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.
