Smaller ISP’s are triumphing over their larger counterparts when it comes to customer satisfaction, an independent survey has shown.

Be Broadband, Eclipse, Namesco and Madasafish were voted as the four overall best providers in a survey carried out by Moneysupermarket and YouGov.   

The survey, which asked 4,555 people their views on ISP customer service, technical support, speed, billing and reliability found all four companies scored between eight and nine out of 10 in each category.

This was a great contrast to household names such as Sky, Talk Talk, Tiscali and Toucan who received the lowest marks from unhappy customers with all four scoring three out of 10 for technical support and customer service.

Jason Lloyd, head of broadband at Moneysupermarket, blames this on the “big players” marketing, which “has been so successful [that] they have not been able to keep up with the sheer volume of applicants”.

"They are under real pressure to sign up new customers, but people leave before actually getting connected as they are fed up with connection waiting periods running into weeks or months,” he said.

“They simply cannot keep every customer happy, particularly in a market as demanding as broadband.”

As a result the company has launched a Customer Review Index which aims to keep an independent track of the service levels offered by broadband providers and give the public updates of which providers continue to fail to deliver.

According to Moneysupermarket the reviews will be 'unweighted' and the comments from the public will appear as they have been written. 

“This will provide great ammunition for someone looking for a new deal, either with a new provider or when negotiating for a better deal with their existing provider,” Lloyd hopes.