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To: blankmind who wrote (1124)	2/5/1998 8:54:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

What customers want and how ISPs stack up By Daniel Briere and Christine Heckart T hese days, if you have the misfortune of selecting the wrong Internet service provider, you've got headaches Tylenol can't touch. That's one reason TeleChoice recently conducted a survey to evaluate ISPs. This is the first comprehensive survey to ask IT managers what they look for in an ISP and how the major ISPs stack up. The survey also sought to find out which customers are planning to change ISPs and why, and to determine what value-added services business customers are looking for. Almost unanimously, survey respondents cited service reliability as the most critical factor in selecting an ISP. Placing a close second in importance is service performance, such as delays, packet loss and capacity. Speedy problem diagnosis and repair came next, followed by competence and knowledge of customer service and technical support. The big question: How did the ISPs stack up? The overall winner according to the survey was UUNET. AT&T finished second, followed by GTE Internetworking, formerly BBN Planet. Relative newcomer MindSpring deserves honorable mention for fourth place. GTE Internetworking was judged by the highest percentage of respondents as among the best in the industry for service reliability. GTE Internetworking's reliability rating was closely followed by UUNET's. Interestingly, regional Bell operating companies as a group rated third. MindSpring won top honors for pricing and service levels. MindSpring seems to have found a formula for offering excellent service at very competitive prices, which puts it in a strong position with price-sensitive small businesses.

To: blankmind who wrote (1124)	2/5/1998 8:55:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

UUNET tied with the RBOCs for best in service performance. GTE Internetworking and AT&T also stood out from the pack as providing outstanding service performance. The fact that GTE and AT&T were neck and neck probably reflects the fact that BBN Planet was under AT&T's watchful eye at the time of the survey. Next year when we redo the survey, we expect things could look different with AT&T's own engine driving its services. You can check out the scores for 11 of the major U.S. ISPs on our Web site at www.telechoice.com. Details about how customers are using the Internet, what new services they want from service providers and who plans on making changes to their ISP in the next six months are available in the full report. The information in the survey also is intended to help your service providers create new offerings to better meet your needs. And because this survey will be an annual event, we'll be able to keep you posted on which companies are keeping pace and which are losing the race. Stay tuned.