These are the worst mobile phone providers in the UK - where does yours rank?

Are you with Virgin Mobile? (Photo: Shutterstock)Are you with Virgin Mobile? (Photo: Shutterstock)
Are you with Virgin Mobile? (Photo: Shutterstock)

Ofcom uses a combination of interviews with customers and data from providers in its report on complaints in the mobile phone sector.

The report covers April to June of this year and reveals which mobile providers customers complained about the most.

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The worst mobile phone providers

At the top of the list for most complaints was Virgin Mobile, with eight complaints per 100,000 customers. According to Ofcom, Virgin Mobile customers complained the most about their provider’s handling of complaints.

Other things Virgin Mobile customers complained about also include billing and pricing problems and faults and service issues.

The industry average of complaints per 100,000 customers is three.

These were the mobile phone providers who held above average levels of complaints, according to Ofcom:

Vodafone with sixBT Mobile with six

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The best mobile phone providers?

Coming in with the lowest number of complaints, according to Ofcom’s report, is Tesco Mobile, with just one complaint per 100,000 customers.

The other mobile phone providers whose number of complaints per 100,000 customers came in below average is:

Sky mobile with twoThree with twoO2 with twoiD Mobile with twoEE with two

How to switch mobile phone providers

If you’re looking to make the switch but don’t know where to start, Ofcom offers the following advice:

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Check your contract to see if you’ve been with your provider long enough to switch without paying a penaltyIf you bought your phone from the provider, you should also have the option of keeping it after you switch (if you’ve completed your contract), but keep in mind that it might be locked to that network. Mobile providers have different policies and processes for unlocking phones, so you’ll need to check with your providerIf you want to keep your number when you switch providers, you can easily do so by requesting your PAC number from your current provider. Just text PAC to 65075 and your providers should reply to the text quickly. You then need to give the code to your new provider and they’ll arrange for the switch to be completed

You can browse mobile network provider deals by checking out this page from Uswitch, which outlines everything that’s good (and not so good) about the UK’s major networks.

This article originally appeared on our sister site Edinburgh Evening News

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