Customer satisfaction overlooked in the search for a broadband plan

Selecting a broadband plan can be bewildering, with a huge range of different types, providers and plans.  Broadband comparison site, www.broadbandexpert.com.au, commercial director Rob Webber believes one aspect often overlooked in the search for the lowest price plan is customer service.

“When choosing a new broadband deal, customer support is often overlooked,” Webber says. “However, this is really important, as paying a few dollars less each month is going to feel like a false economy if you keep losing connection and are constantly on the phone with customer support.”

Broadband Expert’s recent customer survey revealed huge differences in customer satisfaction levels between the top and bottom providers. For results collected from the www.broadbandexpert.com.au site during the period of 1 November 2009 to 30 April 2010, Internode was crowned the most popular provider with a score of 84 percent and Dodo scored the least with 58 percent.

Broadband Expert suggests a few simple questions before committing to a broadband provider will help ensure the right choice first time:

Fixed line broadband or mobile broadband? – If the vast majority of use is likely to be at home then a fixed line broadband (broadband through a phone line) will offer a faster and more stable connection with a more generous download allowance. The biggest advantage of mobile broadband is being able to get online anywhere with a strong signal from your mobile phone network. However, mobile broadband speeds are on average around half of fixed line services and are generally poorer outside of metro areas.

Naked broadband or a bundled deal? – Bundling your broadband with your home phone line will often save money. Naked broadband (broadband on its own) can be simpler to setup, especially if you’re happy with your existing home phone deal or tied into a long term contract.

Download speeds – Where ‘up to’ speeds are quoted, it’s worth remembering that these are the theoretical top speeds. Our speed tests results reveal that on average, only around 50 percent of the quoted speed will be achieved. Internet users that enjoy downloading movies and playing games online should opt for packages with faster speeds.

Data allowance – Many people pay for plans with larger data allowances than required. Internet users, whose primary activities include browsing the web, email and downloading the occasional music track, should find the cheaper 5-10GB data allowance packages will be more than adequate.  Gamers and those that regularly download movies or watch TV programs online should look at 40GB+ packages.  As a rough guide, downloading a movie is around 500Mb, a music track around 2-3Mb, whilst downloading 20 web pages uses about 1Mb.

Prepaid or contract? – Long-term contract deals usually represent better value in the long run, however month by month deals offer greater flexibility if you move house or are unhappy with the service. Prepaid plans are very popular with mobile broadband users, as this is typically used as a supplementary service to a  home broadband connection.

There are a wide range of factors to take into account when choosing a broadband plan.  In addition to comparing plans by download speeds, data limits and monthly cost, it is worth reading customer reviews to see what others say about their ISP before committing to a long term contract.