"Garbage": That's what users think of their telcos

NEWS Many multinationals feel let down by their telecoms providers, with one going as far as to use the word "garbage" to describe the services they provide. In recent years the telcos have made bold promises but failed to deliver on quality, according to a survey out today. What's more, their customers have become resigned to dealing with dishonest salesmen and declining service levels. A major qualitative survey of end user organisations, taking in global finance firms, retailers, manufacturers and others by management consultants DMW Group and the Yankee Group, found that most users have a jaded view of the telecoms sector, regardless of their suppliers. One head of telecoms at an investment bank said: "We find that all of them don't perform that well. Let's face it, they are all just garbage. Once they have signed you up they tend to drop you a bit and the level of service lowers as well." A Swiss research company added: "They are not honest with us. They reduce their costs and prices but they don't actually tell us before we tell them." Simon Norris, senior consultant at DMW Group, told silicon.com: "This is largely because the market was so competitive in the late 90s and everyone was making a huge effort to win market share. So they all promised the earth." He explained that the upshot was that service providers couldn't meet agreed delivery times and reliability levels. Some network technologies, such as MPLS, were touted but are only just being adopted by some multinationals, he added. The result of this is a 'back-to-incumbents' trend now, with many users forecasting there will be just a handful of large providers within a few years. DMW's Norris added: "Carriers got too wrapped up in enormous growth. There may be less innovation now and less tariff cutting but overall that's a much better thing." The DMW Group 'Carrier Dissatisfaction - and Getting a Better Deal' report is available through www.dmwgroup.co.uk .