Quality, Complaints and Operator switching

No significant variations from service to service were seen in terms of the consumer assessment of the evolution of the electronics market from 2009 to 2010.

Meanwhile, consumers considered that tariffs had evolved less favourably, with an average assessment below 6 (on a scale of 1 – a lot worse to 10 – a lot better).

Unit: Scale 1 (a lot worse) to 10 (a lot better)
Source: ICP-ANACOM, Survey on the use of electronic communications services by small and medium-sized enterprises, December 2010
Base: All companies with less than 250 staff according to service in possession
Note: On a scale of 1 to 10, the absolute margins for error do not exceed 0.1 absolute points, except in the case of mobile Internet where absolute margin for error varies between 0.12 and 0.14 points.

The highest levels of satisfaction among micro, small and medium-sized companies (7.0 on a scale of 1 – very dissatisfied to 10 – very satisfied) are associated with the mobile telephone service. This situation is confirmed by the low rate of operator switching associated with this service (5.9 percent). However, around 1/5 of business customers report having submitted at least one complaint during 2010.

In contrast, the mobile Internet access service had a slightly lower level of satisfaction among business customers (6.7); However, the propensity to switch operator or to submit a complaint tends to be the lowest of the services subject to analysis.

Unit: % / Scale 1 (very dissatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied)
Source: ICP-ANACOM, Survey on the use of electronic communications services by small and medium-sized enterprises, December 2010
Base: All companies with less than 250 staff according to service in possession (excludes non-responses)
Note: Estimates: (#) Unreliable estimate; (*) Acceptable estimate; (no symbol) Reliable estimate (see Footnote 2). On a scale of 1 to 10, the absolute margins for error do not exceed 0.1 absolute points, except in the case of mobile Internet where absolute margin for error is 0.13 points

The highest rate of operator switching was reported for the fixed telephone service, with over 10 percent of respondents switching provider during 2010.

Compared to 2007, the survey highlights the following aspects:

• A reduction is reported in the total number of fixed telephone service customers who have submitted a complaint, falling from 37.1 percent to 29.5 percent in 2010. Although this service’s penetration rate has been declining, an improvement is reported in average satisfaction with providers by this service’s business customers (companies with fewer than 250 employees).
   
• The mobile telephone service has seen a decline in overall levels of customer satisfaction and a slight increase is reported in the number of customers submitting a complaint (increasing 3 percentage points between 2007 and 2010), despite an increase in business customers with fewer than 250 employees.

Unit: % / Scale 1 (very dissatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied)
Source: ICP-ANACOM, Survey on the use of electronic communications services by small and medium-sized enterprises, December 2010
 (1) Base: All companies with less than 250 staff
(2) Base: All companies with less than 250 staff according to service in possession (excludes non-responses)
Note: Estimates: (#) Unreliable estimate; (*) Acceptable estimate; (no symbol) Reliable estimate (see Footnote 2). On a scale of 1 to 10, the absolute margins for error do not exceed 0.1 absolute points, except in the case of mobile Internet where absolute margin for error is 0.13 points in 2010.