To develop a more in-depth picture of how the major data network service providers stack up, we asked users to grade their primary carriers on many distinct attributes, including the core factors previously discussed. First, we asked about the most basic component - the reliability of the services themselves. Then we examined various other characteristics, including qualities of the customer service representatives, basic repairs, service and support, and problem handling. Finally, we combined those individual ratings to the get the average satisfaction grades. Overall, across categories, readers tend to be most satisfied with service reliability and far less satisfied with the way carriers handle specific problems.
Satisfaction is lowest with the more recently developed Web support avenues.
However, certain key individual characteristics highlighted in the report cards were closely tied to overall satisfaction with carriers. While none of these marks is high enough to earn any carrier a place on the Honor Roll, it's clear that improvements in only a few areas would have placed several companies on the list. However, other areas of relative strength and weakness varied considerably from vendor to vendor. For example, BellSouth scored relatively poorly in its follow-up activities and performance reports. Moreover, low-performing Ameritech won one of the highest marks for product line integration.