The UK's worst mobile phone provider

by lovemoney staff on 02 April 2013  |  25 comments
Tweet

We take a look at the worst (and best) mobile network operators.

The mobile phone has evolved substantially since the days it resembled a brick. And likewise, the amount we rely on our cellular friends has changed. Indeed, for many people, if their mobile stops working, so do they.

Which is why receiving good customer service from your mobile operator is now more important than ever.

Ofcom complaint figures

Ofcom publishes data on the number of complaints it receives about each of the big telecoms providers, including mobile phone networks, each quarter.

It's now reporting complaints separately for Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go providers.

These are its results for Pay Monthly mobile phone providers from the most recent report, covering October to December 2012 (Q4).

As you can see, Orange has taken over this quarter from T-Mobile as the most complained-about pay monthly provider.

The jump from last year’s figures is down to Orange breaking its promise to provide “free broadband for life”. Customers now have to pay £14 for an Orange landline.

Orange customers told Ofcom that they would not have renewed their contract if they had known the offer was to be withdrawn.

Both Orange and T-Mobile have generated above-average complaint numbers over the past three months. Ofcom says the complaints about T-Mobile are mainly due to billing and how issues were handled.

But it could also have something to do with the fact that both providers are part of superfast network Everything Everywhere which recently announced mid-contract price rises.  Read: EE announces 3.3% mid-contract price hike for Orange and T-Mobile customers for more.

By contrast, O2 and Virgin Mobile have consistently enjoyed lower numbers of complaints over the past three months and throughout 2012. However, O2's squeaky-clean record might take a knock once the Q1 data for January to March comes out later this year as customers might have a lot to say about their mid-contract price rises which took effect in February. Read more about it in: O2 bumps up mobile costs by 3.2%.

As Ofcom receives very few complaints about Pay As You Go providers (which, by their nature, are far easier to switch), it doesn't provide a company-by-company breakdown. It says it receives fewer than 30 complaints per month per provider, which means the statistics are subject to small fluctuations and, as such, could be rendered meaningless.

Which? research

Last year the consumer group Which? carried out its own research into mobile phone operators by speaking to 8,000 customers. These stats not only took into account the handsets, costs and clarity of bills offered by providers, but also included a wider range of operators.

Here are the results for contract and SIM-only phones:

Here are the results for Pay As You Go:

So Tesco and O2 are both very consistent performers at the top end, while Vodafone struggles in both areas.

The survey also shows that pay as you go operators emerged slightly better than their contract counterparts when it comes to customer service.

But customer service and price aren’t the only factors you should keep in mind when shopping around for a new mobile phone.

Mobile coverage

Practically speaking, the most important thing to keep in mind when buying any mobile phone is the coverage and reception of the handset and operator. However, when it comes to comparing the best networks for this, the answer gets a little tricky as so much of signal strength depends on location.

The links below take you to each network’s coverage map or coverage checker so you can get a decent idea of what coverage you can expect.

O2

Orange 

Three

T-Mobile

Talkmobile

Virgin Mobile

Vodafone

This is a lovemoney.com classic article which is regularly updated

Compare mobile phone deals at Recombu

More on mobile phones and broadband:

The best broadband dongle

The UK’s worst broadband provider

How to make cheap mobile phone calls home from abroad

In-app purchases: how your kids could leave you with a giant mobile phone bill