Bell tops broadband speed tests, but falls in customer satisfaction survey

In a pair of studies measuring home internet service this week, BCE Inc. was positioned at the two ends of the spectrum, topping out the list of fastest connections in Canada, but falling to near the bottom of the pack in customer satisfaction. Results of reports from PC Magazine and J.D. Power, the first measuring speed and the other customer satisfaction, were announced on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. Bell came in with the fastest speeds on average, with a 115 Mbps PCMag “speed index” rating, measured by combining percentages of upload and download speeds. That’s a pretty significant increase from last year’s 27 Mbps. Both PCMag and Bell chalk up their results to the roll-out of Bell’s all-fibre network in places like Toronto. "Bell's strategy to lead investment and innovation in Canada's next-generation broadband networks is delivering the best Internet experience to both consumers and business customers," said Rizwan Jamal, the president of Bell Residential and Small Business, in a press release on Wednesday. Other providers also saw increases, with Rogers Communications Inc. service posting a 87.6 Mbps score, growing from 67.3 Mbps last year. That trend continued for the industry. “Has speed improved for all the ISPs? Yes. Yes it has,” wrote PCMag. “ jumped from eighth place to fourth by increasing its index from last year's 22.0 to 55.9 this year. went from 30.3 to 55.5, and Eastlink from 37.8 to 54.2.” Regionally, the results were encouraging for Newfoundland and Labrador residents, with the province posting a speed index score of 146.9 Mbps. New Brunswick and Quebec came in second and third with scores of 100 Mbps and 97.3 Mbps, respectively. To compile the results of the study, PCMag had users test their home internet speeds and presented the info by province, city and provider. The results were derived from 11,992 tests, and were a gathered between September 2017 and June of this year, according to PCMag’s website. Also measured regionally was customer service by J.D. Power. Top scorers were Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. (Sasktel) in the west and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron in the east, according to the consumer group’s 2018 Canada Internet Service Provider Customer Satisfaction Survey. The same companies ranked at the top of a similar survey for television providers. In the middle of the pack of the internet scores, was Cogeco Inc. in the east, and Telus and Shaw in the west. For the TV rankings, Shaw and Cogeco took the middle in the east while Telus and Shaw did the same in the west. Bell did less well, posting the second worst score for both internet and TV service, only beaten by Rogers coming in at the bottom of the eastern ratings. In the west, subsidiary Bell MTS took the last spot for internet service and Telus the second-last, while for TV service, Bell was last, followed by Bell MTS. “Videotron and SaskTel have continued to deliver consistently on all key drivers of customer satisfaction as well as carry strong brand advocacy and image in the eyes of their customers,” wrote Adrian Chung, the director of the Technology, Media and Telecom Practice at J.D. Power in Canada in an email to The Wire Report. “While improving, Bell and Rogers face more challenges with providing consistent quality and reliability of their services, resulting in the need to engage more often with various Customer Service channels seeking resolution.” The consumer satisfaction group asked internet service customers’ opinion about five factors of their experience. Listed in order of weight given in the ranking, J.D. Power inquired about the performance and reliability, cost of service, communication, billing, and customer service of each internet service provider. Additionally, as well as those factors, J.D. Power asked about programming in its television survey, weighting it between cost of service and communication. The report also outlined that 63 per cent of respondents with an internet-enabled home appliance would pay more for their internet connection, compared to 50 per cent of respondents who don’t own smart home products. “Technology advancements continue to influence the way consumers use the internet,” said Chung in a press release published with the results. “They’ve become enablers in people’s lives and, as such, customer expectations of service providers are evolving. Reliability and faster speeds are increasingly more important factors in customer expectations and satisfaction, especially among younger and more tech-dependent users. According to the release announcing the results, 7,286 Canadian internet customers and 7,342 television customers responded to a survey field between March and April this year. J.D Power did not provide a margin of error before publication. — With reporting by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Bell tops broadband speed tests, but falls in customer satisfaction survey

News | 06/22/2018 5:06 pm EDT

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