The increase in the number of customers opting for broadband services has also led to a steep increase in the number of broadband related calls to the help line.

The competitive broadband market in UK has led to almost all households in UK being able to access Internet via broadband fibre-optic cables. This has led to increase in difficulties which have invariably resulted in the increase in calls to UK help line. The reports states that help line calls have jumped by 20 percent this year.

Uswitch.com released these figures and price comparisons and claimed that though the number of people resorting to calling the help line has increased, the customers are still being castigated with long holding times and charges for using the help line service. Frequent problems like, 15 minute calls being charged outrageously when 5 minutes have been spent just holding it, become apparent when dealing with these help lines.

Still, the more then 18 million homes that have taken to broadband services are increasing the help line calls by 25 per cent.

A survey on around seven and half thousand subscribers revealed that many were kept on hold by the help line service and others who were charged up to 86 pence per call.

A uswitch.com official said: “It is disappointing to see major broadband providers still charging their customers for calling their helplines. We are not talking about simple set-up problems – customers are calling because their service is down. It seems ludicrous that customers are the ones to be penalised when it’s likely to be a fault on the network. Broadband is no longer a novelty – it’s a life essential.”

He further added “When things go wrong consumers need to know their provider will go the extra mile to get their service back up and running quickly and at no extra cost. In such a competitive arena it’s surprising that they haven’t wised up to the fact that customers expect more from their broadband service than a cheap deal. If they are not happy, they will simply switch away.”