Ofcom has revealed that, for the first time since it began publishing its complaints data, TalkTalk was not the most complained about broadband provider -- that dubious honour went to Orange.

The figures form part of the communication watchdog's seventh quarterly report which shows the number of complaints made to Ofcom against communication service providers between July and September 2012.

Unfortunately for TalkTalk, despite moving to second place and despite an overall reduction in the number of criticisms, Ofcom noted that complaints against the company's broadband offering remain "well above the industry average". It also managed to win the "Most complained about landline provider" category.


Complaints about Orange's broadband service almost doubled from 0.29 to 0.50 per 1,000 customers -- a spike which Ofcom attributed to Orange withdrawing a free broadband offer unless the customer opted for Orange line rental. Sky, on the other hand, managed the smallest number of complaints -- just 0.09 per 1,000 customers.

In the pay-monthly mobile service category T-Mobile came off worst (0.17 per 1.000 customers) -- ironically, something which Ofcom partly attributes to its complaints handling procedure. 3UK, Orange and Vodafone also notched up a higher than average volume of complaints, while at the other end of the spectrum was O2 with a mere 0.05 per 1,000.

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In the realm of pay TV services BT Vision registered a slight drop in the number of actual complaints but still managed to deliver a figure "six times greater than the industry average".

Sky, on the other hand, received the fewest.

However, the figures are based on complaints submitted to Ofcom rather than those sent directly to the service providers. As such they likely represent only a small handful of frustrated customers so we're interested to know if Wired.co.uk readers' experiences fit with the Ofcom report.


Has your own Sky TV and broadband experience been hassle free and has your T-Mobile phone contract caused you above average fuss?

Just head to the comments section and fill us in.

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