Dial-Up Is Better?

J.D. Power and Associates just release a new Internet customer satisfaction study yesterday.

The study surveyed Internet users to determine if they are happy with their current ISP. The findings were pretty shocking. Overall, dial up customers reported a higher level of satisfaction versus high speed subscribers. Customer satisfaction of high-speed users has steadily declined since 2006

So I wasn't the only one disgruntled with my high speed connection. Recently I switched from a cable provider to a DSL service and am much happier. The broadband internet that I had would fluctuate so severely that, often times, I would get speeds as slow as 800k down. I did battle with the cable company for 8 months with no resolution. I was paying $60 a month for speeds slower than the slowest DSL. They couldn't understand why I was so upset. I should have been getting between 3.5 and 5 mbps. After all, I DID have a cable modem. My DSL, although slower, runs at a consistent 1.8m down. I couldn't be happier.

"The cost of high-speed Internet is up nearly $2 per month since 2006" with no significant increase in speeds. "Yet dial-up service costs have dipped $0.12, averaging $17.81. As long as high- speed Internet prices continue to rise and dial-up providers offer a viable level of service at a low price point, significant market opportunity will continue to exist for dial-up service."

“Although high-speed subscriptions continue to increase annually—to 65 percent of the market in 2007—more than one-third (35%) of Internet service subscribers still use a dial-up service,” said Frank Perazzini, director of telecommunications at J.D. Power and Associates.

The study also found that Internet service subscribers are more likely to use other Web-based email from a third-party provider, such as Google Gmail, MSN Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or AOL Mail, as their main email service instead of the email from their ISP. This is due in part to a subscribers ability to change their ISP without loosing a long-standing email address.

Interestingly, not one of the classified regions in the study ranked AOL in the top dial up providers. No KIDDING!?! Those of you who have heard the AOHell phone call from Vincent Ferrari you know the pain that someone can go through with AOL.