JD Power: ISP customer satisfaction on the rise

According to a the latest wireline study conducted by JD Power, residential customers have grown more satisfied with their Internet service providers.

The study judges customer satisfaction via five factors: performance and reliability; cost of service; billing; communication; and customer service.

Verizon ranks highest in ISP customer satisfaction in the East and South regions. Wide Open West ranked highest in the North Central region, while AT&T topped the rankings the West.

The study found that ISPs have managed to reduce the average number of website connection errors experienced by customers by 35 percent in the past three months. Providers have also reduced general service outages by 31 percent year over year.

According to Kirk Parsons, senior director of telecommunications at J.D. Power, performance and reliability are the most critical drivers of customer satisfaction.

"While customers may be leveraging the same network or connection across multiple services, their experience can be different given the equipment type, connection to the home, service plans used and the different activities performed on each," Parsons said.

More:

• When the feds come knocking: The tale of a Utah ISP, a secret court order, and a little black box
• DynDNS-maker snaps up internet wobble watcher Renesys
• TDC snaps up Norwegian ISP Get for €1.68bn