Skip to main content

Broadband Customer Purchase Preference

Digital-subscriber-line providers have a slight edge over cable broadband when it comes to customer value perceptions based on lowest price, but cable turns the tables when it comes to the broadband access speed.

That's according to a September survey of 1,455 U.S. adults who have residential online service. With a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points, the survey was conducted by comScore Networks.

The survey found 56 percent of customers with DSL service rate their service provider as "good" or "very good" based on service value vs. the amount they pay for it. That compares to 50 percent of cable broadband customers who applied the same evaluations. But when they rated their service based on "speed," 78 percent of cable customers said their providers were "good" or "very good," vs. 70 percent of DSL customers. Cable also displayed an advantage over DSL � 79 percent to 75 percent � in value rankings based on "performance."

Other findings:

A relatively equal percentage of dial-up, DSL and cable broadband customers (around 15 percent) say they'd never consider switching providers.

Among customers who had switched online service providers within the past 12 months, 67 percent went from a dial-up provider to a high-speed DSL or cable provider; 19 percent left a DSL provider; and 14 percent dropped their cable broadband service. DSL providers picked up 40 percent of the castaways, against 35 percent for cable and 20 percent for dial-up providers.

Customer service is a relatively minor factor in influencing decisions to switch providers. Only 6 percent of those saying they may switch providers in the next 12 months cited customer service as a motivating factor. The biggest reasons were better speed and a better price, cited by 36 percent and 35 percent of respondents, respectively.

Popular posts from this blog

Why Europe's AI Investment Surge is Strategic

When enterprises begin treating AI budget as the line item they protect last when cutting elsewhere, the market has crossed a threshold that analysts rarely name explicitly. That is precisely where Europe now stands. A new forecast from IDC projects European AI spending will reach nearly $470 billion by 2030, expanding at a 35 percent CAGR over the next five years. European enterprises are allocating capital toward AI because the operational returns on cost efficiency, risk mitigation, and resilience are now demonstrable enough to justify sustained budget commitment. The strategic implication is significant: AI has moved from the innovation portfolio into core operational infrastructure. European AI Market Development Generative AI solutions, already embedded across enterprise deployments, are expected to account for more than 55 percent of the total market by the end of the forecast period.  Software is both the largest technology segment, at 54.9 percent of total spending in 2026...