireland Public Sector Shared Network (NIPSSN) contract to provide connectivity services; the same one that attracted a £6.3m fine from Ofcom in 2020.

Just to recap. Back in December 2020 Ofcom fined BT (Openreach) £6.3m after they were found to have “failed to meet regulatory obligations” during a tender for the NIPSSN contract in 2017/18 (here) – valued at around £50m over 9 years (potentially rising to £400m via future changes to its scale and scope). That decision followed a complaint made by rival company Eir.

At the time, Ofcom said: “One of the possible solutions that could be used by the bidders for the contract was BT’s Fibre-to-the-Premises on Demand (FoD) [broadband] product. Our investigation has found that BT’s network arm broke our rules during this tender process, by failing to provide Eir with the same information about this FoD product – including its suitability and cost for delivering the relevant services – as it did to BT’s bid team.”

However, somewhat crucially, the regulator also added that they “do not believe that the breaches we have found were deliberate” and they did not make any findings on “whether this affected the outcome of the tender process“. But it sounds like that that last point will now have to be settled in London’s High Court.

According to the Irish News (credits to Anthony for the tip), Eir claims that Openreach discriminated against them by failing to provide it with relevant information in tendering for the NIPSSN contract. The case heard its opening remarks last Thursday and, from that point, is expected to last for a couple of weeks before the judge retires to make a decision (it’s unclear how long the latter will take).

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New research from network testing firm Ookla, which operates the popular online Speedtest.net service for broadband users, has revealed that London Heathrow (LHR) in the UK ranks poorly for mobile broadband (4G/5G) and WiFi performance when compared with 48 major airports worldwide.

The study, which used data from speedtest.net that had been collected during Q1 2025, compared each airport’s speeds to the FCC’s (USA) broadband benchmark of 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload to identify which locations deliver strong connectivity, and which fall short.

Out of the 48 airports with sufficient data on mobile broadband connectivity, only 21 met or exceeded the benchmark, compared to just 12 out of 41 for Wi-Fi. “This trend suggests mobile carriers may be prioritizing high-traffic locations like airports,” said Ookla. But such priority is hardly a secret and has always been true for mobile operators, which often focus upgrades on busy locations.

Overall, London Heathrow (LHR) was sadly the only UK airport able to make it into the table. The airport delivered an average (median) download speed via public WiFi of just 63.24Mbps (uploads of 65.14Mbps), which put it firmly in the bottom half of the table. As for mobile broadband speeds, LHR returned a download of 60.25Mbps (8Mbps upload) – or 90.1Mbps download when only looking at 5G – and found itself in the bottom quarter of the table.

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Network benchmarking firm MedUX has today published the results of a new study that examined the United Kingdom’s experience and quality of 5G (mobile broadband) networks. But sadly, it discovers that a “significant gap” remains between aspiration and reality for customers.

The new report – ‘Status of 5G Quality and Experience in Europe‘ – is based on crowdsourced data gathered from over 35 million performance tests in over 40 countries. But it’s worth remembering that mobile data performance is tedious to pin down because end-users are always moving through different areas (indoor, outdoor etc.), using different devices with different capabilities and the surrounding environment is ever changeable (weather, trees, buildings etc.). Not to mention any differences in backhaul capacity at different cell sites or differing spectrum use between operators and masts etc.

The results of this study found that, despite widespread deployment of 5G mobile networks and the United Kingdom being one of the first countries to harness the technology, the average user in the UK is connected to 5G just c.34% of the time (vs 48% across the rest of Europe). The UK was also found to be “among the worst performers in Europe” for fundamental 5G metrics like Download Speed, Upload Speed, Latency, and Packet Loss.

For example, Brits were found to face “higher-than-average streaming stalling ratios” (.45 ratio), meaning more buffering and interruptions when trying to watch content. The UK also shows one of the “worst gaming experiences in Europe“, with the highest average gaming jitter (33.48ms), which can disrupt fast-paced real-time gameplay (FPS shooters etc.).

Even for social media, the UK lags top European performers, with only 40% of users being said to experience optimal performance. By comparison, front-runner Switzerland delivered average 5G downloads of 104Mbps, uploads of 28Mbps, latency at around 16ms, jitter of 9ms and approx. 0.3% packet loss.

However, the results probably won’t come as much of a shock to our readership, which will have seen similar studies before. The UK’s situation tends to reflect a combination of issues, such as the previous government’s U-turn to ban Huawei – this occurred about a year after some operators (e.g. EE) had already started their roll-outs.

Mobile operators previously warned that the Huawei decision, which also impacted existing 4G kit due to the close interdependency of infrastructure, could delay the completion of the 5G roll-out by 2-3 years and add costs of up to £2bn across all operators. In addition, operators have also faced restrictions when it comes to upgrading existing masts to 5G and deploying new ones, although recent rule changes may improve the planning process a bit (here).

Speaking of the government, both the past and present governments have had a tendency to set some rather easy coverage targets for the service, with the latest lot aspiring to “make a renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030“. But they’ve already delayed the gigabit broadband target to 2032, and it remains to be seen how much 5G coverage will actually be improved by 2030 across all operators.

On top of that, Ofcom could have been faster to release more 5G friendly radio spectrum in order to boost capacity and coverage. For example, the regulator still hasn’t begun the auction for a large chunk of millimetre wave (mmW) radio spectrum frequency in the 26GHz and 40GHz bands (here). But this will happen soon and was delayed by the recent VodafoneThree merger.

Speaking of VodafoneThree, the new company has confirmed (here) that it aims to reach 99.95% UK population coverage of their fastest 5G Standalone (5G SA) network by 2034 (up from the current baseline of 47%), with the figure rising to 71% of the population by this time next year. Suffice to say that improvements are happening, albeit slowly.

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The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), which is a trade body representing ISPs and related comms providers, has today published the results of a new nationally representative poll. This found that 72% of people believe it’s important for broadband providers to keep upgrading networks and 62% were willing to accept short-term traffic disruption for long-term improvements.

The study, which also revealed how 78% of respondents believe everyone in the country should be able to access “high-speed internet“, is intended to provide fresh insights into the British public’s opinions on a range of key issues for the telecoms sector, including broadband rollout, online safety, fraud, and digital inclusion.

The report thus contains somewhat of a shotgun blast of information across several different categories, which we’ll attempt to summarise below.

Summary of Results

➤ Only supermarkets ranked higher than broadband as a daily priority (40% vs. 37%), with internet access seen as more essential than utilities, mobile networks, or even banks.

➤ When asked what they would rather forgo over internet access, 49% of respondents chose the gym, while 42% said alcohol.

➤ 41% of people say the national government should take responsibility for ensuring affordable broadband for all, while 40% look to broadband providers to do this, and 23% to local governments.

➤ 53% were not aware of the current broadband upgrades, such as via the Government’s Project Gigabit programme.

➤ 61% have experienced online fraud or scams, with younger adults especially affected; just 23% of 25-34 year olds say they’ve never encountered fraud, compared to 55% of those aged 55 and over.

➤ 55% believe social media companies are not doing enough to prevent scams, and only 34% feel current measures are adequate.

➤ 22% use parental controls from their broadband provider, while 21% have installed internet safety software, and 20% choose direct supervision.

➤ Public opinion is divided on responsibility for online safety – 33% say it’s up to users and parents, while others point to tech platforms (21%), government (17%), or broadband providers (13%).

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The UK government yesterday revealed the time and date for its next major nationwide test of the Emergency Alerts service by mobile network operators, which will take place at “around” 3pm on 7th September 2025. This is normally only intended to be used if there’s a “danger to life nearby” (e.g. severe flooding, fires and extreme weather).

Systems like this need to be tested on a regular basis to ensure they’re working properly and to help familiarise the population with their function. For example, the last major UK wide test occurred on 23rd April 2023, which revealed some problems with customers on Three UK’s network that were later rectified.

Since then, the live system has been used on a number of occasions, in a more localised way, to warn of some major storms and floods (e.g. Storm Éowyn in Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland during January 2025). You can see a Summary of Past Emergency Alerts on the government’s official website.

Recipients (most of us) can expect to experience 10 seconds of an annoyingly loud siren sound blaring out at you while your phone vibrates and displays a message to say that it’s just a test of the Emergency Alerts system. The exact structure of the message for the September 2025 test is not yet known, but the original one in April 2023 looked like this:

Message Sent for April 2023 Emergency Alert Test (English)

This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a new UK government service that will warn you if there’s a life-threatening emergency nearby.

In a real emergency, follow the instructions in the alert to keep yourself and others safe.

Visit gov.uk/alerts for more information.

This is a test. You do not need to take any action.

More information about this alert

The alerts themselves are broadcast from cell towers in the vicinity of an emergency (they don’t need your phone number for this to work) and will only ever come from the Government or emergency services. Such alerts are a free one-way secure communication and do NOT reveal anyone’s location or collect personal data.

However, some people may wish to opt out of the emergency alerts system (e.g. victims of domestic abuse or those likely to be driving on the day), which can be done by going into your phone’s settings – search this section for “emergency alerts“, “wireless emergency alerts” or “emergency broadcasts” – and then turning off “severe alerts“, “operator alerts“, “test alerts” and or “extreme alerts“. But we have found that these specific options don’t always exist, and Android users could also try this method (further details):

• Open your phone calling app
• Use the keypad to enter *#*#2627#*#*
• Search your settings for ‘emergency alerts’ and turn off ‘test alerts’, ‘exercise alerts’, ‘operator defined’ and ‘operator alerts’

Hopefully it goes without saying that you should NOT read or respond to an emergency alert when you are driving or riding a vehicle (this is illegal). Find somewhere safe and legal to stop before picking up your phone and reading the message.

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Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK has blamed a “system error” for leaving one of its new customers without a working internet connection for nearly five months, which resulted in repeated failures to complete the installation via missed engineer appointments. But to make matters worse, the provider initially only offered £30+ worth of compensation for the trouble.

The problems began for Totnes (Devon) based mum Cathy Meredith in mid-January 2025, when she lost internet access. Cathy has to care for a disabled adult daughter who suffers from multiple conditions and was initially given a new installation date of 4th February. But despite over 50 attempts being made by Ms Meredith to get the installation completed, the family remained offline until 27th June 2025.

During the long wait, Virgin Media is said to have scheduled incorrect engineers – resulting in missed appointments – and failed to complete the required exterior works in order to connect the service, until 10th June (as above, service activation then followed several days later).

According to the Totnes Times, Ms Meredith was then offered just over £30 in compensation, which she rightly found “offensive“. This is particularly true when we consider that Virgin Media are part of Ofcom’s Automatic Compensation scheme (full summary), which until April 2025 should have been paying out £29.15 for missed appointments and then £5.83 per day for delays to the start of a new service (this increased from April to £31.19 and £6.24, respectively).

Virgin Media originally tried to argue that the fault was with one of their third-party contractors and thus they only saw fit to offer compensation for the single week it actually took to carry out the final installation (once they sorted out their “system error“). But this neglects the fact that the customer’s contract is with Virgin Media (i.e. responsibility ultimately rests with your retail provider).

The long outage caused Cathy to depend on her limited pay-as-you-go mobile data connection. But the good news is that, after some pressure from the local newspaper, Virgin Media finally agreed to a more suitable level of compensation.

A spokesperson for Virgin Media said:

“We’ve spoken with Ms Meredith directly to apologise for the time it took to install her services. The initial delay was caused by the property requiring additional pre-enablement works which were unfortunately repeatedly rescheduled due to a system error.

In line with the auto-compensation scheme, Ms Meredith has received a credit of £792.48, and an additional £75 as a gesture of goodwill. We are happy to provide this in the form of a cheque if Ms Meredith would prefer, and we’re waiting to speak again at a time that’s convenient for her.”

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that we’ve seen a signatory ISP trying to wriggle out of paying customers the correct level of compensation under Ofcom’s scheme, and it really should not have taken media pressure to rectify the situation. We’d be interested to hear from any other Virgin Media customers who’ve had a struggle to get the provider to pay out the correct level of compensation under Auto Compensation.

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The Falmouth and Helston Police (FHP) in Cornwall yesterday had to deal with another contender for the Darwin Awards after they warned that several teenagers had been spotted scaling to the top of a mobile network mast at Breageside, Porthleven – nearly becoming an example of natural selection at work.

The mast concerned is quite large and connected up to high-powered electrical cables, which naturally creates risks from falling (you might not die, but life wrecking injuries are possible) and electrocution. Engineers generally don’t climb mobile masts while they’re switched on – those warning signs are there for a good reason.

The apparatus on top of the mast will probably have been switched on too and, while low powered wireless signals generally aren’t a health risk (too weak), power levels and distance from the point of transmission do still matter – signal strength / power weakens extremely rapidly with distance. The existing rules for safe RF operation recognise this and provide guidance for safe handling by engineers in close proximity.

Put another way, somebody standing a few short metres away at the base of a mobile mast would be absolutely fine (the signal just a short distance away will be many times weaker – usually below the accepted exposure limits). But somebody literally sitting on top of a live high-powered industrial antenna/dish – just centimetres away or possibly even in front of / touching the live beam source – might be taking a risk if they stick around too long (exposure may be above safe levels).

Statement by Falmouth and Helston Police

It has been reported to Helston Police that youths are climbing on the telephone mast at Breageside, Porthleven. This is private property, within a gated area and people should not be entering the site. Climbing this mast is incredibly dangerous, as well as the risk of falling, there could be longer term health risks from being near this site.

The youths involved were reported to be in their late teens. Please could we ask parents to check where their children are going when they are going out with their friends.

Clearly, some kids weren’t paying enough attention in their science classes, since if they did, they would have had a better idea of the risk they were taking. But for most other people, common sense would normally kick in for such situations and usually long before the need for any kind of prior scientific knowledge. On the other hand, the extreme sports of cliff diving and base jumping exist – we aren’t always the wisest of races when it comes to self-preservation.

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The Comms Council UK, which represents much of the United Kingdom’s national Unified Communications and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) phone industry, has today released their shortlist of finalists for the organisation’s 17th annual 2025 industry awards event.

Tracey Wright, Chair of Comms Council UK Council, said: “We are delighted to announce the finalists for CCUK’s 17th annual Awards! This year’s shortlist truly showcases the incredible talent and innovation within our sector, and we are thrilled to have this opportunity to highlight these outstanding achievements..”

This year’s winners will be announced during a ceremony at 116 Pall Mall (London) in September 2025. As usual, there isn’t a pure consumer category, although “Best SOHO Service” is probably about as close as you’re going to get.

Comms Council UK Awards 2025 Finalists

Best Communications Provider – SME
Agile Comms
bOnline
Level 7 Systems, trading as VoIPstudio
Microtalk Europe
V4One

Best Communications Provider – Enterprise
8×8
LoopUp
Monty Mobile
Rydal Group
Voiceflex

Best SOHO Service
bOnline
Microtalk Europe
V4One
Yealink

Best Enterprise Service
8×8 Platform for CX and 8×8.com
Colt Technology Services – Colt Intelligent Communications (CIC)
Microtalk Europe

Best Innovation
Ciptex – Video Advice Kiosk with Agent AI Assist
Elisha Telecom / Elisha Insights
Guardian Assurance by Kerv
SCG Together, Emergency Response Solution
Vonage Fraud Defender Advanced

Best Comms Application
8×8 and 8×8 Platform for CX
Daktela – Contact Centre Platform
Elisha Telecom / Elisha Insights
Monty eSIM
Vonage: VCC Intelligent Workspace

Best Comms Device
Fanvil Technology – V66 Pro Prime Business Phone
Rydal Group – Curo UC 500 Device
Yealink AX83H Wi-Fi Handset

Best Industry Enabler
Gamma
IQ Mobile – Wholesale Fixed Mobile Convergence
Guardian Assurance by Kerv
Sangoma Technologies
Voxbit T/A byphone

Best Multi-national Service
8×8
CallTower
Gamma
Level 7 Systems Ltd, trading as VoIPstudio
Monty eSIM (Monty UK Global)