Researchers confirm what we already know: most telecom websites suck

A newly published study of U.S. telephony provider websites find that when it comes to online customer service capabilities, most fall quite short.

The study, conducted by online marketing consultancy Brulant, notes that 69% of telecomservice home pages don't allow customers to log in to their account. Nearly 40% of home pages don't have "site search" functionality and only 38% offer a "help" link.

And that's just for starters.

According to Information Week's Elena Malykhina, the study further noted that only 15% of carriers' sites  link to information for the disabled. About 8% of sites are available in text-only or low bandwidth view, while 15% of carriers offer a browser recommendation for viewing their sites.

"When customers fail to get their basic account needs met via the home page, it creates a sense of dissatisfaction that is difficult for the telecom provider to overcome later in the customer service relationship," Brulant telecom practice partner Rich Drab, tells Information Week's Malykhina.

"MCI" (I guess they mean Verizon's Business Solutions Group) and Skype (I am sure you've figured out that's a home page grab up @ top of this post) were judged the worst telecom sites for the factors I just mentioned. Sprint and Vonage scored the highest, in part because account sign-in, customer service link and site search are all enabled and their home pages.