Responding to today’s release by Citizen's Advice on broadband automatic compensation, Andrew Glover, Chair of ISPA, said:

“The vast majority of UK broadband customers receive a very good service, but when things go wrong, the industry agrees that customers are entitled to compensation. Internet service providers fully support the principle of automatic compensation, but we do not believe that Ofcom’s suggested approach fully recognises the dynamics and complexities of the UK broadband market – the suggested compensation levels are out of proportion compared to the generally low prices that consumers pay in the UK and risk diverting resources away from rolling out faster connections throughout the country.

“The industry is currently engaging with Ofcom to determine the best level of compensation and Citizen Advice’s research is based on figures that are not any longer up to date. The alternative voluntary approach that has been suggested would not only provide consumers an automatic right to compensation more in line with the overall cost of broadband services but could also be implemented in a much swifter way. A key aim of any automatic compensation policy should ultimately be to minimise disruption to consumer’s services. We need to strike the right balance between helping providers to address the discrepancies in the market and allowing them to continuously invest in their networks and maintain competitive prices for their products.”