Broadband Customers Motivated by Price, Not Speed

Fios rated high in customer satisfaction on Morgan Stanley survey

Broadband customers are bargain hunters, according to a new study by Morgan Stanley.

The investment firm’s entertainment group polled 2,500 U.S. based subscribers about their internet and cable plans and found that price, not speed, is the motivating factor behind most users’ decisions to switch services.

Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed said that a lower costing alternative would prompt them to make a shift as opposed to 15 percent who said they would seek out faster options, seven percent who cited better reliability for their home networks and 3 percent who cited better customer service. Thirteen percent of respondents said nothing would induce them to quit their current service.

Also read: Why A La Carte Cable Could Kill TV’s Golden Age

When it comes to customer satisfaction, Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse trumped traditional cable companies. Forty-two percent of FiOS customers and 40 percent of U-Verse customers reported that they were “very satisfied” with their broadband product compared with 37 percent of Cox customers, 33 percent of Comcast customers and 32 percent of Time Warner Cable customers.

In terms of pricing, cable was the more expensive option — customers reported paying an average of $53 for cable compared with $42 a month for DSL.

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