Cable Modem Tops in Satisfaction

The Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing released a new
consumer-research study Tuesday showing that 80 percent of cable-modem customers
are satisfied or completely satisfied with their service.

That put cable-modem customer satisfaction solidly ahead of the ratings for
digital-subscriber-line (65 percent) and dial-up subscribers (52 percent),
according to CTAM.

The CTAM study is based on 4,600 respondents surveyed by Harris Interactive
Inc.

In another satisfaction measure of the three competitive Internet-access
service types, CTAM reported that 95 percent of cable-modem customers said they
will definitely or probably continue their service for another six months,
versus 87 percent of DSL and 82 percent of dial-up subscribers.

Among dial-up customers, CTAM pointed out that those who have subscribed for
fewer than two years are significantly less likely to stay with their current
provider (79 percent).

In other findings, CTAM said cable-modem service dominated in terms of
trustworthiness, installation and upload speed.

DSL tended to rank second in most categories, but dial-up supplanted DSL when
it came to customer service and technical support.