The market to gain broadband customers has recently become nothing short of a brand war. In the words of the latest Which? report there has never been a better time to find a good broadband deal. With prices tumbling it is customer service that may be the ultimate differentiating point between rivals.
On this front, the "big three", according to Which?, fail.
Only 34% of BT's customers. 25% of AOL's and just 20% of ntl's said they were very satisfied with the service they received.
For AOL this is not a big deal, once a formidable broadband provider it is now selling off its access business as the battle hots up.
And ntl, reknowned for years as a terrible provider of customer service, has just merged with consumer-friendly Virgin Mobile in a £962m deal in a bid to rejuvenate the company.
Others such, such as O2 and Vodafone, are lining up product launches next year.
The Which? Survey showed that the Best Buys - those with more than 70% very satisfied customers - were Global, Waitrose and Zen Internet. Zen topped the poll with 77% satisfaction.
Tellingly, none of the cheapest providers topped the service table. The "free" services launched by Carphone Warehouse and Orange failed on the service front.
Charles Dunstone, whose service managed just 39% very satisfied customers, has already admitted that the company is struggling to deal with the almost 500,000 people who have signed up for his fledgling service.
Orange only managed a satisfaction rating of 30% while Sky got off the hook because it launched after this year's survey.
In the case of long-term customer satisfaction it appears that at least at this point there may be a tipping point: size matters, if a company is to big, or growing too fast, it can be its own worst enemy.
