According to comparison site uSwitch.com a whopping 54 per cent of broadband customers failed to receive their MAC code on the first request.

Even though it has been a year since Migration Access Codes (MAC) were made mandatory by Ofcom so that broadband consumers could switch seamlessly between one broadband provider and another.

While the more than half of customers said they received their MAC code within a week of applying, nearly 21 per cent had to wait two weeks and nearly 15 per cent had to wait more than a month. This is worrying as a MAC only lasts 30 days so depending on the actual release date customers could find their time left to find a new provider seriously reduced.

While complains to Ofcom over MAC codes have fallen from 825 in March last year to 517 in January 2008, research by BroadbandChoices.co.uk show that fifteen per cent had to make two requests for their MAC codes while over sever percent had to ask more than six times.

The picture with local loop unbundling (LLU) doesn't look to rosy either, while 34.5 per cent said that they experienced no downtime a fifth said thay had to wait a more than a month to be reconnected.onnected again.