September 8, 2005

T-Mobile USA again showed that size is not what's most important to customers.

The industry's smallest nationwide operator posted the highest customer satisfaction performance results across all six regions in the J.D. Power and Associates 2005 U.S. Wireless Regional Customer Satisfaction Index Study.

The study was based on experiences reported by 24,096 wireless users and based on several criteria, including call performance and reliability, customer service, service plan options, brand image, cost of service and billing.

T-Mobile USA also posted top rankings throughout all six regions in the 2004 study.

Overall, J.D. Power found that customer satisfaction dropped 10 percent compared with its 2004 survey, which was the biggest year-over-year change since the study was launched in 1995.

J.D. Power cited recent merger-and-acquisition activity as a potential cause as consumers typically have negative short-term perceptions of industry consolidation.

"Given the number of major changes consumers have experienced over the past couple of years, the gap between customer expectations and actual service experience tends to widen as uncertainty from mergers greatly influences consumer perceptions," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates.

Parsons added that there was a 5-percent increase in the intent of consumers to switch wireless carriers during the next 12 months in the 2005 survey compared with stable trends in the past two surveys.

T-Mobile USA was singled out by J.D. Power as "demonstrating a competitive advantage in service plan options, cost of service and billing."

Verizon Wireless also posted a strong showing, posting a tie with T-Mobile USA for top placing in four regions-Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, North Central and West. J.D. Power noted the carrier's main strengths were in call quality and brand image.

Regional operator U.S. Cellular Corp. also tied T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless for the top spot in the North Central region.

Other carriers included in the survey included Cingular Wireless L.L.C., Sprint Corp., Nextel Communications Inc., Alltel Corp. and Qwest Communications International Inc.

Source: RCR News