Delays in connecting broadband leaves a nation in waiting

People who have swapped broadband provider have to wait an average of two weeks before their new service is fully installed, according to new research.

The research from moneysupermarket.com reveals that although the average amount of time it takes to change provider has improved compared to a year ago, for many people it is still a frustrating process, fraught with delays.

Talk Talk is still one of the worst culprits when it comes to connecting new customers, taking an average of nearly five weeks. AOL and Virgin are two of the most improved providers from the previous year, shaving over a week off their connection times.

The research also shows 39 per cent of Virgin customers and 33 per cent of Orange customers had their broadband installed in less than a week compared to just 11 per cent of Sky customers. Over one in 10 (13 per cent) Talk Talk customers had to wait between seven to 10 weeks to get their service completely up and running.

Jason Lloyd, head of broadband at moneysupermarket.com, said: “It is great to see that in most cases providers are working hard to connect their customers in an acceptable time frame. It seems logical that Virgin Media and BT are good at connecting their customers quickly because they have their own infrastructure and engineers in place. However, there is still a room for improvement, especially amongst those providers that take over three weeks to connect people.

“To help cut down on delays, you should get written confirmation from the provider you’re moving to stating when you will get connected and hold them to that date. It’s a little known part of the MAC code regulation that providers should tell you when they intend to connect you to their service. If you have a dispute with them over this and you have the promised connection date in writing the matter can be easily resolved, especially if you want to cancel the contract as it proves the provider has breached their terms of service to you.”