AT&T, Verizon Top J.D. Power Business Internet Rankings

The customer experience is higher stakes than ever in the business internet world, according to a J.D. Power analyst.

The research firm last week rolled out its annual 2024 Business Internet Satisfaction Study, which previously operated under the banner of wireline. The study, based on a survey of 4,657 individuals from businesses, ranked internet service providers by segment.

In large enterprise (500 employees or more) segment, AT&T continued its winning ways. For the seventh consecutive year, the Dallas-based communications giant placed first. Verizon and Cox trailed it, respectively.

AT&T went on to win the highest satisfaction average in medium business (20 to 499 employees), but Verizon bested it in the small business category.

Respondents rank their satisfaction based on performance and reliability, cost of service, communications, billing, digital account management, and customer service. In the medium and large enterprise segment, experience with sales representatives is factored into the score.

Digital Platforms for Business Internet

Digital account management is a new category for J.D. Power's Business Internet study.

J.D. Power in its announcement stressed the importance of online account management portals for end users. While the firm stated that most providers have made these tools available for customers to make orders and stay updated on outages.

Related:J.D. Power: AT&T, Verizon Go 1-2 Among Wireline Providers

That trend resonates particularly with sentiments expressed by different telcos about making more self-service tools available for SMBs.

"How businesses do business with their internet provider is usually through a portal or an app or something like that. They don't have to call as much anymore, because there's so many digital tools out there," said Carl Lepper, J.D. Power's senior director of technology, media and telecom.

J.D. Power's Carl Lepper

But some of those tools are going unused.

In its medium business category, J.D. Power said business owners who used their online account management portal reported an average satisfaction score of 715, versus 658 for the people who knew about a portal but didn't touch it.

At the same time, Lepper said ISPs are battling to stay on pace with their platforms..

"Those tools are becoming more important, and the tools are hard to keep up. They're expensive, hard to develop and hard to keep updated," he said.

And a business customer may feel that same pain.

"It's not an easy scenario for a big business to have a new tool come in all the time for managing your internet, managing your account, signing up for different services or adding new locations," he said.

Related:Verizon, AT&T Earnings Show Diverging Fixed Wireless Strategies

In the slideshow, see where the different companies placed in the three segments and learn some of the trends J.D. Power picked up in its study.