Brighthouse Tops Latest J.D. Power & Associates Rankings

Verizon, WOW! and EarthLink also received accolades

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/28/2009 10:04:08 AM

Brighthouse Networks (Road Runner) was the highest ranked ISP for customer service in the South in the most recent J.D. Power & Associates rankings.

It scored "among the best" (the highest ranking) in performance and reliability, cost of service, customer service, and billing, and "better than most" in offerings and promotions.

Verizon was the overall winner in the East region, WOW! ranked highest in the North Central region, while EarthLink topped the West region.

According to the survey, the most popular combo among subscribers taking bundled service was a combination of video and Internet (about a third). The number of customers who take the triple-play bundle of video, voice and data has increased from 16% in 2008 to 19% in 2009.

In addition, the number who said they would probably or definitely add voice to the mix increased from 43% in 2008 to 53%.

Another good sign for customer satisfaction scores, the average hold time for customers with questions was down 30 seconds in 2009 from the year before.

The study is based on 23,997 residential Internet customers polled in January, March and July 2009.