NEW DELHI, INDIA: A nation-wide mobile users' satisfaction survey, conducted by CyberMedia's flagship communications industry monthly Voice&Data,reveals that Virgin Mobile topped user satisfaction in 2008 while players like Airtel, BPL, Idea, MTNL and Spice fell short of the benchmark set by telecom watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Consumer satisfaction levels improved in 2008 compared to last year as five operators (out of 11) crossed the TRAI user satisfaction benchmark against three service providers in  007, according to the online survey conducted by Voice&Data in association with  uxtConsult, an online research firm.  A sample of 1,318 mobile users in India was quizzed on various factors to determine overall user satisfaction.

BSNL and Vodafone rubbed shoulders for the second spot with scores of 91.96% and 91.97%, respectively. The two other players to cross the TRAI benchmark of 90% are Reliance  ommunications and Tata Indicom.

Last year's top scorer Aircel slipped from 92.23% last year to 85.44% this year, according to the online survey results released by Voice&Data in its January issue.

"A side effect of the scorching pace of growth of the mobile phones in India is the rapid drop in quality of service. Five major players Airtel, BPL, Idea, MTNL, Spice have yet  o touch their previous best score achieved in 2005. This is a cause for major concern," CyberMedia's Chief Editor Prasanto K. Roy said on the results of the survey.

"We see rapidly declining quality of service stemming from poor network availability and lack of customer care as the top issues for the mobile players," Roy added. "This is  nfortunate because millions of low-ARPU users may tolerate poor QoS, it's the high-usage customers who bump up the ARPU that are likely to be a lot less tolerant of poor service. That is dangerous for the operators."

The survey conducted during October November 2008 recorded user satisfaction on five broad parameters presales/sales, network availability, VAS, customer care, and billing.

Expectedly, each of the service providers exceeded the 90% user satisfaction benchmark with on the presales and sales parameter with Virgin Mobile topping the list followed by MTNL, leaving behind Airtel and Vodafone.

Users participating in the survey found BPL and MTNL's network performance most satisfactory with high scores of 98.2% and 97% respectively with Airtel and Idea just  making the cut above the 90% mark.

On the Value Added Services (VAS) parameter BSNL topped the charts with only Idea and Aircel performing below the TRAI benchmark.

Interestingly on the customer care parameter none of the 11 players, including the topper Virgin Mobile, could muster enough support from users to get past the 90% benchmark. In  terms of billing integrity the four toppers were Virgin, Vodafone, BSNL and Reliance.

The average waiting time to speak to a customer care representative of Airtel and BSNL was 4.8 minutes. Idea and Spice customer had to wait an average of 5 minutes with Vodafone  aving to wait 5.2 minutes.

SMS, Long Distance Calling, Call Waiting Top services list

SMS (94.8%), long distance calling (70%) and call waiting (58.1%) were the top 3 mobile services reported by the users.  Roaming, ring tune / caller tune downloads, call forwarding / diverts and SMS chatting were the other popular features with at least one in two users reporting usage.

The business applications like GPRS / Internet (42.8%), voice mail (37%) and call conferencing (30%) were the next in terms of popularity.

The top mobile value added services used include entertainment jokes, astrology, games (25%) and cricket (20.8%).

Nearly one in five users reported using mobile banking, participating in contests and promotions and leaving voice messages regularly.

While one in six users subscribes to info services news, stocks, finance-only one in seven uses the rail reservation and air check-in and dial-in services like ordering food and taxi.

User satisfaction in Metro Circles Improves Mobile services in metro circles improved during 2008 with all the operators, except Aircel, showing higher customer satisfaction  and rossing the benchmark set by TRAI. Tata Indicom ranked first in the metro circles, followed by BPL, Vodafone and BSNL with very close scores.

However, of the 8 service providers in A Circles BSNL (93.7%), Vodafone (91.6%), Reliance (91.3%) and Aircel (90.3%) crossed the cut off in customer satisfaction. Only BSNL, Vodafone and Reliance improved upon their previous year scores.

In B and C circles Tata Indicom topped the services chart at 96.5%. Bharti Airtel was second scoring 93.1%. In these circles all operators leaving Aircel and Idea reached the TRAI benchmark.

For third consecutive year Airtel was the Top of the Mind Brand. Vodafone was second in the list of most recalled brands.

In 2009 new QoS measures might be introduced in the wake of TRAI floating a consultation paper to bring stringent quality benchmarks.

Most attractive tariffs

One in three participants in the survey believe that Airtel offers the most effective tariff plans. One in seven users perceive BSNL, Vodafone and Idea to be offering the least cost options.

The percentage of users who have been using mobile phones for over 3 years has grown steadily-from 42.6% to 57.5%-since the survey was first conducted 3 years ago.

The SAARC Region

Similar surveys were conducted in SAARC nations to trace the mobile user satisfaction. A total of 843 mobile subscribers were interviewed  for the survey in Pakistan, 594 in Bangladesh, 272 in Sri Lanka, 150 in Bhutan, 226 in Maldives and 139 in Nepal. Afghanistan was not covered since the country does not have Internet penetration strong enough to conduct the survey.

Top scorers for overall satisfaction levels in the SAARC countries are as follows:

Bangladesh Sheba Telecom
Bhutan Bhutan Telecom
Maldives Dhiraagu
Nepal Spice Nepal
Pakistan Warid Telecom
Sri Lanka Lanka Cellular

Mobile users across SAARC region voted SMS as the most popular application. 3G awareness was the highest in Bangladesh.

About the Survey

JuxtConsult, an online research firm, conducted an online survey in October-November 2008 in association with Voice&Data. Parameters such as sales and presales (1% weightage), network quality (33%), value added services (14%), customer care (36%) and billing  integrity (16%) are driving customer satisfaction.

An independent telephonic validation of 50% of the respondents to verify their authenticity was  also done. Around 98% of the respondents picked up the call and there was less than one per cent error for almost all the questions validated during the process.