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Choice Magazine has confirmed what a lot of people already know, Telstra BigPond broadband service is the worst Internet service provider in Australia. Their service is slow and expensive and their service levels appalling, as SmartHouse revealed last week.
See: http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Comment/H8F6M3A8
The recent 2007 Choice computer ISP satisfaction survey found less than a third of respondents were satisfied with their ISP, the biggest complaint being cost.
“Some providers clearly have some work cut out for them with Telstra BigPond standing out as the worst overall performer of the ISPs rated in the survey,” Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said yesterday.
And while BigPond loves to brag about their operation claiming they are the biggest and the best in Australia a new US report that found Australians are paying up to nine times more for broadband than other western nations, and download speeds are 35 times slower than the leader Japan.
The Choice survey revealed that Telstra BigPond was the most common ISP connecting 33 per cent of respondents to the internet.
But Mr Zinn said the high cost of Telstra BigPond left many customers unhappy.
“Most people are stuck with their ISP despite their complaints,” he said.
The survey found standard ADSL the most common Internet access method, accounting for almost half of all connections. The faster ADSL2 and ADSL2+ account for 13 percent. Cable broadband reached 23 percent. Wireless and satellite broadband account for only 2 percent each. The use of dial-up fell from 47 percent to 8 percent.
Costs top problem at Telstra
Tackling how happy were the punters, Choice reports ADSL2/2+ users are more likely to be very satisfied overall and also with their connection speed.
Cable users generally were only “fairly satisfied” overall, while Telstra BigPond users were unhappy with the total cost of their account.
On the brighter side, dealing with ADSL connections, the survey found Westnet, Internode, Chariot Netconnect, Netspace and AAPT customers were more likely to be very satisfied overall; Internode and Netspace users were more likely to be very satisfied with connection speed and the cost of their accounts; and AAPT users were more likely to be very satisfied with total cost of the account.
On customer service, WA-based iiNet got a nod: its ADSL and ADSL2/2+ customers were more likely to wait less than five minutes when they contacted their ISP.
On technical support, OptusNet ADSL customers were more likely to rate the support staff as fairly or very poor for communication skills; Internode ADSL customers were more likely to rate support staff as very good for the technical help, time taken to resolve queries, communication skills and patience; and iiNet ADSL customers were more likely to rate support staff as very good.
The clear winners in the survey were the smaller ISP companies, newcomers such as Internode and Netspace – where customers were more likely to be satisfied with their connection speed and total cost of the account.
Mr Zinn said that the lesser-known ISP companies could compete on price and were able to pay closer attention to service.
The survey also found AAPT users were more likely to be very satisfied with the total cost of their accounts.
Mr Zinn said consumers also considered customer service and technical support as crucial to a good experience with their ISP provider.
Optus customers rated support staff as very poor in their communication skills.
Mr Zinn said the survey had highlighted the fact that Australia’s broadband market was maturing, but also that the overall quality of service had decreased.
