Ofcom's Q2 complaints league table is out — and provider service quality now matters more than ever

28 October 2026. Ofcom has published its Q2 2026 Consumer Complaints Report (covering April–June, published 26 October), and the headline for anyone choosing a telecoms provider mid-migration is clear: who you buy from matters as much as what you buy. Complaints to the regulator overall fell slightly quarter on quarter — driven by a drop in pay-TV complaints — while broadband, landline and mobile complaint levels held steady.

The broadband table: four-way tie at the bottom

In an unusual quarter, BT, EE, TalkTalk and Vodafone tied as the most complained-about fixed broadband providers, each recording 7 complaints per 100,000 customers against an industry average of 6. Over a third of those complaints were driven by faults, service and provisioning issues — the category that matters most when a business line is being migrated off copper. At the other end, Virgin Media attracted the fewest measurable complaints (4) for the first time in a long while, alongside Plusnet and Sky at 5.

Landline: Plusnet's complaints doubled

The landline table is the one business readers should watch as the PSTN switch-off approaches on 31 January 2027. Plusnet was the most complained-about landline provider at 10 complaints per 100,000 — double the previous quarter and more than three times the industry average of 3 — with 37% of those complaints driven by faults, service and provisioning. That spike matters because landline migration volumes are peaking right now: Ofcom's separate Q2 market data showed 522,000 fixed voice lines leaving the network in the quarter. Sky Talk, Virgin Media and Vodafone kept landline complaints at 2, while Utility Warehouse led the table at 1.

Mobile and pay-TV

Sky Mobile attracted the most pay-monthly mobile complaints (3 per 100,000), with 34% of them about problems switching provider — a reminder that the switching process itself is a service-quality issue. O2 sat alongside it at 2, mainly on faults and provisioning. EE, Giffgaff, Tesco Mobile, Three, Vodafone and iD Mobile shared the cleanest scores at 1. In pay-TV, EE and Virgin Media were most complained about — with 38% of EE's complaints about how earlier complaints had been handled — while TalkTalk was the least complained-about TV provider.

Why this matters with 96 days to go

With 96 days until the copper network closes and roughly 350,000 business lines still to migrate, thousands of firms are choosing new phone providers this quarter — often for the first time in years. Ofcom publishes this data precisely so customers can weigh service quality alongside price before they commit. The practical checks before you move a business line: look up the provider's complaints record (landline, not just broadband), ask specifically how they handle faults and provisioning during migration, and make sure your number itself is portable. A UK virtual number moves with you regardless of which underlying network you end up on, answers over SIP on any device, and starts from free pay-as-you-go or £9.97 a month — so a provider change never puts your number at risk. Firms still running alarm panels over dial-up lines should also have an IP route ready: DIDcomms's OpenTAP gateway carries the same TAP alarm messages over TCP/IP after the PSTN closes.

Related: 100 days to go — Ofcom Q2 voice-line data · WLR3 exception orders close 30 October