Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN), the global leader in mobile and Internet test & measurement solutions for continuously improving the online experience, today announced the results of its Industry Study Series of Voice Service Providers. The study looked at reliability and performance of leading VoIP, PacketCable and local wireline services.
Keynote’s competitive research study provides valuable data and insight that help VoIP providers of both managed networks and unmanaged networks overcome the quality barriers separating them from traditional local wireline phone service. The study compares the relative performance over a single month of a local wireline service (AT&T) with seven broadband VoIP providers (AT&T CallVantage, EarthLink trueVoice, Lingo, Packet8, Verizon VoiceWing, Vonage, and Vonics Digital) and two cable voice service providers (Time Warner Digital Phone and Comcast Digital Voice) from calls made from residential locations in New York and San Francisco.
While VoIP’s market share continues to grow, a recent study* showed that the number of traditional fixed line customers continued to drop sharply during 2007 with Verizon and AT&T both reporting declines of around 10% in residential wireline accounts. The growth in VoIP was a major contributor to this decline, in particular cable VoIP, with subscriber growth rates around 75%. VoIP reliability and audio clarity remain important factors that will influence the long-term customer retention potential of these new market players. “The service level performance of traditional wireline voice service continues to outperform the VoIP competition. Cable companies using managed networks are rapidly closing the gap and will continue to make this an exciting market to watch,” remarked Ben Rushlo, senior manager with Keynote’s competitive research group.
VoIP Service Provider Study, Wave 5 Competitive Research Results
Keynote’s study reveals that while most voice service offerings from the cable companies and VoIP service providers trail traditional wireline service in quality, some service providers are highly competitive.
Keynote’s new study of voice service quality uncovered the following observations:
- Consumers are more likely to experience merely tolerable, rather than completely satisfactory audio delay on VoIP calls.
- One VoIP service provider studied had no calls measuring a MOS of 4.0 or better, a key threshold for end user satisfaction; the best a consumer on this service can hope for is merely tolerable sounding audio.
- One VoIP provider experienced audio delay of more than 150 ms for every call placed, increasing the likelihood of conversational disruption for end users.
- One VoIP provider required six seconds more than other VoIP providers to connect calls after dialing.
- There were large quality gaps between VoIP providers on unmanaged networks and other service providers.
These findings are of great significance to VoIP providers who are under increasing market pressure to understand and prevent high rates of customer attrition and churn in a rapidly changing market. To find out more information about purchasing the complete Keynote voice competitive research study including detailed rankings, please visit: http://www.keynote.com/keynote_competitive_research/industry_studies/ voice.html
About Keynote Voice Perspective
Voice service providers can leverage the competitive insight provided through Keynote’s Voice Perspective® for Service Providers for on-going real time monitoring of voice quality from representative locations to improve their call performance in target markets. Combining Keynote's voice monitoring services and competitive insights with internal network monitoring tools will allow providers to adopt an outbound focus and assure a quality experience for the end user. Keynote can design an ongoing voice quality measurement and monitoring implementation for multiple markets including multiple competitors. Service providers can leverage Keynote's independent assessment to align their resources and infrastructure investments with customer acquisition and retention goals.
In addition, Keynote can provide custom analysis to help align operations teams with customer experience enhancement goals. To learn more about Voice Perspective for Service Providers view: http://www.keynote.com/products/voip_and_streaming/ voip_quality/voice_perspective_sp.html
Availability and Pricing for Wave 5 Study and Voice Perspective
Keynote’s Wave 5 study is available for purchase from Keynote, includes detailed results, custom analysis of the data and all raw measurement data. For information, please visit: http://www.keynote.com/keynote_competitive_research/industry_studies/ voice.html
Keynote’s Voice Perspective for Service Providers is available immediately. Pricing is customized based on the number of cities, providers and network carriers to be included in the ongoing measurements.
* 2008 – USA – Telecoms, Wireless and Broadband, Report Buyer: www.reportbuyer.com
About Keynote
Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”) is the global leader in on-demand test & measurement solutions for continuously improving the online experience. As an independent and trusted third-party, Keynote provides IT and marketing executives with an unbiased view into their Internet services from around the world. For over a decade, Keynote has been providing measurement data and testing capabilities that allow companies to understand and improve their customer’s online and mobile experience. Keynote has four test and measurement businesses: Web performance, mobile quality, streaming & VoIP, and customer experience/UX. In addition, Keynote’s industry analysis group called Keynote Competitive Research publishes proprietary studies measuring customer experience and service levels across a wide range of industries.
Known as The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority™, Keynote has a market-leading infrastructure of 2,400 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 240 locations around the world. Keynote also maintains one of the most representative panels of online users consisting of 160,000 consumers. Keynote’s on-demand, hassle-free infrastructure allows businesses to access services they need, when they need them to pinpoint and fix mobile quality and Internet problems before they impact customers.
Keynote helps over 2,600 corporate customers become “the best of the best” by helping them improve online business performance and mobile communications quality. Keynote’s customers represent top Internet and mobile companies including American Express, BP, Caterpillar, Dell, Disney, eBay, E*TRADE, Expedia, FedEx, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at (650) 403-2400.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks and The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority and True Experience are trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2007 Keynote Systems, Inc.
Long URLs in this release may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.
Contacts:
Dan Berkowitz, 650-403-3305
dberkowitz@keynote.com
Gloria
Reiss, 831-471-0100
greiss@keynote.com
