Price Top Reason Customers Choose ISP, but Reliability Key, Too: JD Power

Price is the top reason residential customers choose an internet service, but performance and reliability are the most influential factors in predicting overall customer satisfaction, said a J.D. Power report Thursday. Some 58% of a customer’s satisfaction with broadband service is based on quality and consistency of the internet connection, said Ian Greenblatt, managing director. “With customers being least satisfied with cost of service, a consistent experience at a reasonable price is table stakes for providers -- each outage or other problem causes a customer to review that price-driven choice for real value,” Greenblatt said. Among providers, Verizon ranked highest in the East region with a score of 758; Midco ranked highest in the North Central region (734), nudging out AT&T (724) and CenturyLink (717); AT&T had the highest customer satisfaction in the South (761) and West (729) over Xfinity at 736 and 709, respectively. The study is based on responses from 22,945 customers November-August.