The 2001 UK Residential Internet Service Provider (ISP) Customer Satisfaction StudySM found that 37% of those surveyed believe connection speed/access is the most important factor influencing customers’ satisfaction with their ISP. AOL was ranked as the top ISP for overall customer satisfaction and scored particularly well in the company image/communications and customer service categories.
According to the study, Freeserve is the most popular ISP (16%), followed by BT Internet (10%) and AOL (9%). The average cost of internet call charges has dropped by one-half since 2000, with nearly one-third of UK households using the internet and spending an average of more than 7 hours per week on-line.
Gunda Lapski, director of Telecommunications and ISP Studies in the UK for J.D. Power and Associates said:
"The Internet market in the UK still has considerable potential for growth... Extensive industry consolidation in the past 12 months has placed the market leaders in a stronger position to benefit from this anticipated growth."
The study also found that the number of UK households using the internet has grown from 28% in 2000 to 32% in 2001. It reports that on average households spend 7.4 hours on the internet each week compared with 5.5 hours in 2000, an increase of nearly 35%. More than one-half (51%) of internet users send e-mails on a daily basis, compared to only 5% using banking/financial services on-line.
The J.D. Power and Associates study of customer satisfaction with the UK ISP industry involved extensive interviews with 1,788 internet subscribers in the UK and represents a cross section of the UK ISP market.