One in four people is unhappy with the broadband service, according to survey results released today.

The latest report by uSwitch.com, the independent online comparison and advisory group, found that customer satisfaction has plummeted to a new low with 25% of consumers unhappy with the service they receive.

Common complaints included increasingly poor technical support, with frustrated customers having to make frequent and long calls to try to resolve connection problems. Researchers said the complaints were a sign that the novelty of getting free broadband had worn off and been replaced by growing expectations which firms were promising to meet but failing to deliver. The worst offender for the second time running in the survey was Orange, where 35% of customers, some 400,000 people, were unhappy.

The bad news follows another recent blow for Orange when the Advertising Standards Agency found the company guilty of misleading consumers in its advertisements.

Talk Talk fared little better despite investing 15m in customer service recently, coming second from bottom with 31% of customers still not satisfied.

The best provider was the lesser known Plusnet, the smallest company surveyed, which was keeping nearly eight out of 10 customers (78%) happy.

Researchers, who also asked customers to rate their homephone services said the results indicated that the major broadband companies were "talking the talk", but not yet "walking the walk".

Chris Frost, communications expert at uSwitch.com, said: "This time last year, free broadband was a novelty.

"Customers signed up by the masses to experience the broadband phenomenon, often for the first time. Now it has become a life essential, so when things go wrong they usually go badly wrong.

"Unlike last year's survey when providers were in many cases simply overwhelmed by demand, this year the problems are more technical.

"New advances in broadband technology appear to be having an adverse effect, with connection problems and service interruptions occurring all too frequently.

"Customers have found themselves having to make numerous phone calls to get their problems fixed and this would explain why the score for overall technical support has dropped 11% since March 2006."

The survey also involved the first interviews with customers of arch-rivals Virgin Media and Sky.

It revealed that they were virtually neck-and-neck in their ongoing battle, coming joint second in the survey for overall satisfaction ratings, alongside AOL, with 76% of people happy.

However Rupert Murdoch's firm won in the "value for money" ratings, with 83% of customers happy compared with 68% at Virgin Media.

Meanwhile Sir Richard Branson's firm beat Sky on support services with 55% satisfied with customer support and 53% happy with technical support, compared to just 48% and 42% respectively at Sky. Mr Frost said both giants had work to do, commenting that Sky's low support services rating was "a real sting in the tail".