Telecoms managers call time on service quality

The Communications Management Association (CMA) has called on the telecoms industry to improve service delivery in the wake of findings from its 15th annual members' survey, which reveals deep levels of dissatisfaction.

The report noted that highly rated individual supplier performances concealed "an overall quality of service from the industry that still remains resolutely below the level at which customers could be described as satisfied."

And its damning evaluation is all the more influential when it is considered that its members spend £13.1 billion every year on IT communications equipment and services.

Glenn Powell, CMA chief executive, issued a clear wake-up call in his comments on the survey findings: "We challenge the industry to better the customer experiences and value for money that businesses are currently being offered and we call on the suppliers to redouble their efforts to deliver a quality service," he said.

The best performer in the fixed communications market for overall quality of customer experience to the customer was Verizon Business, with Vodafone and BT also faring well in terms of general service and strategic perceptions.

Mobile operators also produced an improvement on their 2006 results, with a rise in the overall level of satisfaction. But overall satisfaction levels did not regain the scores achieved in 2005.

Other key findings included the fact that demand does not look likely to suffer as a result: 55 per cent had implemented a converged internet protocol (IP) network, demonstrating steady growth from 47 per cent in 2006 and 45 per cent in 2005; almost half (47 per cent) had deployed at least one element of unified communications; and most organisations (68 per cent) said voice over IP (VoIP) was a key element of their company's collaboration and environmental impact reduction strategies.

However, the reality of VoIP implementations appeared to take on a more pragmatic note with 52 per cent saying their company's migration had been more complex than expected. And more than half of the CMA's survey respondents (58 per cent) said that their own businesses and public service organisations want SDSL but can't get it where they need it.

The report also found a consistently robust number of business users (54 per cent in 2004, 55 per cent in 2005, 68 per cent last year and 74 per cent this year) see connected handheld devices as a "key factor" in their communications and networks strategies.

And the vast majority (91 per cent) of respondents considered that their spending on IP services would either increase again or stay the same in the next 12 months. This was complemented by 86 per cent who said that their company's spending on mobile telecoms would either increase or stay the same over the period.

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