WASHINGTON-More than one-third-35 percent-of respondents to a survey by the National Regulatory Research Institute would give their mobile-phone carriers D or F grades, said the NRRI in a report released late Thursday.
“The number of years since competition began in the long-distance and cellular markets, the current level of competition and levels of marketing activity all would suggest a relatively high level of effective choice should exist in cellular service. One might expect that long-distance and cellular service would be roughly equal in their percentages of dissatisfied customers who nonetheless did not switch providers. Yet the Consumer Utility Benchmark Survey results show a higher percentage of dissatisfied consumers who stayed with their cellular providers (23.9 percent) than for long distance (16.8 percent),” said NRRI.
The survey results were released as the clock ticks down to wireless LNP, and NRRI admits “with WLNP effective Nov. 24, dissatisfied customers will find it easier to switch providers.”
“Why am I not surprised that NRRI, made up entirely of regulators, has taken a survey that finds more regulation is needed? It is not. Competition and voluntary industry steps like the consumer code are the vehicles which best deliver choice, innovation and lower prices to wireless customers,” said Travis Larson, spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.
How many customers and how soon they will switch is the great unknown. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll released Friday suggested that an onslaught of switching Monday might not occur. Only 1 percent of 700 mobile-phone users contacted said they would switch Monday. That number grows to 4 percent within a month, just in time for the holidays.
NRRI said the results of its survey would be a “red flag” for regulators. “Gaps in wireless service quality are a red flag to many policy-makers at state regulatory commissions,” said NRRI.
Indeed, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which represents state regulators and met earlier this week in Atlanta, passed a resolution calling for better wireless customer service quality, better training of customer-service staff and easier-to-read bills with explanations of what is a mandated tax or surcharge.
