Virgin Media is worst internet provider for outages, research shows

Broadband customers may be entitled to compensation under a new scheme

Customers of Virgin Media will no longer have access to Dave, Gold and other popular channels (Getty)

Virgin Media is the worst broadband provider in the UK for leaving customers without internet, according to new research.

A study by consumer association Which? found that one in six Virgin Media customers reported no connection for hours or days at a time.

The publication of the research comes amid another major outage of Virgin Media TV services across the UK.

Virgin Media customers reported problems with their TV on Thursday.

A spokesperson for the firm was not immediately available to comment on the latest outage or the Which? research.

Depending on the length of the outages, Virgin Media users may be entitled to compensation under a new scheme recently adopted by major broadband providers.

From 1 April, customers of BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Zen Internet – who serve around 90 per cent of all UK broadband customers – will receive £8 per day as a refund on their next bill if internet outages are not fixed within two working days.

Beyond broadband outages, customers of these firms will also receive compensation of £5 if an installation is delayed and £25 if an engineer misses an appointment or cancels at short notice.

With nearly 250,000 broadband engineer appointments missed each year in the UK, according to Ofcom, Which? has called on the remaining providers to sign up to the voluntary compensation scheme.

"Broadband customers who suffer slow repairs, missed appointments and delayed installations have up until now had to jump through hoops to get compensation, so it's encouraging that some will now be refunded automatically," said Natlaie Hitchins, head of home products and services at Which?.

"However, for consumers to truly feel the benefit of this scheme, broadband providers must improve their service overall. If not, we expect the regulator to show its teeth and take stronger action."