Telecom Lead America: Verizon Wireless has been
ranked highest in customer satisfaction and performs particularly well in
performance/reliability and offerings/promotions in both the very small and
small/medium business segments.
According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 U.S.
Business Wireless Satisfaction Study, Sprint and T-Mobile closely follow
Verizon Wireless in both the very small business and small/medium business
segments.
Wireless network quality issues force more business
customers to call their carrier to report problems and ask questions.
In the past six-month period, 83 percent of all business
wireless customers surveyed have contacted their current carrier with a problem
or a question, an increase from 76 percent in 2011.
The study revealed that the primary cause for the
increase in problems or questions is due to a rise in the number of employee
complaints regarding network quality issues, particularly connection issues
such as dropped/disconnected calls and Internet/email failures.
Among customers contacting their carrier with a problem,
27 percent of small/medium segment business customers have reported problems
with dropped/disconnected calls, compared with only 19 percent in 2011, a 30
percent increase, year over year.
In addition, 18 percent of small/medium segment business
customers have reported issues with Internet/email failure, which is nearly
double the rate in 2011 (10 percent).
The study covers the 4G technology, and revealed that
more than 52 percent of business customers having at least one device that
operates on a 4G network. However, satisfaction with performance and
reliability is lower among business customers with 4G connectivity.
As more business customers leverage a high-speed 4G
network, more are reporting issues with its performance. These reported
performance issues highlight that 4G networks are still new and being
introduced in markets throughout the country. In some cases, the network is not
even available in the business’ area,” said Kirk Parsons, senior
director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates.
