Virgin tops Voice&Data user satisfaction survey

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

The survey was conducted by Voice & Data in association with JuxtConsult, online research firm. The survey report, released today, stated that the 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 2007.

A sample of 1,318 mobile users in India was quizzed on various factors to determine overall user satisfaction, said a press release.

BSNL and Vodafone rubbed shoulders for the second spot with scores of 91.96 per cent and 91.97 per cent respectively. The two other players to cross the TRAI benchmark of 90 per cent were Reliance Communications and Tata Indicom.

Last year's top scorer Airtel slipped from 92.23 per cent last year to 85.44 per cent this year.

"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 to touch their previous best score achieved in 2005. This is a cause for major concern," said, Prasanto K. Roy, chief editor, CyberMedia.

"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.

The survey conducted during October-November 2008 recorded user satisfaction on five broad parameters – pre-sales/sales, network availability, VAS, customer care, and billing, the release said.

Each of the service providers exceeded the 90 per cent user satisfaction benchmark with Virgin Mobile taking the lead in the pre-sales and sales section followed by MTNL.

While in the network availability section, BPL and MTNL took the lead by presenting the best performance with high scores of 98.2 per cent and 97 per cent respectively, followed by Airtel and Idea just making the cut above the 90 per cent mark, the release added.

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

In 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 per cent benchmark. While in terms of billing integrity the four toppers were Virgin, Vodafone, BSNL and Reliance, the release added.

Under user satisfaction category in metro circles Tata Indicom ranked first in the metro circles, followed by BPL, Vodafone and BSNL with very close scores.