Always Online Customers

Recent Ookla analysis has revealed some interesting trends in mobile broadband usage that I think have implications for internet service providers (ISPs). The percentage of consumers who describe themselves as always online grew from 30 percent to 69 percent during the pandemic, and Ookla delves into some of the reasons why. By 2021, users who identified as always online were twice as likely to have reported an issue to customer service. About one-third of cellular customers are unhappy with customer service. One of the most interesting findings is that almost half (47 percent) of customers who had a customer service issue in the past 18 months either have switched or want to switch to another cellular carrier. It’s probably not a big stretch to say that the customers who use broadband the most have the highest expectations for the performance of an ISP network and for the ability of customer service to resolve issues. Unfortunately, the large cable companies and telcos have the lowest-rated customer service in the country. To be ranked at the bottom can only be due to an accumulation of poor customer service experiences with customers. Many markets are going to see new competitors in the next few years. There will be almost ubiquitous FWA cellular broadband in most cable markets. It will be interesting to see how many people will bail on the existing cable company to change to 100 Mbps cellular broadband.

[Doug Dawson is president of CCG Consulting.]