January 30, 2018 17:14

ISPs Get Approval Rating in New Public Opinion Poll

The Communication Regulatory Authority has published results of a survey on the level of public satisfaction with services offered by Internet service providers

The opinion poll included 13,000 Internet users.

Iran’s Communication Regulatory Authority has released the results of its second survey on users’ opinion about major local landline and wireless (WiMax) Internet service providers.

“During the survey conducted from April 21 to Nov. 22 of last year, 13,000 Internet users were questioned,” the ombudsman’s deputy director for supervising and regulating firms Majid Haghi was quoted as saying on the CRA website.

Users were questioned about the general quality of services, speed, costs and after-sales services. “Based on users’ opinion Shatel, HiWeba and AsiaTech are respectively the best landline Iranian Internet service providers,” Haghi said.

Based on the aforementioned criteria and users input, ISPs can receive up to 20 scores from CRA. This is not the first time that CRA has conducted such a survey and says more will be undertaken.

Privately owned ISP Shatel scored 15.98 in the survey, closely followed by its arch rivals HiWeb with 15.64 and AsiaTech 14.69. Shatel and HiWeb have been able to earn better reviews from users compared to the previous poll, while customers’ satisfaction with AsiaTech services declined slightly.

According to the report, the state-owned Telecommunication Company of Iran fared poorly in the survey and earned 11.51 points out of 20 — the lowest score among major landline ISPs.

Haghi says such public surveys can and must help create a more transparent environment in the domestic Internet service providing sector and help improve competitiveness among the ISPs.

WiMAX Services

In addition to landline Internet, broadband wireless services (WiMAX) are offered by two companies namely MTN Irancell and Mobinnet. In CRA’s survey, Irancell and Mobinnet WiMAX subscribers were questioned about satisfaction with the services.

Mobinnet scored 14.46 in the survey while Irancell got 10.52. This is while in the previous round of the survey, Mobinnet with 11.92 was trailing behind Irancell with 12.68.

For participating in the surveys, users should create an account on CRA’s website. On the survey’s sign up page, after entering a phone number users are required to choose with which ISP they have a subscription. After that they receive an authentication text message.

To encourage users to participate in the surveys, CRA offers gifts to participants. Gifts include tablets, mobile phones, external hard disks, smart watches and modems. The ombudsman gave 45 gifts to those surveyed in this round.