Household names give worst broadband service

By Jennifer Hill

LONDON (Reuters) - Consumers' satisfaction with their broadband providers has continued to tumble, with household names giving the worst service, a survey shows.

Some 26 percent of customers are not satisfied with their broadband providers, an increase of 3 percent on nine months ago, according to the poll by price comparison service uSwitch.com.

Orange and TalkTalk -- which collectively own 14 percent of the market, with over two million customers -- have failed to pull themselves out of the bottom two spots in the league.

The companies, both of which recently launched "free" broadband, have the most dissatisfied customers -- 35 percent and 31 percent respectively.

In contrast, Plusnet, the smallest provider in the survey, with just 2 percent of the market, ranked top.

Only 22 percent of customers are dissatisfied with its service, the survey shows.

The company, bought by telecommunications giant BT last November, is this year celebrating its 10th birthday with offers such as free set-up and hardware for new customers.

Chris Frost, a communications analyst at uSwitch.com, said: "This time last year, free broadband was a novelty.