SLAs, which were available from a few providers last year, now are offered by enough ISPs to represent network availability. TeleChoice added ISP staying power in the market as an evaluation criterion because many customers have voiced discontent with the merger and acquisition mania that has seized the industry. In fact, nearly half of the ISPs rated in this survey were directly involved in acquisitions in 1998. Customers have said they don't like being traded like poker chips, but we wondered how important customers felt stability was relative to other concerns. Stability also is related to brand name.
Customers can use a solid brand name as a proxy for continued high-quality service.
Finally, we included some of the newer service offerings, such as online performance monitoring tools and a single bill for all telecom services, for two reasons. First, we wondered how important these criteria are today, and second, we wanted to establish a baseline for comparison in next year's study. Overall, respondents rated connection availability and network performance as the most important criteria in evaluating an ISP, as was the case in the 1997 survey. Network capacity, which many use as a means of projecting performance before purchase, received the third highest importance rating among the criteria, at 83 percent. Speed of diagnosis and repair, which is closely related to availability, followed network capacity with a rating of 82 percent.