Telecoms and Broadband Complaints

Telecoms complaints cover a wide range of issues across broadband, mobile, and landline services:

• Broadband speed: Persistently slow speeds below the minimum guaranteed speed in your contract
• Service outages: Prolonged loss of service or repeated outages
• Billing errors: Overcharging, incorrect direct debit amounts, unexpected charges
• Contract disputes: Mid-contract price increases, early termination fees, problems cancelling
• Engineer appointments: Missed appointments, damage caused during installation
• Mobile coverage: Persistent poor signal not matching the coverage checker used when signing up
• Number porting: Delays or failures in transferring your number to a new provider

Every telecoms provider must have a published complaints code of practice — Ofcom's General Conditions require it — setting out how to complain and how the provider will handle it. Find the code on the provider's website and use the channel it names, so your complaint is formally logged. The date you first raise the complaint matters: it starts the clock that eventually gives you access to independent dispute resolution.

When you complain, include:

• Your account number and the service affected (broadband, mobile, landline, TV bundle)
• What went wrong, with dates — outage periods, missed appointments, incorrect charges
• Evidence: bills, speed test results, screenshots of the coverage checker, notes of previous calls
• The outcome you want — a refund, a corrected bill, release from the contract, or compensation

If the first response does not resolve things, ask for the complaint to be escalated within the provider's process, and keep a dated log of every contact. If the provider decides it can do nothing more, ask it to confirm that in writing — that written confirmation is a deadlock letter and unlocks the ADR scheme immediately, without waiting out the full escalation period.

You do not need your provider's permission to use an Ofcom-approved ADR scheme, and the scheme is free for residential and small business customers. You can refer your complaint when either of the following applies:

• The waiting period has passed without resolution. For complaints first raised with the provider on or after 8 April 2026, that period is 6 weeks — Ofcom shortened it from 8 weeks in its 2025 review of telecoms ADR. For complaints raised before that date, the old 8-week threshold applies.
• You have a deadlock letter. If the provider issues a written final position sooner, you can go to ADR straight away.

There is also an outer limit: you must refer the dispute to the ADR scheme within 12 months of receiving the deadlock letter. Providers are required to tell you about your ADR rights — the scheme's name and contact details should appear in any deadlock or final response letter, and providers must also notify customers whose complaints remain unresolved at the waiting-period threshold.

ADR covers disputes about bills, service quality, contracts, and switching. It does not cover complaints about content of services, or issues already decided by a court.

Under Ofcom's Automatic Compensation Scheme, many large providers must automatically pay you compensation without you having to ask in specific circumstances. From 1 April 2026 the amounts are:

• Broadband or landline goes down: £10.34 per day if the service is not fixed after two full working days from your report, for each full day it remains unfixed
• Missed engineer appointment: £32.31 if an engineer fails to turn up or the appointment is cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice
• Delayed new service activation: £6.46 for each calendar day the start of service is delayed beyond the agreed date

These amounts rise each April in line with inflation, so check Ofcom's automatic compensation page for the current figures. Participation in the scheme is voluntary for smaller providers — check whether your provider is a member. If your provider is not in the scheme, you can still claim compensation through the complaints process, and a failure to pay compensation that was due is itself a valid complaint to take to ADR.

When you sign up for a broadband package, your provider must give you a "minimum guaranteed speed" in writing. If your actual broadband speed consistently falls below this guaranteed minimum, you have the right to:

• Report the issue and require the provider to resolve it within 30 days
• Exit your contract without paying an early termination fee if the issue is not resolved

To measure your speed, use the provider's official speed checker or an independent tool such as Ofcom's broadband speed checker. Run tests at different times of day and keep a record. You will need this evidence when making your complaint.

If the provider disputes your speed tests, ask for their own engineers to test the line. If the problem is in your internal wiring or equipment, you may not be entitled to exit free of charge — but if it is a network issue, you are protected.

There are two Ofcom-approved ADR schemes covering the telecoms sector, and every provider must belong to one:

• CISAS (Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme): Covers providers including Sky, Virgin Media, and some smaller ISPs. Contact via cisas.org.uk.
• Communications Ombudsman (formerly Ombudsman Services: Communications): Covers providers including BT, EE, Plusnet, and TalkTalk. Contact via commsombudsman.org.

Check your provider's website, terms and conditions, or deadlock letter to confirm which scheme applies — using the wrong one just delays your case. Once you apply, expect this sequence:

• Application: You submit your complaint summary, the outcome you want, and your evidence (chronology, bills, speed tests, the deadlock letter if you have one).
• Provider response: The scheme asks the provider for its side and its records. The provider may make a settlement offer at this stage — you can accept it or continue.
• Decision: An adjudicator or investigator reviews both sides on the documents and issues a decision. Remedies can include a financial award, a corrected bill, an apology, release from the contract, or specific action such as completing a delayed installation.
• Acceptance: If you accept the decision it is binding on the provider, which must implement it. If you reject it, it lapses and you keep your right to go to court instead.

An ADR decision binds only the provider, and only if you accept it. If your complaint is not upheld, or the award offered does not cover your loss:

• Court remains open. Rejecting the decision preserves your right to sue. For clear financial losses up to £10,000 in England and Wales, the small claims track is designed for individuals without solicitors. Be realistic: an adjudicator has already weighed the same evidence, so consider what a court would see differently.
• Report conduct to Ofcom. Ofcom does not handle individual disputes, but complaints it receives feed its enforcement work — including investigations into providers' complaint handling. Reporting costs nothing and can be done alongside anything else.
• Check for a contractual exit. Even if compensation was refused, you may still have a penalty-free right to leave — for example where the guaranteed minimum speed is not met and remains unfixed after 30 days, or where the provider has made contract changes you did not agree to.

Whatever route you take, keep your evidence file intact — the chronology, bills, and test results you built for ADR are exactly what a court claim or a switch negotiation needs.