Virgin Media is the most complained about telecoms provider in the UK, according to Ofcom.

The company's broadband division received nearly twice as many complaints per 100,000 customers as the next worst supplier, Now, reports The Times.

Over the past three months there has been a significant rise in complaints across the firm's services, including landline and pay TV, said Ofcom.

Virgin Media O2, which owns both the Virgin Media brand and O2, admitted the figures fell short of its expectations but appeared to blame Ofcom. A spokesman said the launch of Ofcom's formal investigation into the company last year had generated a higher number of complaints than would ordinarily be expected, said The Times.

The investigation began after customers said they had difficulties cancelling contracts and were unhappy with how complaints were handled.

Ofcom said that Sky continued to be the provider that attracted the fewest of joint-fewest complaints.

Virgin Media said overall complaints about Virgin Media and O2 products still represented a very small proportion of its customer base.