Which? pronounce on best broadband ISP

Consumer watchdog, Which? has stuck out its neck and crowned Metronet as the UK’s best broadband service provider.

A survey of Which? readers gave Metronet a rating of 91 per cent, some 11 per cent above second placed Freedom 2 Surf. A total of eight broadband service providers were identified with satisfaction ratings of 70 per cent or more including Zen Internet, 79 per cent; Nildram, 77 per cent; Waitrose, 73 per cent; Eclipse, 73 per cent; PlusNet, 71 per cent; and Force 9, 70 per cent.

The major household names (those with the largest marketing budgets) fared relatively badly: Wanadoo, 37 per cent; Tiscali, 35 per cent; AOL Europe, 35 per cent; and BT, 34 per cent.

Trailing in last place with the dubious title of Worst Broadband provider was NTL on a lowly 19 per cent.

Of course, magazine surveys like these can only ever be a snapshot in time and are usually at least eight weeks out of date. The best way to track performance is over a number of months using sites like ADSL Guide, ISP Review and Net4nowt.

The other complication is that best is a pretty subjective word. Best for one person may not be sliced bread for another. Doing the research first before placing an order or migrating can save a lot of frustration and expense.